Army responds to comments by author King
The Associated PressPosted : Thursday May 8, 2008 12:56:33 EDT
BANGOR, Maine — The Army is weighing in on writer Stephen King’s remark about literacy and the military that drew the ire of conservative critics this week.
The Associated PressPosted : Thursday May 8, 2008 12:56:33 EDT
BANGOR, Maine — The Army is weighing in on writer Stephen King’s remark about literacy and the military that drew the ire of conservative critics this week.
King came under fire from a blogger for what he told students while stressing the importance of reading at the Library of Congress on April 4: “The fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t, then you’ve got the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that,” King said.
The ensuing flap drew a response Wednesday from Army spokesman Paul Boyce, who said most soldiers are avid readers. Military recruits test above the national average in reading and vocabulary skills, he added.
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King made his fortune off of selecting words to paint a picture. Granted it's usually a horrific picture, but his words make people see into his mind. The problem is, this time, no one likes what they saw when they got there.
I have no doubt he did not plan of it sounding the way it did. What I think he was trying to say is that a lot of people enter into the military for a lot of reasons and one of them is the fact they plan on going for higher education. Maybe what he was trying to say is that a better way of getting higher education is to get scholarships for high grades to pay for it? I don't know.
Maybe he's just like the rest of us dazed and confused by the fact there has to be such a battle over something that should have just been done automatically, which is increasing the GI Bill to actually fund their educations? We're all shocked over this.
As for the rest of the way they are treated, from the barracks that are falling apart to what they are going through in Iraq and Afghanistan, the conditions the wounded come home to in the DOD and the VA, claims they have to fight for and care that should have been automatically waiting for them, I don't think even King could have come up with a horror story like they are really facing.
I have no doubt he did not plan of it sounding the way it did. What I think he was trying to say is that a lot of people enter into the military for a lot of reasons and one of them is the fact they plan on going for higher education. Maybe what he was trying to say is that a better way of getting higher education is to get scholarships for high grades to pay for it? I don't know.
Maybe he's just like the rest of us dazed and confused by the fact there has to be such a battle over something that should have just been done automatically, which is increasing the GI Bill to actually fund their educations? We're all shocked over this.
As for the rest of the way they are treated, from the barracks that are falling apart to what they are going through in Iraq and Afghanistan, the conditions the wounded come home to in the DOD and the VA, claims they have to fight for and care that should have been automatically waiting for them, I don't think even King could have come up with a horror story like they are really facing.
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