Every high school has, in some form, a career day that displays the many options of careers for the future movers and shakers of the world, but the one career tent that always stands out at these events is that of the recruiting tent for our military.

Whether you’re for or against the military is irrelevant, because either way it is a facet of our American political structure and a legitimate career choice for many teens graduating from high school. The concern lies with the strategies used in order to recruit impressionable, young students.

In high schools throughout Southern California, the military rolls their giant rock climbing walls into lunch courts and parking lots along with their “pimped out” Humvees blasting 50 Cent and E-40. Sitting in tents are a handful of recruiters, pressing custom dog tags with student’s names and current slang such as “baller” imprinted on them.

If this disgustingly misleading portrayal of how fun the military is wasn’t enough, the recruiters attempt to blur reality in a way that one would think only seasoned veterans of law would.

Recruiters aren’t shy about showing off the brand new iPods and gaming systems that the military purchases for them. They sing praises of their tours in Iraq and how their entire time in the Middle East was spent playing video games, listening to music and simply relaxing in the sun.

It’s blatantly apparent that the military has specific target demographics in its recruiting program. What’s immensely disappointing is that these demographics are primarily focused on middle and low class minorities.

Rather than promote education and hard work, the military  is actively promoting taking the easy way out.  What’s worse, the youth are the one’s suffering from the military’s misleading tactics.