Mandatory Support Is Not Support
Apr 22, 2015 Military, Political
When one is forced to support something then it is not real support. That is not to say that the person does not actually support the idea or program but when that support is forced it is not genuine.
The US military is pushing the sexual assault programs and there are numerous mandatory training sessions that everyone must attend. Mandatory training is one thing and all employers have it.
The problem comes when there are voluntary support programs like 5K runs for a cause or dance-a-thons for the cause and those voluntary programs are made mandatory.
When people are forced to run a 5K race to support something or face negative consequences they do not do it for the cause, they do it to keep from having problems at work. Unfortunately, this leads people to dislike the very things people are trying to get them to support.
The members of an Army ROTC unit at Arizona State University are victims of this type of poor leadership. There was an event called Walk a Mile in Her Shoes to raise awareness of sexual assault toward women. The idea is for men to wear women’s heeled shoes and walk a mile in them. I have seen some of these locally and the people who participated did so voluntarily.
The ROTC members were forced to buy heeled shoes and paint them red so they could participate in the event. They had no choice in the matter. They were forced to participate in a voluntary event. This means they were not supporting the event because they only did it to avoid a negative review that would have affected their careers.
The entire situation discredits the Army and the ROTC program involved and demonstrates a complete lack of leadership on part of those running the place. It also lessens the program it was intended to support.
What does it say about a program when leaders have to force subordinates to support it?
Some cadets are not happy and they voiced that displeasure on social media. I do not blame them.
They were forced to wear a pair of women’s shoes they had to pay for and paint red to make their command look good.
Hey commander, red heeled shoes are not part of the military uniform.
The cadets were seeing red in more ways than one.
And deservedly so.
Piss poor leadership is the hallmark of the new military.
Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Tags: arizona, cadet, lies, rotc, sex assault