First a history lesson. 

Growing up in the Bay Area, I spent many a day or night in San Francisco.  Going to China Town for dinner, Riding the Cable Cars, walking along Fisherman’s Wharf, going to Ghirardelli Square, Coit Tower, The Cannery , Pier 39, etc etc.

But one day will always stand out.  It was May in the early 1980s, to be exact, the third Saturday in May:  Armed Forces day.

And I was in a parade.

I had not been stationed long at nearby Travis AFB, and I was selected along with a few other newbies to march in the parade down Market Street.  It was not a popular task, the complaints were legion.  Having just left Basic Training, marching and parades was supposed to be a thing of the past.  Yet here we were, along with Airmen from other nearby Air Force bases, and contingents from all the other services as well.

It was epic.  We marked 8 abreast in mostly perfect harmony down the streets I had driven many times.

I was strangely humbled by the crowd that day in "The City" who cheered and waved flags as we marched to a spirited band.  I remember older people standing rigid at attention as we marched, kids waving flags and much applause.

And yet…all was not perfection.  Near the end we heard catcalls.  The most memorable was "El Salvador is Spanish for Vietnam!".

My initial stunned thought was "huh?", followed by "why tell me?"  I was an enlisted Airmen who fixed electric winches for Air Force cargo jets.

Did they somehow figure I had enough clout with the CIA and the Joint Chiefs that I could call them up and demand we leave El Salvador?

They wanted to protest what they hated about the military, but they were protesting to the wrong people.

This week in San Francisco, history repeated.

S.F. school board votes to ban Junior ROTC

The San Francisco school board voted Tuesday night to pass a resolution that will phase out the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps in San Francisco high schools over the next two years, a spokeswoman for the school board said Wednesday.

First this is not a surprise.  I blogged this earlier this year.

To understand why I see this as a repeat of history, you have to look at why they banned it.

They don’t think the military’s "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy belongs in public schools.

More here:

The resolution passed says the military’s ban on openly gay soldiers violates the school district’s equal rights policy for gays. The school district and the military currently share the $1.6 million annual cost of the program.

"One of the big components (of JROTC) is military branding, military thinking and military recruitment, and that has to stop," board member Dan Kelly said during the meeting.

And that’s why they say they baned it, recruitment and the policy on gays.

This is a repeat because again they are talking to the wrong people.  They are punishing the wrong people.  The Military and its Don’t Ask policy about gays may have its problems, but the JROTC programs carry their own benefits, even to those kids who do not elect to make a formal service commitment afterward.

About 1,600 San Francisco students participate in JROTC at seven high schools across the district.

Cadets and instructors who spoke at the meeting and rallied outside argued that the program teaches leadership, organizational skills, personal responsibility and other important values.

"This is where the kids feel safe, the one place they feel safe," said Robert Powell, a JROTC instructor and retired Army lieutenant colonel. "You’re going to take that away from them?"

My previous post has been abuzz on this, and one commenter there had this to say:

JROTC was my ticket out of the Navajo Indian Reservation, where unemployment runs about 50%.  I was homeless and almost didn’t graduate high school.  If it hadn’t been for JROTC, I most assuredly would either be dead or in prison. 

My JROTC instructor and his wife took me into their home, fed and clothed me, and helped me to enlist in the Marine Corps, where I served for five years on active duty, earned the GI Bill, was honorably discharged, and earned both a B.S and a J.D. (Vanderbilt Law School).

Today I am an Assistant District Attorney….

And that is where they are throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

All they see JROTC as is a bigoted discriminatory recruitment tool.  To be sure, it is a powerful tool for the military in shaping the future leaders of the Military.  So why embitter those leaders?  WHy not raise the children to understand the need for change, and make that change from the inside as officers?

The politicians have been fairly unhappy about it:

Mayor Gavin Newsom called severing ties with the JROTC "a bad idea" that penalized students without having any practical effect on the Pentagon’s policy on gays in the military.

"If people want to participate in it and their families want them to participate, I think they have a right to participate without putting them in the political peril of being in this ideological debate," he said.

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokesman, has said he didn’t know of any school district having barred JROTC from its campuses.

Newsom said he thought the timing of the move was bad given Republican efforts to prevent Democrats from taking control of Congress by saying the party would introduce "San Francisco values" to the nation’s capital.

Even Sen. Dianne Feinstein had this to say:

…in a statement: "I am shocked and surprised. This is a big mistake. ROTC offers young people learning and discipline, both of which are necessary ingredients for a successful life. What is happening to this City?"

I don’t like her much, but she has the right of it.

I wonder where Speaker Pelosi sits on this issue?

In my Monday Funny post I have a Saturday Night Live skit where Speaker Pelosi and her "San Francisco Values" are spoofed.

Hmm…makes you wonder if it was a spoof or not.

Needless to say the constant attacks on the military in places like San Francisco sadden me.  Yes, I know.  The Don’t Ask policy.

But the change will never come by shunning and demonizing the military, but by raising a generation who respect the military and work for change. 

Instead San Francisco has chosen increase the chasm of understanding by trying to blackmail a bunch of kids.

More coverage at  Michelle Malkin