Special -

[kyburg]

Cpl. Kenny F. Stanton Jr., 20, was killed in Baghdad on Oct. 13, when a bomb exploded near his vehicle. He was the third graduate of Hemet High School killed in Iraq, and his death came in one of the bloodiest months since the war began.

"The Plague that Hit Hemet," one of Stanton's acquaintances called it in an entry on the fallen soldier's MySpace website.

Hemet is a pathetically small place. When I was born, it had less than 12,000 people living in it. We wouldn't even get a McDonalds until I was in high school. ceolyn's grandmother knew me as my father's daughter at her wedding - yes, the town is that damn small. (Dad's been dead since 1967.)

I went back and looked at my high school yearbooks. Yeah, the name did sound familiar.

There are three Stantons in them. The ages make sense too.

This fucking fraud of a conflict is killing the children of people I went to high school with.

Leave no child behind, either. Go take a gander.

Pro-life, my ass.

(And livid hardly covers it. Just in case you hadn't guessed.)

Comments

[ponyboy.livejournal.com]

20 years... just... is not long enough. Not nearly. :(

[pagawne.livejournal.com]

Bush money bought our President out of Viet Nam, and the people sending our troops over have no stake in it, except to make money. Strangely enough War Profiteering used to be against Federal Law. That is what is in the White House now.
It isn't their hearts and lives being ripped apart, they just don't care.

[redqueenofevil.livejournal.com]

:(

I'm afraid to even look to see if any of my high school and college classmates are among the casualties. One thing I feel terrible about was the fact I encouraged my cousin to join the army in 2000. His life was not going well, and he'd just turned 21. We thought this was the way to turn his life around for the better, partially because of the GI bill. My cousin and I drifted apart after I got married, and I hope my encouraging him to join wasn't one of the reasons.

[dudemungus.livejournal.com]

It's infuriating that politics have become the new religion in America, and trying to tell a Republican Bush is wrong is like trying to tell them there is no God. No matter how many deaths, they still hold that Bush is doing what is right and good, and still believe he is a moral man. He has been caught in a ton of lies, and still they support him. Awful, just awful.

[moropus.livejournal.com]

I really feel for this town.

no child left behind

[n6vfp.livejournal.com]

I read the same story, and thought of the small town of Anza, even smaller than Hemet and how the recruiters hang around the high school enticing the young, naive, and poor to enlist. Yeah, 'no child left behind' gave the military the right to be on campus and gave them the names and address of all the students. It also made it impossible to offer an opposing view, as one grand-daughter of my Mom wanted to do. She is a veteran and wanted to speak to students to tell them that all they were promised by the recruiters was bullshit, but she is not allowed on campus, she has to get permission from the school board, and they won't grant it because it would jeopardize their federal aid.

[vampireanneke.livejournal.com]

I grew up in Duarte, 10,000 people and that was during the 80's and 90's. Still about 10,000 people. My college had 10,000 people. Anyways, just rambling.

[turandot.livejournal.com]

The thing about recruiting: they're gonna get as fierce as ever since the ruling from the Supreme Court that recently stated that if a school receives federal funds, they also cannot ban military recruiting from their schools. Talk about more people whose children are not in peril dictating things for the rest of the country.

The dirty little secret of the Army especially is that they target high schools because they can walk around and recruit unopposed, unlike waltzing into a college, where they will likely have to compete with a host of other organizations that offer opportunities to their students.

I think the only thing one can do is educate parents whom they know who have children in high school. They should know that they have a right to demand that their children not be targeted for recruitment, and that their private and contact information not be released to recruiters.

Last I read, there were lawsuits specifically in the works involving parents suing school districts for releasing such information to recruiters. I'm not up on the outcomes all that much (my interest in the law having been reduced dramatically as of late), but I doubt that any have gone all the way to SCOTUS (the aforementioned SCOTUS decision, I believe, involved a handful of law schools denying access to recruiters, who then filed the lawsuit to have their access restored).

Generally, one would think they'd be adjudicated in favor of the parents based on SC precedent establishing a parent's right to have a say in their child's education and wellbeing, but a lot of parents don't really realize how much latitude they have in such matters, so they tacitly accept that their children are going to be targeted. I wonder if that's what happened here.

Re: no child left behind

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

You coming to my calling party tomorrow afternoon/early evening? REALLY would appreciate seeing you. Instead of red. Yanno.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

This is a town where the biggest employers are the hospitals (and long-term inpatient care facilities like nursing homes and assisted living centers) and the casinos.

Me? The casinos weren't there back then.

I got to college and left - it's a pretty place, but you can't afford to live there.

Re: no child left behind

[n6vfp.livejournal.com]

I get off work at 4 p.m.; how late are you gonna run the party? Right now I'm commuting from Anza to Santa Ana (the commute from hell). If I can I'll call you sometime tomorrow.

Re: no child left behind

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Late enough on Saturday - and you're welcome to crash on the new couch if that will help....