Progressives have always opposed JROTC in high schools, and with good reason: JROTC is a military recruitment tool. An effective one at that since nationally 40-50% of kids who join JROTC end up in the military at some point after they graduate. There are no stats on local JROTC enlistment into the military; a member of the No on Prop V campaign has made a Public Records Act request to the SF Unified School District. And the District indicated that they do not keep records on how many students end up in the military after high school. Any claim otherwise is an outright lie and should be dismissed as such. It speaks volumes for the Pro V argument if, like the invasion of Iraq, it is premised on a lie.

At a time when there is no draft, the Pentagon needs programs such as JROTC to lure kids into its two unending wars in the Middle East. Wars that have cost this country an unbelievable amount of money and precious resources, including nearly 5,000 young lives. It's no secret that the military has targeted young people (especially those of color) with slick TV ads and even video games. Military life is being presented as adventurous and glamorous. All sorts of benefits are being promised. There's nary a mention of the gritty reality of killing innocent civilians or of being killed or maimed yourself. Ask vets of our country's two wars about the benefits they have received since coming home.

JROTC is also a program of a homophobic military. As much as advocates of JROTC try and whitewash this issue, they can't deny that teachers within JROTC cannot be out or they come up against Don't Ask Don't Tell, the military policy that says you can only be gay and in the military as long as you keep quiet about it.

Kids may be openly gay within JROTC in the safe confines of San Francisco, but once they decide to pursue a military career beyond this program, or even try to receive college ROTC scholarship benefits that their non-LGBT counterparts can receive, they run into the same hurdle as their teachers. No amount of protest from the Yes on V camp against Don't Ask Don't Tell will make this fact vanish.

At a time when LGBT activists in California are fighting an anti-gay marriage initiative, it's ironic that pro-JROTC advocates in SF are asking us to support an anti-gay military program. Maybe that's why every major LGBT leader in SF opposes Prop V and JROTC in our schools. That includes Tom Ammiano, Bevan Dufty, Mark Leno, Carole Migden, Mark Sanchez, Debra Walker, Stephen Funk, Peter Wong, Victor Valdiviezo, Robert Haaland, Barbara Lopez, the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, Pride at Work, and many many others too numerous to name here. Vote No on Props 8 and V.

And let's just make one thing clear, two years ago the enrollment for JROTC was 1,600 cadets. The latest report from the School District puts JROTC enrollment figures at 503, a 70% drop. No amount of spin will lead anyone to believe that if 70% of students reject a program it should still be kept. Even more absurd is to claim that it's still worth keeping JROTC if only 10 people enrolled. It completely ignores the fact that San Francisco taxpayers pay $1 million to fund JROTC. To continue to pay that amount for 500 or 10 students is a gross and obscene form of lop-sided spending that only deprives other programs in our schools of funding, and deprives students of more choices.

Lastly, proponents of Prop V like to tout their claim that JROTC is about benefitting disenfranchised, working class communities of color. If that were the case, then I urge the Pro V camp’s co-chairs to ask their top funders (the Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Realtors) to stop lobbying against the gains made by organized labor and housing rights advocate groups. A decent job and affordable housing are far more vital to San Francisco’s vanishing working class than a military program in our schools.

History has shown that the anti-war movement was right about the war in Vietnam. Our continual protests eventually ended that conflict. The protesters who hit the streets right after 9/11 also were correct in Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.

The massive mobilizations from progressive forces (which actually included elements from the other side of the political spectrum) raised doubts about these military excursions, and exposed the lies that the Bush administration was telling.

It is correct to protect our youth from JROTC, because it is a decision that transcends political boundaries. It is right to want to make schools a place where kids can learn to question homophobia and militarism, to understand that war is something to be avoided at all costs and that lying presidents do not deserve our support. These are values that would behoove humanity to embrace, and should not be restricted to the confines of “The Left.”

San Franciscans of all persuasions are saying No to JROTC, no to military recruitment in our schools, and No to homophobia. Vote No on Prop V.

http://www.nomilitaryrecruitmentinourschools.org/index.html

Marko Matillano is the coordinator for the No on V Campaign. Alan Lessik is the Regional Director for the American Friends Service Committee.