Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004): Recruiting the Poor Part I

The clip recruiting the poor part I from Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

...in the places that had been destroyed by the economy.
Places where one of the only jobs available...
...was to join the Army.
Places like my hometown of Flint, Michigan.
I was watching TV one day...
...and they showed some of the areas that had been hit by bombs.
And while watching, I got to thinking...
...there's parts of Flint that look like that.
And we ain't been in a war.
Look at the neighborhood I live in.
Most of them are abandoned. You know, I mean...
...that's not right. You wanna talk about terrorism?
Come right here. President Bush, right here. Come right here.
He knows about this corner. I e-mailed him.
At the end of January of '04...
...the unemployment rate in Flint was 17 percent.
But you have to take into consideration as well...
...that when your unemployment runs out you're no longer counted.
I would say that we're close to at least 50 percent...
...not working or underemployed.
Because being underemployed is just as dangerous.
My family has gone through the welfare system...
...when it was Job Central.
In the mid-'80s I came through the job training partnership program.
I went to a secretary school.
Years later, I'm executive assistant to the president of the agency.
Interesting.
My mother used to tell me all the time:
"Why do you always go for the underdog?"
It was because the underdog is who needed me.
People that don't have anything, that's who I have to fight for.
And that's who I have fought for my entire life.
I started taking my children and telling my children:
"The military is a good option.
I can't afford to have you go to college. I can't pay your way.
Financial aid will not help you."
So I, as a mother, started teaching my children...
...about the options that the military could do.
They would take them around the world.
They'd see all the things that I, as a mother, couldn't let them see.
It'd pay for their education that I, as their mother and father, couldn't pay.
The military is a good option for kids in Flint.

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4. Added :28-Oct-11
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