Operation Yellow Elephant, is a non-partisan organization founded to encourage our President's strongest supporters to enlist in The Military if eligible. After all, if The President cannot persuade even his strongest supporters that Our Country Needs Them [Personally!], then how can he persuade the entire country to support U.S. policy in Iraq and elsewhere? As a newly added contributor to O.Y.E. it has quickly become apparent to me what a toilsome challenge it is to attract pro-war College and Young Republicans to consider serving in Our Nation's Armed Forces.
Last weekend O.Y.E thought we'd make it easy for the eligible-to-serve supporters of The War by sponsoring a booth for Military recruiters to use at the Young Republican National Convention (YRNC) held in Hollywood Florida. All we succeeded in doing was to give further credance to the "bring a horse to water" theory.
To envision the YRNC one must first think of their high school president, replicate him/her times 1000, and place yourself in the center of them all. The Young Republicans (YR's) were there to slap backs, attend trainings, become stuck to the floorboards drunk, dine with Presidential Candidates and make contacts that would help them further their political careers. Unfortunately, the YR's that hadn't served (this being the overwhelming majority) are seemingly reluctant to believe serving in The Military will enhance their lifework.
Although the sponsored recruiting booth was available to be used through Saturday 7 July, the gentlemen from the National Guard recognized a waste of their time and packed up by 1:10 PM on Friday 6 July and never returned. Before their exodus, I was able to have a word with the recruiters during a break and found out how their efforts had proved. The conversation went as follows:
O.Y.E. "So you guys working the recruiting booth, I guess?"
Recruiter "Yes."
O.Y.E. "How's that going?"
Recruiter "Nothing right now."
O.Y.E. "No?"
Recruiter "We thought this would be an OK spot for recruiting but there's nothing here right now."
This conversation takes place at the 48 second mark on the video below. Forgive me for not capturing the recruiters' faces. They were unaware that my camera was recording. I wanted them to answer my questions without the reservations of having to "say the right thing" with a camera bearing down on them.
With the recruiters gone I was scrambling. My intentions of engaging those that passed by the booth without giving the recruiters a glance had crumbled. When plans go to hell I know of only the Gen X way to press on . . . by using mockery.
This is my first time posting a diary on DK, so please be kind. Even though I occasionally lurk on this site I will not pretend to know all of the etiquette that's expected. Lastly, in case I screwed up the youtube vids, I'll post them here and here.
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