SF School Officials Question Recruiting Tactics

SF School Officials Question Recruiting Tactics

May 21, 2005


ritics of military recruiting tactics are calling for more action after a one day stand down that was prompted by reports of serious improprieties by recruiters.

Sandra Schwartz of the group American Friends Service Committee, Peace Education Program stood outside a military recruiting station in San Francisco Friday to focus attention on the recruiting tactics.

According to KCBS reporter George Harris Schwartz called for a change in culture not just a one day stand down to reinforce proper conduct in signing up young people to serve their country. “Truth in advertising really kind of nails it on the head that people need to know that it's not great opportunity to travel,” she said.

Dr. Dan Kelly a commissioner on the San Francisco Board of Education says since the No Child Left Behind Act, military recruiters have access to high school senior's private information; name, date of birth, phone number unless the student signs a card of confidentiality. “We are again receiving complaints from students about aggressive attempts to contact them. To stop them in the halls, to call them at home, and to seek them to entice them to join the military,” he said.

Recruiters have complained about the pressures they face in meeting enlistment goals as casualty figures increase in Iraq.

Major General Michael Rochelle the commander of the U.S. Army recruiting command says seven cases of alleged abuse are being investigated. “They generally fall in the area of pre-qualification, drug use, high school degree,” he said.

The recruiter improprieties include reports of showing young men and woman how to obtain a fake high school diploma and beat drug tests.

FIVE YEARS TOO LATE

G u s h S h a l o m - pob 3322,
Tel-Aviv 61033,
Israel

עברית בהמשך

FIVE YEARS TOO LATE

This week, the Israeli police showed that it is able to clear blocked roads without opening fire, without killing or even wounding one single person.

Even when all the main roads throughout the country were blocked simultaneously by thousands of settlers in an organized and well-planned operation.

Even then, the Israeli police was capable of opening all the blocked roads within one hour, without opening fire even once.

All due respect! Unfortunately, this discovery came five years too late for the 13 Arab citizens of Israel who were shot to death by Israeli policemen who argued that "there was no other way to open the blocked roads."

G u s h S h a l o m ad in Ha'aretz, May 20, 2005



For access to a lot of interesting material:
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--video footage of hot spots
--Archive of articles and documents

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dao marriage

Wall of flames, bridge of tears. Snowflake on newly forged links. For a marriage to last, a couple must go through great travails and hardships. It is like a process of forging steel links together. The iron must be heated to a high degree and then plunged into cold water. A marriage alternates between the heat of passion and love and the chilling times of tragedy, conflict, and adversity. An enduring marriage becomes like tempered steel. It is difficult to go through life alone. We all need support and the sense of belonging that comes from working toward goals shared with another. For such a relationship to work, there must be a basic compatibility of values, outlook, and purpose. It is an inadequate cliche that spouses must be friends as well as lovers. Two mates can know a loyalty found in no other type of relationship. Yet even in the face of such strength, Tao reminds us of the need for moderation. Ultimately, all relationships are temporary. False attachment to another can become an addiction, a voluntary bondage detrimental to clear perception. We should no bind another to ourselves, should not define ourselves by our marriage, should not force another to stay with us. But if chance allows us to walk together, who is anyone to challenge our choice of walking companions? When it is time to part, then it is time to part. There should be no regrets. The beauty of marriage is like the fleeting perfection of a snowflake. marriage 365 Tao Daily Meditations Deng Ming-Dao ISBN: 0-06-250223-9 "Instantaneous Static" Yang Feiyun 1990 Oil on canvas 34" x 30" CC_0806 Yang Feiyun was born in 1954 in Baoton, Innermongolia. Yang came to Beijing to study art and graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1982. He then became a lecturer in the Department of Design at the Central Academy of Drama. In 1984 he was appointed lecturer in the Oil Painting department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and is currently an Associate Professor there. Since the 1980s he has also traveled extensively showing his work in over twenty exhibitions world-wide including; the "Japan Exhibition of Asian Art," Bangladesh, 1986," the "Invitational Exhibition of Eight Famous Artists," Guilin, 1987, "Contemporary Oil Paintings from the People's Republic of China," Harkness House, New York, 1987, the "Seventh National Fine Arts Exhibition, Beijing," 1989 and the "'91 Biennial of Chinese Oil Painting." In addition to winning numerous awards, his paintings are included in the collections of the Chinese National Gallery and the Gallery of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, as well as the Fushan Museum, Japan. Stanford Studies on Daoism Definition of "Daoism" "Daoist" religious groups (often rebellious or millenarian movements) emerged in varied forms in each dynasty. Because of its "naturalistic" and anti-authoritarian ethos, the term could encompass virtually any "local" religion with its familiar natural "Gods." The result is that Daoism an essentially malleable concept. Creel's famous question "What is Taoism?" remains as difficult as ever. We will not attempt to settle that larger controversy, but will focus on the less controversial contrast between philosophical and religious Daoism. Even focusing only on philosophical Daoism invites enough controversy. Those who speak of it often identify Daoist philosophy with metaphysical monism or mysticism and contrast that with practical or political thought. For our purposes, we will refer to Daoist philosophy using our own distinction between ‘philosophy’ and ‘religion’ and use ‘philosophy’ to embrace both metaphysics and ethical-political thought particularly when marked by second-level reflection -- thinking about thinking. Although we treat Laozi and Zhuangzi as the exemplars of ‘Daoism,’ the use of Lao-Zhuang to identify a strain of thought may have become common only as late as Neo-Daoism. Not only is it true that "Zhuangzi never knew he was a Daoist", he also didn't know he was "following" Laozi. The reasons for denying that Zhuangzi had heard of Laozi or the Daode Jing are stronger than for believing it. However, albeit without the name, writers responsible for later chapters of the Zhuangzi itself recognized an affinity between the two texts. A large chunk of the "outer" chapters use the character of Laozi as spokesman and often echo the style and attitudes of (though not quotations from) the Daode Jing. Common themes, tropes and modes of expression seem to link the authors of the outer chapters with Daode Jing. One plausible speculation is that anonymous students of the Zhuangzi, working after his death, were "developing" the text while in contact with the group anonymously composing the Daode Jing. They shaped each other's themes, expressions and ideas. a reading list of books and interpretations of the Daodejing is available at http://www.duckdaotsu.org/dao_books.html for a meditation sent to your email address each day, please write ‘subscribe tao’ in the subject line and send to lisbeth at duckdaotsu

dao scholasticism

Ocean inside a skull-cup, Seeking the universal code in letters. The mind is like a flower on icy water: An eye within the petals. The intellect is one of the thorniest problems for a spiritual aspirant. One cannot do without it—indeed, it is essential—and yet one cannot allow it to remain totally dominant. The intellect must be fully developed before it is brought to a point of neutrality. Unless this is done, it will act as a block, and there will not be any ultimate spiritual success. Scholarship is thus an important first step. Education is a means of gaining access to the conventional world, of satisfying our curiosity, and of avoiding superstitious tendencies. There can be no talk of delving into philosophical mysteries if one has not even satisfied one’s curiosity about nature, civilization, mathematics, and language. But once mental cultivation is achieved, one must focus increasingly on a part of the mind that is far beyond the scholarly. The intellect uses discrimination, categorization, and dualistic distinctions in highly sophisticated ways. By contrast, spiritual contemplation involves no discrimination, no categorization, and no dualism, so it has very little need for scholasticism. It is pure action that requires the totality of our inner beings. It needs pure involvement, not mere study. The proper use of the intellect is to give it free play, develop it to an extraordinary degree, and yet to leave it behind when spiritual action is required. A sage knows how to balance and combine both. scholasticism 365 Tao Daily Meditations Deng Ming-Dao ISBN: 0-06-250223-9 "Blue" Kuang Jian 2000 Oil on canvas 56" x 42" KJ_0005 Kuang Jian Kuang Jian was born in 1961 in Hefei City, Anhui province. He began studying art privately in 1974 and in 1979 was accepted into the Academy of Arts of the People's Liberation Army, Beijing. Since his graduation in 1983 he has been an art director for the Army Day Movie Studio, Beijing. He was awarded the Bronze prize at the Seventh National Exhibition in 1989 and has participated in shows in Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Germany. He currently resides in Beijing. Inventory #: KJ-0005 © Kuang Jian license one time use only Stanford Studies on Daoism Definition of "Daoism" A clear definition of Daoism is difficult because of the complex twists in its development as it played its role in the long history of China. Even the coining of the term creates ambiguity about what to count as its doctrine. Three to seven centuries after they were supposed to have lived, Han dynasty (around 100 BC) historians named six schools of classical thought -- Confucian, Mohist, Yin-yang, Legalist, Daoist and school of names. They coined the term dao-jia (way-school) or (dao-de jia) (way and virtue school) and came to identify Laozi and Zhuangzi as paradigms of the study of dao way. "Legalist" and Huang-Lao thought were at the time dominating intellectual life. The historians who coined the term "Daoism" were probably thinking of Huang-Lao content when they introduced the term, but they came to fix its reference by pointing to Lao-Zhuang as the originating zi philosopher:master of the school. So the operative definition of Daoism was "what Laozi and Zhuangzi taught." Other early Han writers cribbed and copied from the original texts but, under Huang-Lao influence, exhibited little further philosophical reflection. The products of this "recovery" have also come to be thought of as Daoist texts and include the Huinanzi (around 140 BC) and the Liezi (Fourth Century AD). During the early Han, Confucianism became the official orthodoxy. Superstitious cosmological speculation (five-phase theory and portentology) dominated Han thought and the intellectual lives of Chinese thinkers for four centuries. When the Han declined, Confucianism lost much of its grip and intellectuals turned to Lao-Zhuang for inspiration -- but now read through cosmological lenses. Western scholars identify this movement as Neo-Daoist but since it fixed the enduring forms of a "traditional text" and provided the first systematic commentaries, their cosmological conception has come to dominate the Chinese view of Daoism. The Neo-Daoist movement also coincided with the initial spread of Buddhism in China. Neo-Daoist discourse practices helped introduce Buddhist ideas into China and Daoism heavily influenced distinctively Chinese forms of Buddhism, particularly Chan (Zen). This development blended the content of the two religious doctrines in the intellectual consciousness so much that Neo-Confucians eventually took them to be essentially similar religious-metaphysical outlooks. a reading list of books and interpretations of the Daodejing is available at http://www.duckdaotsu.org/dao_books.html for a meditation sent to your email address each day, please write ‘subscribe tao’ in the subject line and send to lisbeth at duckdaotsu

UPDATE: MCKINNEY AND HR 1815 MAKING THE RECRUITERS ACCOUNTABLE!)

everal attempts were made to find information about yesterday's discussion and final approval of HR1815. What a wonderful trip down the information highway! So nice to go to our "accessible" website at dot gov and find that, for some reason, the audio would not be broadcast for the actual hearings. The best download I could get was, of course, a PDF on spending to keep the war machine gears grinding up and spitting out human flesh.

A phone call was made to the folks who have our eyes and ears, Center on Conscience and War (NISBCO). I spoke with Theo, now a lobbyist for the Center who acknowledged that "open" hearings can be described as "five chairs were available." (Kinda reminds me of the "40 acres and a mule" or the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868...)


THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWS

There WAS discussion of the amendment to the bill, as many of the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee heard from you, the constituent! and brought up some discussion about it. Of course it did not pass. The good news is that Snyder (D-AK) called for a congressional hearing on recruitment deception and there will be follow up in the following weeks and months.

A CALL IS OUT¹ for individuals (that are not sent from the Pentagon) who are willing to testify about recruitment claims and are able to back up their testimony. A young man from Arvada, Colorado High School by the name of David McSwane immediately comes to mind (see HOW FAR WILL THE ARMY GO? on the duckdaotsu website or Student Sting Shows Extent of Recruiter's Push-to-Enlist Tactics on duckdaotsu blog).

Another excellent example of verifiable recruitment HELL can be found in an award-winning article by none other than duckdaotsu's dear friend, Becky Oberg. FULL METAL STRAIT JACKET will have you seething and give you a glimpse into the real world of the Army Boot Camp and the tactics used on recruits once they are in and training. You may remember Oberg as the journalist who recorded BRANDON HUGHEY crossing of the Canadian border in The Expatriate. Hughey is expected to attend his immigration hearing later this month, while Jeremy Hinzman awaits appeal on the decision from the officials at his hearing.

It ain't over folks. Keep pacifist resistance while storming those recruitment offices, questioning the rights of recruiters on your campus, and above all, keep your eyes on the prize.

Thousands of lives depend on it.


¹ If you can give testimony or want to contact the Center on Conscience and War about the hearing, you can reach them at
Center on Conscience & War
1830 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20009
Ph: 202-483-2220
Fax: 202-483-1246 or
email them at NISBCO


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