Beware of Child Predators

By Laurence M. Vance

There is a new breed of child predator on the loose. You won’t find him featured on America’s Most Wanted or appearing on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. Up until now parents who were concerned about child predators could check their state’s Sex Offender Registries or the Child Predator Watch List. But now we can thank Ladies Home Journal magazine for informing parents about this dangerous new predator in an article that appears in the latest issue (February 2007) called “This Man Wants Your Children.”

I don’t normally read Ladies Home Journal. In fact, I don’t think I had ever read a single copy until I happened recently to look through the latest issue. Unfortunately, Ladies Home Journal has enlisted in the service of the state. The purpose of its thirteen-page child predator article was not to warn parents about predators at all – it was to promote them.

You see, “This Man Wants Your Children” was not about sex offenders – even though some of them are sex offenders – it was about Army recruiters; specifically, Sergeant First Class Chad Christenson, one of the top Army recruiters in the country. Indeed, Sgt. Christenson was the Army’s “Recruiter of the Year” in 2005.

We learn a number of things in this article about recruiters and recruiting. The 2005 military recruiting budget was about $4 billion. Since the recruiting numbers were way down in 2005, “the Army added 1,000 new recruiters, doubled the maximum sign-in bonus from $20,000 to $40,000, relaxed standards and raised the maximum-age limit.” Then there was the new $200 million ad campaign for 2006. We are also told that “in 2005 the Army officially investigated 836 allegations of recruiter misconduct.” The Army now accepts lower entrance scores on aptitude tests, grants more “moral waivers” to allow convicted criminals to enlist, and allows non-citizens to gain their citizenship after only one year of active duty. The enlistment age has been raised from 35 to 40 to 42. Older women who want to enlist will find that the physical fitness requirements are now less rigorous – they must now be able to do three push-ups. Oh, and the Army now has a MySpace profile.

Read the rest of the article.

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