Q&A with Wil Williams
Wil Williams doesn’t think it’s wise for the Madison Metropolitan
School District to allow the United States military to advertise on school
property. As a member of Truth and Alternatives to Military Education
(TAME), Williams has been an outspoken critic of a military recruitment
advertisements placed on high school scoreboards and in gymnasiums.
“Some have argued the ad is so small that you can barely see it,” says
Williams, a Vietnam vet. “I’m 65 and my eyes aren’t that good, and I
can see it. I understand we need a military, but my problem is that it’s
exploiting our young people to push a political agenda.”
Williams says he isn’t against teens enlisting, but he says the
military doesn’t clearly explain the fine print, which often has far-reaching
consequences, in terms of education and the number of actual years the
government can keep a soldier on active duty.
Williams recently sat with The Madison Times to discuss why military
advertising in schools is inappropriate, how the armed services are
circumventing the Madison School District’s recruitment policies, and how he
responds to the criticism that he is trying to undermine military
recruiters.
TMT: How are young people being targeted by the military, and why is
that approach inappropriate?
WW: They’re being targeted because there is no draft; it’s voluntary.
In the current situation, there is a great need to fill the ranks to
keep the occupation going in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the No Child Left
Behind Act took effect in 2002, it gave the military access to children
in the schools. In 2003, the Madison Area Peace Coalition went to the
school board, and we had policies instituted to protect the students to
a certain level.
Since that time, the policies have been circumvented by military
recruiters. One way is by coming into the schools and teaching physical
education classes, setting up obstacle courses, [and] bringing in the
climbing walls and military vehicles. This was clearly for recruitment, but
[it] was not counted as one of the visits the policy allows them to
have.
TMT: Why are military advertisements worse than any other
advertisements?
WW: Because when you have someone from Marquette University or American
Family, the consequences are totally different. In order for those
advertisements to be placed, they have to fall within the
nondiscrimination policies of the school. Military ads don’t fall within that policy,
first, because of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, [which] is
discrimination against people with different sexual orientations. It also
discriminates, in my opinion, against the challenged students, who look up
to those ads that say, “Be Army Strong.”
TMT: Do you see a targeting of minorities in particular?
WW: No. As a matter of fact, statistics show that enlistment by
minorities has dropped quite a bit since 2002. I know that the rural areas are
being targeted, and that takes it into another realm. It’s more of a
class thing than a race thing.
Take someone from Boscobel or some other small area who may have grown
up on a farm, who sees his grandfather struggling and his father
struggling; and the economics are so bad that he cannot go to the university
because of the costs. At the same time, funding for the programs that
would’ve helped him, such as the Pell Grant, are being cut. The military
then becomes more convincing, because they make these promises that
they will pay for education. And that’s another thing our young people
don’t understand: that only 15 percent of the people that serve are
actually qualified for the educational benefits.
TMT: But if I’m a military recruiter and don’t have access to schools,
where do I find young people to enlist?
WW: Advertise the way they do now: on television. I just don’t think
they should be targeted in what is supposed to be a safe place of
education.
TMT: How responsive has the school board been to these concerns?
WW: Well, they’re downplaying it. They don’t see it as an issue. They
say it’s just a logo with a phone number. To me that’s downplaying it.
It’s more than that. It’s there for a reason. I also sense that young
people feel [that] whatever is advertised in school, they see that maybe
it’s an endorsement by the school, that maybe it’s not that bad.
TMT: How do you respond to criticism that you’re unpatriotic?
WW: I’m looking at the whole picture of what’s happening in this
country, where people are going to fight and die for a cause they do not
understand. Young people signed up a lot after 2001, and many signed up
because they felt it was a patriotic thing to do.
We don’t advocate to young people not to join the military. What we say
is: Be informed. Learn all you can about it, because it’s a decision
that can be the most consequential decision you’ll make in your whole
life.
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