Paying for what you Believe
December 7, 2005
The Supreme Court heard arguments on Military College Recruiting yesterday. The issue, described in the articles, centers on law schools and other colleges being required to give Military recruiters the same prominence and support as private employers if they accept Federal Aid. This sounds like nothing new. We see similar things happening with No Child Left Behind.
There is no such thing as free ANYTHING, especially not money, extra especially not FEDERAL money. One day, people will understand that. Until then, expect the ignorant to be continually fleeced, but I digress from this until some future post.
What is interesting about the college recruitment case is the argument that schools are using to argue against this practice. Part of what they are arguing that since the military has its “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy, it is at odds with the college’s practice of not discriminating against openly gay students. They don’t want to be associated directly with the military because of this as it gives the impression that they are compromising on their position of support for openly gay men and women.
That is total B.S. News Hour with Jim Lehrer sums that up with one line, taken from the audio of the hearing, which I will now paraphrase:
“If they have such a problem, why are they accepting the money?”
This is the age-old question that can be applied to many of life’s situations, including but not limited to:
“If you believe in unionization, why do you shop at Wal-Mart?”
“If you can’t stand him, why do you let him buy you dinner?”
There is sacrifice involved with believing in something. Can instant-gratification-driven consumer culture thwart our desire to actually ACT on principle? The colleges obviously are not able to do this; the money is too important. Can we do it individually? We can’t expect change to happen on that level until it happens on a personal level.
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