Looking Back

"In what ways is your daily life militarized,"
my professor wrote on the board not but two minutes after walking in the door.

Completely baffled, I stared vacantly at the paper in front of me. For several minutes, the sheet of looseleaf was as blank as my mind. Feeling pressure from the pencils scribbling next to me, I jotted the only things that came to my mind.

"By my class schedule, by my work schedule, by the law and rules, by deadlines, by my bosses/supervisors/professors.

These things dictate my life and how my day-to-day activities are organized and prioritized."

Not some of my best work. Cut me some slack though. I decided to take the course because a.) it filled my 400-level course needed for my politics minor, and b.) I had interviewed Kelly for a story for The Ithacan and she seemed really cool.

Looking back, some of the most obvious things didn't even cross my mind -- militainment in particular. Terribly embarrassing for a communications major & theatre minor to admit, believe me, but it's true. Militarization and the military enter into my work as a journalist on a daily, if not hourly, basis. When I go shopping, there are inevitably a pair of hideous camo pants I can scoff at on the clothing racks. And hell, I own several movies that deal with soldiers' lives and the role of the media in military happenings.

What didn't cross my mind and probably shouldn't have at that point, were the less obvious ways the military enters my daily life. Recruitment officers and posters everywhere on campus, presidential influence over militarization and foreign policy (my International Politics professor would scold me for not thinking of that one), patriotism and citizen reaction to war and, particularly for my generation, the War in Iraq.

Okay, maybe that last one should have been obvious to me. But it wasn't. Most people don't think about militarization on a daily basis, but the underlying truth I've discovered while taking this course is that whether we notice it or not, the military seeps into our lives and impacts us every single day.