Perspectives

The yellow brick charade

Finding the path back to JROTC in San Francisco

By Brian Weissenberg
From the September 2008 Print Edition

Much like the famed “yellow-brick road,” the Golden Gate bridge serves as a path to a glittering city (of progressive politics), San Francisco. But if you deviate from that path, you’re bound to find lions, tigers, and bears, or in this case, a horde of parents, students, and military and non-military personnel alike with a clear message to keep off their territory (oh my!); remember, they were the good guys in the movie.

On Thursday June 26, 2008 the San Francisco school board voted 4-1 to strip the JROTC high school program of its PE credit. The official reason? It does not meet the markedly prestigious requirements of the physical education department. Having attended two California high schools, I can employ sarcasm with a relative air of confidence. The PE programs are better suited to keep children out of trouble. As some bounce balls here and there, others consider PE an extended lunch break, - it is far from being a legitimate fitness program for maturing adults. Indeed, a group of slim cadets attending the board meeting were a testament to the failure of the JROTC program to produce physically fit individuals, this of course in comparison to the half-hour quarter-mile walkers of general PE.

Please, there’s no question that anti-military sentiments were behind the vote – and that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Although board President Mark Sanchez asserts that “if students really love the program, they’ll take it anyway,” spokesman for Choice for Students Johnny Wang correctly argues that “eliminating PE credit is their way of neutralizing JROTC.” Since the onset of the war in Iraq, San Francisco has continually erected barriers to keep the military at bay – or more accurately, beyond the bay.

Radical leftist groups such as Code Pink Women for Peace, host an entire webpage on “counter-recruiting.” The site is dedicated to countering “the false promises of military recruiters… and offer[ing] real alternatives to military service” (including reasons why the JROTC program falls into that category). And what evidence of real alternatives to military service will protect our borders? They fail to specify.

The mere existence of proposition N, which called for the complete return of American troops from Iraq in 2004, is yet another outrageous example of San Francisco’s relentless contempt for the United States military. Indeed, San Francisco’s refusal to accept the USS Iowa as a floating museum in 2005 highlights their staunch position, as they put so called principle over purse.

Fine, enlist women in pink costumes to shake their disapproving fingers at the war – it’s their long protected right (at the expense of men and women in uniform, in case anyone forgot). Introduce bogus legislation with no other purpose than to manifest your wartime ‘strategy,’ which, ironically failed to succeed anyway. Dismiss an American symbol of liberty (and a subsequent hefty annual sum of income) because boats with big guns scare you. But the minute this malignant growth of callous disrespect encroaches on a fair opportunity for students to choose their own paths, the anti-military movement must be held in check, if not reversed. Indeed, 13,000 signatures have been secured by an initiative of citizens to put such a reversal into play on the November ballots.

The Emerald City and the wizard running the show weren’t all they were cracked up to be, Dorothy soon found out. And neither is San Francisco and its liberal ‘wizards’ hoping to make the military disappear. It doesn’t matter that only a relatively small number of students enrolled in the JROTC program actually go into military service, because as far as San Francisco is concerned, it’s the principle and not the people that matter here.

Recognizing bad moves by blind-sighted political officials is key to creating a better citizen, liberal and conservative alike; but acting on that recognition is what separates Pat Joe from Patrick Henry. No, I’m not asking for radical measures (we’ve had enough of that, haven’t we?). All I’m asking is that citizens reflect on whose freedoms are really being jeopardized here: those of the youth. Recall this decision and give students a fair chance to choose their own way, completely insulated from what people think is best for them. Well, all I can do now is tap my ruby slippers to the chanting of “There’s no place like home” – and we’ll see if we do return back to a better place come November. If not, screw the yellow bricks – take me home, country road.

Respond to letters@californiapatriot.org

If you enjoyed this article, please consider supporting the Patriot