San Francisco's Chopping Block

First it was demanding that naval ships not dock in the Bay. Then they demanded that military recruiters be forbidden to step into public schools. Now 4 anti-military members of the 7 person Board of Education members in SF want to abolish the JROTC program.

The anti military fringe in San Francisco is honestly just that. The members of their Board of Supervisors agree that the country would be far better off if it were a defenseless country, banking on the "good wills" of tyrants around the world. On Hannity and Colmes in Feb Gerardo Sandoval said, "The United States should not have a military. All in all, we would be in much, much, much better shape."

To put into perspective how BAD that would be, when the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor, the military was so off guard that if Japan had invaded, they would have made it to the Mississippi River before the United States Military would have been able to fight back. That was WITH a weakened, but still standing military.

The outrage from an ROTC abolishment does not only stem from a military perspective though. Of the 1,600 students currently enrolled in the program, over 70% are Asian Americans, and all of the students genuinely enjoy the program. One of the Anti-military board members even acknowledged the fact, saying "I know that children, the students, like the program. I know they enjoy it." But since when did that prevent a liberal from blindly spreading their ideology?

The ROTC program gives scholarships to students who otherwise would not be able to afford a college education. Even though my high school had a very low number of ROTC members (under 200), it wouldn't surprise me if at least half of them received scholarships from the program. In fact, the Commanding Cadet of the ROTC program the year I graduated was accepted into the United States Air Force Academy for FREE. The offer is a scholarship worth over $400,000.

I sent an e-mail to all 7 members of the Board of education asking them to keep the program, but I'm yet to receive a personal reply from any of them.

I urge you to do the same.
-- Norman Yee, president: yeen@sfusd.edu
-- Sarah Lipson, vice president: slipson@sfusd.edu
-- Eddie Y. Chin: echin@sfusd.edu
-- Dan Kelly: dkelly@sfusd.edu
-- Eric Mar: emar@sfusd.edu
-- Mark Sanchez: msanchez@sfusd.edu
-- Jill Wynns: jwynns@sfusd.edu