My friend in the Army

So, here I am drinkin a few beers with Dave, a roomate with one of my roomates in college, Leith Edgar. Last time I checked, Leith was one of the most intellectual, but subversive to-the-point-of-anarchy friends I've had. The books I last remember on his bookshelf mostly consisted of anything from Mafia accounts to Howard Zinn.

Another friend, Lydia McCoy, who barely knows Leith calls me up about two weeks ago to inform me that Leith has left our hometown of Denver for Fort Jackson, South Carolina as a new soldier for the United States Army in nine-weeks of basic training.

While I'm not too sure what this post is about, I will say this: Having visited Fort Jackson's website, army.com, navy and air force's websites, and finally, GOARMY.com, I've come to realize how much our government has recently fought to turn us into the giant we currently are . . . and there will be no other direction than this. From higher rankings via college degrees to a section titled "Careers & Jobs" with a category titled "Arts & Media," under which civilians might notice the job "Guitar Player." This job, as well as my forte, graphic design, still requires the nine-week training camp, including sections called "Nuclear biological gas chamber training." Hmmmmmm.... Now when a GUITAR PLAYER's main goal is to keep up musical tradition for this fine armed force and general morale, what does the potential gas bombing drill have to do with it?

THEY WILL ALL GO TO WAR, KILL, OR DIE THEMSELVES, if our leaders decide so. "Multimedia Illustrator" means nothing if we go to another country, nor "Percussionist."

I trust in my friend Leith's choice to join the Army, I just hope he wasn't among the thousands of other Americans duped into this violence masked in cotton candy.

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