H 23°, L 4° | Tomorrow: 
H 22°, L 6°The “Bring Joe Home!” campaign, an effort to increase awareness in the community of the missing members who are serving in Iraq, was launched in the Capitol Rotunda Thursday morning.
Joe Lindstrom, the Madisonian around whom the campaign focuses, enlisted in the National Guard to help pay for his rising tuition costs at the University of Wisconsin. He was called up last July and as of January, he is serving in Iraq due to his contractual obligation, according to his best friend, Ald. Austin King, District 8.
“It’s been a difficult thing personally to have a best friend get called to a war that I marched against with him,” King said. “He’s one of the most amazing people Madison has had grace its streets in many years, and we miss him.”
According to Ben Manski, “Bring Joe Home!” coordinator, the campaign is working to make the war and the occupation in Iraq a part of the daily lives of the members of Joe’s community. The campaign wishes all Joe’s and Jane’s to come home as soon as possible, he added.
“We are hoping to build momentum so people take responsibility for those who are missing in their community,” Manski said. “The American people should know how many people are in Iraq under duress.”
King said it is important for people to know the reason why people like Joe have enlisted. Joe’s story, enlisting because he needed money for college, is not a unique one, King added. Manski said increasing tuition costs force many Wisconsinites to either go into debt or enlist.
“The cost of education has risen so much that some are risking their lives to get it,” Manski said. “That is why Joe is in Iraq.”
Because of Joe’s situation, the campaign relates the rising costs of tuition to the war in Iraq. Manski said UW is no longer affordable, and because of this, it is no longer a voluntary war. To combat this effect, the campaign will pressure the government and Legislature to lower UW’s tuition.
Ashok Kumar, the chair of Associated Students of Madison’s Academic Affairs Committee, said he agrees many students are forced to choose risking their lives for the war to pay for college.
“The state is starving the university dry of funds,” Kumar said. “If a UW student gives $2 to the UW system, the state gives $1 and it’s getting worse. Take 10 percent out of the military budget, and we could send everyone in the country to school for free.”
According to Kumar, anyone in Joe’s situation who is trying to pay for college does not have a choice. Kumar pointed out when he walks through University Square, he sees a recruitment office, not a financial aid office.
In the past four years, tuition at UW has increased 25 to 30 times the rate of inflation, according to Manski. Kumar said he questions who is looking out for UW, because Gov. Jim Doyle and Chancellor John Wiley are not.
King pointed out the opportunities for students in other states, such as former Georgia Sen. Zell Miller’s HOPE Scholarship and Grant, which allows students with a B average to go to any public or private college or university in Georgia for free.
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Way to omit any mention of the website - http://bringjoehome.us
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http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=wsj:2004:08:22:383439:FRONT
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A free education at a public university in Georgia? I’m not even sure that is much of a bargain.
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Normally, when I send a letter of correction to a newspaper, it is because they misquoted or misrepresented me. In this case, I was the one who made the mistake. I miscalculated when I stated that UW tuition has increased at a rate of 25 to 30 times the rate of inflation over the past several years. In fact, tuition has increased at a rate of 7 to 8 times the rate of inflation over those years. I regret the error. I also regret the tuition hikes.
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I regret the seg. fee hikes
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Good of you to make the correction. Down with tuition!
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Ben Manski is still in school? Why stop a good thing, I guess.
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I’m sorry, but the reasoning that rising tuition makes the war not a voluntary one is ludicrous at best. Anybody who signs up in the military, especially after 9/11, and doesn’t think there might be a legitimate chance they could be deployed is simply an idiot.
Yes it does suck that many college students have to take time off to serve in Iraq. Then again, they were not forced into signing any contract. As much as many liberals would like to think, a draft is not going on right now and a proposal to bring back the draft was severely defeated.
Simply put, if you are going to take advantage of the military to help you out with paying for college then you had better be willing to assume all the risks that come along with signing a contract. There should be no sorrow for somebody who enlists in the military for purely financial reasons then finds themselves in a humvee patrolling an Iraqi village. That’s part of the job that you signed up for.
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I believe there’s a real problem with people who claim to be a conscientious objector (or that person’s friends and family)joining any branch of the service regardless of motives. In Joe’s case, he wants us to pay his salary as a serviceman but doesn’t believe in what our great military needs to do to keep us a safe and free nation. SHAME! Joe should have gotten a job elsewhere if this is the case.
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Let me get this right. Joe enlists on a volunteer basis in the National Guard to get free funds for his education from the Federal Gov’t. Now they ask for his service in his position with the Guard and he wants out? What is wrong with this picture? The government is the bad guy here UNTIL they pay for his education; then they are OK.
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Austin King and Ben Manski ought to be ashamed of themselves for denegrating their friend’s VOLUNTARY service to his country.
I suspect that when Mr. Lindstrom enlisted in the armed forces, he wasn’t under some misguided delusion that he would have the right to pick and choose which conflicts he believed to be worthy of his involvement.
For King and Manski to wildly claim that the military was Lindstrom’s only option to pay for a college education is absurd. I worked about twenty hours per week throughout the school year, and fifty to sixty hours every week during the summer. I’m sure Lindstrom realizes that he could do the same. Student loans are also an option, as are (gasp!) academic scholarships for those who are willing to really apply themselves to their studies. So clearly, while the military may be the best-paying option for earning money for college, it is not the only option.
Since King and Manski are such great friends with Lindstrom, I suggest that they write him in Iraq, and encourage him to write or call back to the local media, if in fact he supports their ridiculous “Bring Joe Home” campaign. I certainly would cringe at the thought of my friends using my name to humanize such a blatantly political ploy.
Greg