Draft Propaganda
Listen to this Commentary! By
Sakara Bennett
 I'm surprised
that my male friends have become so patriotic.
I'm
Sakara Bennett with a commentary from Youth Radio.
These
young black men believe they have found a way to belong in this
nation. They think by going off to fight in a war for the U.S.,
they will finally be equal to any other American. These are
the same young black men who hate the police because of racial
profiling. They're always saying to me, "The cops pull
me over just because I'm a black man driving this nice car."
Now, another ethnic group is being targeted here in the U.S.
And my friends are walking around wearing flags, ready to travel
thousands of miles to fight a group of people who basically
look like them. Maybe my friends skipped class the day we went
over propaganda in school.
I
know these are intelligent young men. But somehow the respect
they might personally gain from being drafted is more important
than what a war might mean for the world. I don't know if they
want to go off to war for their country or themselves. Gruesome
Hollywood war films and the media's interpretation of the "attack
on America" create an unrealistic picture of actual war.
I'm not saying just because I'm in school, I'm an expert on
what war now would mean. But I do know it's no "Medal of
Honor" game.
I
also know that if we do go to war, it's not going to be the
college kids fighting. It's going to be my friends, the ones
who decided graduating high school was enough. The first Bush's
war was just like a video game to me. This one is no game. I'm
not ready to see innocent people's lives taken or my friends
go off to war-whether they want to or not.
For
Youth Radio, I'm Sakara Bennett.
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