going forth with John Kerry
I was trying to decide whether or not I should remain in the news cycle or escape its ugly clutches. I guess I’ll make a few further comments on John Kerry, and simply note that there are more important news stories… um…
But John Kerry. The good news is that this supposedly throws out the last vestiges of any hope he has of becoming president. The bad news is that that’s probably not a good reason for this — either we want a perfectly polished and hamstrung candidate for the president or we want an ounce of spontaniety… ’tis the Freak Show Aspect of the whole thing.
But, assume the worst with Kerry’s remarks. I once typed up my high school militayry recruitment story — it was online but seems to have been lost in a shuffle from geocities to struat.com. Which is too bad, because I am never going to be able to have the accuracy and precision of the sales pitch and my passive weaving and waving. It was nothing you don’t learn in a sales seminar (or in DECA class), and I was conciously aware of what he was doing.
I remember sitting with a group of students I regard as at least academically better than I — students who did better on the SATs than I. For whatever it’s worth, I crushed the military’s ASVAB test, and that was obvious when we looked over each other’s test results. When I had some question or other to a military man and had to show him the test, his eyes popped open. I always tend to tie this with the military recruiter, or I try to figure out where in the various questions that asked “Interested Recruiter Contacting You about Exciting options in today’s armed services” I did not fill in an emphatic “No”.
But a few years ago I read– I think in a Harpers readings — the guidelines for how a recruiter should go about his job. Make contacts with the “IN” crowd, it would seem — they influence the other kids. Okay, fair enough. More importantly for this, what stood out is: Stay in Touch with kids — even as they enter college and reject military service, and call them back during the Winter Vacation — as this is the time they may be wavering on college.
I should find that article. A gaffe is what now? Accidentally telling the truth?
None of which takes away from the people in the armed services, who almost by definition are more mature and more worldy than I after encountering things I’ve never experienced.