1-Watching a little television this afternoon and ran across the last two hours of a 7 day program about the history of the White House with interviews of historians and the President and Laura Bush which was very enjoyable. I'm only sorry I missed the major portion of the presentation. Much of this is available on the C-Span.org website and I recommend it.
2-The U. S. Army is sponsoring the East-West Best of High School football today and they are making their choices as to their college destinations. Interesting to watch these young people making choices which will affect their lives to such an extent.
3-Which led to a conversaton with my husband who related an interview he saw on a news show and which brought up our topic for this blog a few days ago. A young white kid said he was going to join the service since "they wouldn't be going broke and he would always have a job."
Now, this frequently happens in "down times." When jobs are hard to find those who can afford it go back to school for their masters, a double major or to change education paths. Those who don't, won't or can't follow that avenue turn to the armed services as a job source. (This is probably why we hear that old refrain that African American kids are disproportionately represented in the military.)
LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING! Remember the murder rate increase of 39% of teenage blacks we spoke of? Add that to accidental and natural death rates in that demographic and I'm sure that the young people of all ethnic backgrounds can look at the statistics and realize that even if they are in the front lines of a war zone their chances of injury or death are no higher than they would be if they stayed in their neighborhoods.
Bottom line--a job in the military is better than no job as a civilian in the eyes of young folks in 2009. God bless 'em.
See ya-
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