Adios Bay Area JROTC

Not to argue against the concept of embracing the military, but JROTC is not quite the real deal. If I recall from my days in JROTC, the primary goal of the program was to teach citizenship. Well, we sure can't have that in SF!

Don't disagree, the worthiness of JROTC is another post altogether.

This one focused on this bonehead chick's "democracy" statement.

Take the widening chasm between the military and civilian sector... toss in two wars that 1% of the population is actively fighting in while the other 99% are cheerleaders, indifferent, or outright against it...

Not good. I concur, John. Very dangerous for a democracy.

Joel, I wanted to work in the whole "citizen-soldier" concept, and invoke guys like Cincinnatus and such...but I thought that it'd make the post too long.

Why did Caesar cross the Rubicon? It wasn't because the Legionnaires were too chummy the Senate, methinks.

At least one person in that article mentioned the ban on gays. As ussual, they fail to grasp basic facts. The military does not ban homosexuals, the US Code does. The US Code is determined by Congress, not the military. By their logic they'd have to ban anything that has to do with the US government from their schools.

It's a shame, the people of San Fran are really losing out. I spent 4 years in AFJROTC in High School (Oh 22nd, Red Berets). Before high school, I was headed straight for juvenial hall. By the time I graduated, I was on the honor roll. Primary reason was the JROTC drill sgt.

It would behoove people then who feel seriously about this issue to let the Chamber of Commerce of SF for instance know that you and you family will not be vactioning there because of this decision. It's a 2 way street, always is. If pro-military type folks feel strongly about this kind of nonsense coming out of SF, then they need to register their complaints and follow through by never spending any money in SF.

Well now, wait a second. I happen to live in San Francisco (born and raised here) and this needs to be put in some perspective.

Most--actually 65%--of those living in San Francisco are from somewhere else. I know a lot of them. They're from places like Michigan, Connecticut, New York, Massachussets, Colorado, Florida, etc. Yeah, some of them are gay. But overwhelmingly, these are the ones that tilt so far to the left. I meet these people all the time. It's not a lot of fun talking to them because they all have essentially the same ideology, which is not up for discussion. The word is "progressive", which is not progressive as Bill Clinton meant it, but neo-Marxian, and coincidentally, pro-anything that Republicans would consider a sharp stick in the eye.

The San Francisco School Board is mostly made up of these kinds of people. Transplants from other states, including many people from the same places that regular readers of this blog are from. These people are your brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc, who move to my city and thus perpetuate the reputation SF has. And when they move here, they get on the first soapbox they can find, often public office, and start promoting their agenda. The School Board is considered a stepping stone to higher office. I’ll be willing to bet my next paycheck that not a single member of the board that voted against JROTC is actually an SF native.

The SF Chronicle, whose article you link to, recently ran two online polls asking if JROTC should be abolished. A full 70-75% in both cases said it should not. The newspaper itself ran an editorial calling for the JROTC to stay on. San Francisco's mayor, who I sometimes like and often dislike, has indicated how much he opposed the ban.

So, as it turns out, oddly enough, those school board members who voted to ban JROTC represent a minority opinion. San Francisco has a relatively small number of children (hint: a lot of couples cannot naturally breed). Come voting time, many of those without kids are indifferent and don’t bother to vote for school board, or worse, vote a party line to get someone in office. Thus you end up with creeps like Sanchez, Mar, Lipson, and Kelly. (Although Kelly was voted out: hooray!—but he was replaced with a handful of other liberal/green/progressive activists who are even worse: boo!)

This is my problem with the rest of America: you export to San Francisco all the weirdos and free spirits in your family, so they can be with all the rest of the weirdos and free spirits. Then you complain about what a bunch of weirdos San Franciscans are. Please, take back your family members. Have them move back home. They’re killing me. I’ll be forced to move to Oakland, where I really might get shot.