Here are some excerpts from the article:- "FACT: The military granted 1,605 waivers for convicted felons recruited in 2006. That same year, it kicked out 612 gays and lesbians under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy."
- “This is not a guy you want serving in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere,” Simpson says. “He can’t be trusted.”
- “People are under some terrible misunderstanding that the military will change gangbangers,” says Hunter Glass, a retired police detective and private consultant. “You can’t beat blueprinted behavior out.”
- "This is a young man who is trying to improve his life,” says Peters’ attorney, Gary Bertoni. “Certainly I would disabuse anyone of the notion that he entered the Army so he could receive training and go back to the neighborhoods.”
This final point of the article makes me think WTF?:
"After Davis asked for changes to Peters’ probation, Peters appeared in court Feb. 26 accompanied by his mother. Bertoni asked the judge for more time to review the Guard’s request, and a hearing was set for March 11. Along with gang members, increasing numbers of convicted felons have found their way into the military in recent years under so-called “moral waivers” when they’re recruited.
“Obviously, it’s a huge problem,” says John Hutson, president of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce Law Center and a former Navy judge advocate general.
“The military is responsible to kill people,” he says. “It is responsible for the potential of great destruction of property. So you have to ensure that those people who are involved with that kind of activity are of the highest caliber.”
My opinion:
In life I have seen both the street and the military. A street fighter is the optimum soldier. If you can get them to fight with a cause and pass Basic training. I am all for recruiting out of prison as well. Maybe that is the break that would change a gang member. To see that his drug torn neighborhood is not all that bad compared to a drug torn nation. The poor people in our country get to wear used shoes with name brands on them and eat with food stamps. The poor people in Afghanistan go to the street trash and find a name brand 2 liter plastic bottle and are happy to style it into a sandal. Food? Who knows how they deal with it there?
As far as the gays being kicked out...I am borderline on this issue. With ERA still waiting on the 38th state after all these years...
Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova both came out in the '80's. Since, the gay rights movement has gathered great momentum.
My only concern is the housing issue. Going to the bathroom circa 1978 in the middle of the night, I hear whispers and two sets of feet in one of the stalls. Another girl comes in to use the 'latrine' and I look at her with the WTF look and she says "I don't want to know".
Even though we cleaned those fucking latrines so good you could eat on them...uhhh well it is still a pretty desperate act to
have to eat in them. LOL LOL
And we spent 30 days in the hole in basic and NO SEX so what makes the separation of barracks mean anything? That the girl on girls don't have to hold out as much?
(That sort of shit happens in jail, too. What was she punished for and who is that she is fondling?)
You just don't go to war holding your mates hands either. So....
The gays could have their own squadron like back in the Buffalo Soldier days? Butch and Femme separated. It would take a really Politically Correct organizer that is for sure!~
Don't be thinking I am a H8ter
And if you do, quit your whining fucking pansy! And drop and do 50!
I can see some feasible logistical problems with the whole issue.
