<html><head></head><body><div class="ydpd95f6595yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px;"><span><div class="ydp1e6ddd99first ydp1e6ddd99column" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, Georgia; font-size: 16px; width: 404.489px; float: left;"><div class="ydp1e6ddd99div_padding0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 3px;"><p class="ydp1e6ddd99maintitle" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 10px; font-size: 1.6em; color: rgb(154, 61, 61); line-height: 1.1em;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: normal; font-weight: bold;">Military service a positive experience</span></p><p class="ydp1e6ddd99abody" style="margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 10px; font-size: 1em; line-height: normal;"><span class="ydp1e6ddd99Fid_9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: normal;">Our local iconoclast and critic of American life, David Green, writes that our armed forces are predominantly drawn from the economically underprivileged “to serve as potential cannon fodder and cops on the beat.” He concludes, “these predominantly working-class individuals serve … the interests of the capitalist class and sacrifice only to the latter’s benefit.”</span></p><p class="ydp1e6ddd99abody" style="margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 10px; font-size: 1em; line-height: normal;"><span class="ydp1e6ddd99Fid_9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: normal;">First, I dislike “working man/working-class” terminology because, while long employed in management and thereby disqualified as a “working man,” I consistently worked more hours per week (including every Saturday and Sunday) than the typical Monday through Fri-</span><span class="ydp1e6ddd99Fid_9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: normal;"> day “working man.”</span></p></div></div><div class="ydp1e6ddd99last ydp1e6ddd99column" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, Georgia; font-size: 16px; width: 404.489px; float: left;"><div class="ydp1e6ddd99div_padding0 ydp1e6ddd99split" style="margin: 0px; padding: 3px;"><p class="ydp1e6ddd99abody" style="margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 10px; font-size: 1em; line-height: normal;"><span class="ydp1e6ddd99Fid_9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: normal;">But that is not my primary dispute with Green’s views. To realize that military service offers many positives to “working-class individuals,” one has but to read what Seon Williams, this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Outstanding Achievement Awardee, said about his six-plus years of service: “It was the best thing I could have ever done.”</span></p><p class="ydp1e6ddd99abody" style="margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 10px; font-size: 1em; line-height: normal;"><span class="ydp1e6ddd99Fid_9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: normal;">Williams credits his success as an entrepreneur to the “discipline, responsibility, initiative, leadership and positive attitude” he learned in the service.</span></p><p class="ydp1e6ddd99abody" style="margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 10px; font-size: 1em; line-height: normal;"><span class="ydp1e6ddd99Fid_9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: normal;">Thousands of oncedisadvantaged men and women have been positively impacted by their valued service to their country. To many, our armed forces offer employable skills and self-confidence as alternatives</span><span class="ydp1e6ddd99Fid_9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: normal;"> to a life of poverty</span><span class="ydp1e6ddd99Fid_9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: normal;"> or crime.</span></p><p class="ydp1e6ddd99abody" style="margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 10px; font-size: 1em; line-height: normal;"><span class="ydp1e6ddd99Fid_9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: normal;">Honoring veterans is</span><span class="ydp1e6ddd99Fid_9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: normal;"> anything but “propaganda” and “manipulative promotion.”</span></p><p class="ydp1e6ddd99abody" style="margin: 10px 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 10px; font-size: 1em; line-height: normal;"><span class="ydp1e6ddd99Fid_9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: normal;">PETER T. TOMARAS Champaign</span></p></div></div></span></div></body></html>