Save JROTC in San Francisco
I’ve been following the battle over the JROTC program in the San Francisco public schools for the last year and a half. When last we visited the fight in December, the program had been given a temporary reprieve–much to the consternation of the anti-war zealots who oppose the hundreds and hundreds of students (many of them minorities) who participate as cadets and have benefited immeasurably from JROTC.
Now, there’s a new petition drive to show support for saving the program. Families of JROTC students gathered signatures this weekend to put a measure on the ballot in November:
The proposed ballot measure would be advisory only, meaning it couldn’t save the district’s JROTC program, but it would show school board members how the majority of San Franciscans feel about the program, said Mike Bernick, the campaign’s co-chair.
Bernick, an attorney and former director of California’s labor department, said the effort “reflects really the outpouring of support we’ve found among San Franciscans across the political spectrum.”
The group will kick off the petition drive at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Taraval Police Station community room. To qualify for the ballot, the group must submit about 7,200 signatures by July 7, Bernick said. The group has collected about 1,000 signatures already.
Four school board seats are up for election in November, including the seats of Eric Mar and Mark Sanchez, who oppose the JROTC program and are running for the county Board of Supervisors.
Jill Wynns and Norman Yee, who voted against eliminating the program two years ago, are expected to run for re-election.
About 1,200 students are enrolled in the JROTC program this year, down from about 1,600 in 2006, said Robert Powell, a JROTC instructor at Lincoln High School.
“It’s not that kids are losing interest,” Powell said. “It’s because they don’t know whether it’s going to be around or not.”
Reader Matt e-mailed me a few photos of students taking their case to the streets at Lakeshore Shopping Center in the Bay Area. Good for them. If you’re in SF, make sure you sign!
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Previous:
JROTC in San Francisco rescued
San Francisco educators put JROTC reprieve on ice
Intolerant San Francisco & JROTC
San Francisco kills JROTC program
Waging war on JROTC
They don’t support our troops
An attack on the ROTC
More recruiters under attack
I am not afraid of you
The moonbats strike back
Seditious Santa Cruz vs. America
UC Santa Cruz hates our troops
The moonbats lose
SCOTUS Watch: Rumsfeld vs. FAIR
The campus war on military recruiters
Military recruiters under fire
See what others have said
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Categories: Berkeley, They don't support the troops
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What I never got was the code pinkos want the us military closed down yet wants us troops to intervene in dufur??? You can’t have it both ways.
I say if the San Fran schools don’t wont JROTC then pull the federal funding and give it to the JROTC program to be able to rent out facilities after school for all those kids that want to participate.
I live in a near by Dark Blue state but i can’t imagine living in the Bay Area…how do those fools think we made it through the WWII without ending up speaking Japanese or German? Sure as hell wasn’t from sitting around a campfire singing feel good songs…it was partially due to strong, intelligent, dedicated young men and women likes of these J.R.O.T.C. cadets that saved our bacon.
I just hope there isn’t a natural disaster where San Fran needs the military’s assistance. Hopefully, Code Pink will be to the rescue.
oh, but don’t try to mess with any of their Choices and all hell will break loose.
You can bet the SF media will spin this issue as the result of the former part of the above quote - without ever acknowledging the latter!
JROTC is too important to the self-actualization of young students for it to be used as a political football by some liberal, anti-war bureaucrats: It offers young students/adults the opportunity to develop character and perseverance, to excel at life by nurturing their own sense of responsibility, self-determination and accomplishment.
Plus for those high school students who do not find academic success easy to obtain, JROTC can be very essential for their self-esteem and own sense of self-worth!
My best to the students in getting the needed signatures and over-coming liberal tyranny!
Oh, and by the way, no even think about questioning their patriotism. Dweebs, all o’ them.
Should be don’t even question.
Bloghooligan, the military will step up and do what is needed if God forbid a natural disaster befalls the SF area. Unlike the scum running the city and the school board, they are professionals and will give them the courtesy & respect they do not deserve.
I remember reading somewhere (maybe here) that only a small percentage of the kids from the SF area who were in JROTC actually join the military.
I agree that they should lose all federal educational funding as well as any other district who does not allow military recruitment & JROTC (ROTC) (yes, that goes for all the pissy ivy league schools who don’t allow it either) on their campus’.
But you know they all support the troops though. Blah, blah, blah!
What’s ironic to me is the fact JROTC leads to full load college ROTC and a paycheck.Sure there is a commitment to the services and it is better than loans and grants.This would never cross the minds of those that hate the military.
The school district would be wise to take a moment to actually read the evidence based approaches on the JROTC programs, versus listening to the ridiculous, unfounded propaganda from those who oppose it. I am so tired of seeing policies in education adopted by notions and ideas versus being founded on actual evidence based practices. No wonder our school systems are failing miserably.
Spot on. Amazing that their exercise of freedom necessarily restricts the rights of others.
Yet they fail to grasp that concept. It’s one thing to protest the military, gov’t, etc. It’s quite another to completely cut off access to it by other citizens.
#11 said:
Ditto for global warming.
I’m surprised that the Southern Poverty Law Center hasn’t added the city of San Francisco to it’s hate group list. The Gay Bay is just one big hate group.The bay area seems to really hate America. It explains why the U.S. Navy closed almost every base in the bay area.
#14 Thank Clinton (bubba) for that….
Hillary would have closed more and who knows what Odumbo would do IF he gets his meathooks in the White House.
If the guy who got us into the Iraq War was a Dem or even flat out socialist/communist, even LGM would be cheering the war effort on…..the facts of the matter would be ignored by the left (whereas right now they are not in selective ways)
I was in JROTC and I believe that it made me more patriotic to my country than before. It gave me something radical college weasels don’t learn: discipline and respect towards others. Also, it was something I used to fall back on when 5 years after graduation I joined the USAF, and my JROTC time actually reduced my bootcamp training to only 2 weeks! They quit doing that in the late 90’s.
Actually, The best solution is to declare San Francisco an independent and sovereign “Kookdom”, then provide government relocation assistance to all those that can’t wait to get their butts out of town.
In two brief sentences Mr. ammojohn has explained exactly and in full why the left will and must do everything it can to shut down JROTC. There really isn’t anything more one can add.
Remove all Fed. (### my ### and yours) funding from SF-Berkeley-Oakland and…..et.al.
Babs and Di and most of our Congressmen are hopeless soooooooooooo…..we Californians are going to have to let our voices be heard by going to the Senators and Reps of other states.
Any come to mind? I would appreciate it.
They believe that their smug superiority can keep any threat at bay (no pun intended).
Bad link. Let’s try again.
They believe that their smug superiority can keep any threat at bay (no pun intended).
Only 22 comments….maybe not a popular subject…or perhaps its Sunday?? We need support for this program…the photos included are encouraging. At least some young’uns have their heads screwed on straight.
There’s an easy fix for this problem if our government had any guts. All we need to do is give each city a choice: Either support a voluntary military by supporting JROTC and military recruitment centers or we bring back the draft for your city. You can choose which method you prefer.
It’s because they’re lying….
“I don’t like JROTC, so your kid can’t participate. So there.”
I got so much out of JROTC…even my wife! Even if I hadn’t gone in the military, I wouldn’t regret having taken it for 3 years in high school.
We must not fail ourselves, our society and our children by allowing the lunatic fringe of our society to prevail in destroying programs such as these. Our loud voices can and will overcome these sick people if we but exercise our vote and pressure the politicos in power with our willpower.
I think that San Franciso trying to shut down JROTC is just another example of limiting choices for children. What is wrong with learning what it takes to be in the military, leadership, responsibility? I’m certainly not seeing much of those character traits in our current leaders in Washington or San Franciso.
We’re living in an era where liberal devotees (such as hippies/baby boomers) want to believe that we don’t need a military, that terrorism is just some vacant threat, that big government, Social Welfare programs are the “must have” accessory for our country.
My question to San Francisco liberals is this: who’s going to defend your asses? The police? Without components of the military like the National Guard, you’d be defenseless.
Or do liberals think that Defense means no military?
I’m having a problem following their “peace at all costs” logic.
ACTION:
We can all go to the High Schools in our neighborhoods and give $$$$$$$$$$$$$
to the JROTC units.
ACTIONS speak LOUDER than words.
Save JROTC!!
Save JrROTC! If some PC crap courses need to be cut, so be it.
Ummm emjem? Hate to point this out to you, but San Francisco liberals don’t want their asses defended. In fact most them have open-(back)door policies. So in that regard, they’re not inconsistent. Stupid, maybe. But not inconsistent.
Sigh…can my family come live with one of you who is outside of California, before the libs ruin the entire state. I mean, so far the central valley where I live is fairly safe, but it’s eroding fast.
Good for the Families of JROTC students who gathered signatures this weekend to put a measure on the ballot in November. at least there are a few real people in Fairy Town.
But I do not question the moon bats patriotism, I don’t even question lgm’s. Just who these clowns are patriotic to I do not know, but it is not to this country. And I hope none of these clowns comes back with that silly “Thomas Jefferson said”; no he didn’t. Buenos días lgm.
What would military detractors do if all U.S. Service Members put down our arms and went home? I suppose this is the fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals: one chooses to acknowledge the 2nd and 3rd order effects of their views while the others do not. War is not a game. Maybe if more folks considered the consequences of losing a war they would not so greatly trivialize the need for a military.
I know at least several (maybe all?) California National Guard units in the Bay Area had drill this weekend. I’m just getting caught up this morning.
BTW, BO, now being the defacto nominee, came up on quiet conversations among the soldiers. As far as I can tell, noone in uniform is looking forward to him being CiC.