This pandemic has shown that our military forces have multiple uses within our community. There is in fact a need for the military to become more socially active within their communities. Like the needed reform of police departments, our military needs to be reformed and repurposed also.
When hurricanes strike a community, or the local river overflows, flooding a community, it is the military that is called upon to assist the community and assist the restructuring of said communities. Fighting forest fires, and the rescue efforts needed to find and save someone in our natural spaces. Our military does a great deal for us, besides fighting our nation’s enemies on the battlefield.
The Military has been used to assist our communities in fighting against Covid-19, and other medical crises, often for a few weeks or months they fill in where medical staff are lacking in the numbers needed. During our predominantly peaceful existence, the military train, educate their numbers and find ways to assist those they protect.
Many of our military forces need to become much more than what I described above, much more. Since the military has an established structure within our communities, it can become a needed stepping stone toward community revitalization and regrouping efforts.
Connecting the military with our educational systems, partnering in the free training of youth and young adults in the needed professions of the day…medical staffing, nurses, doctors, psychologists and also electricians, tradespeople too. The military can become an asset to our economy and its successful growth.
Medical staff such as nurses, and doctors are difficult to find and maintain within our nations. Medical staffers live in a private situation where other opportunities to make more money exist. In Canada, many citizens do not have family doctors which ultimately put pressure upon hospitals as the only place to find medical assistance. In the past, many medical professionals have moved to America to find higher-paying positions. The pandemic’s pressure upon the medical field has also moved many professionals into the private field, with staffing firms charging huge wages to our public health system.
The number of Trades people within every field has dwindled this past decade due to retirements, fatigue and an aged employee field. The average citizens seem to want their children to become doctors, lawyers and white-shirt professionals, not blue-collar workers. Tradespeople are not seen as professionals, even though they make an exceedingly good living. Perceptions need to change and soon. Electricians, plumbers, builders, installers, landscapers, engineers, and project managers are all needed within most communities, yet their numbers are lacking.
The military needs to partner with our education system, and stress the training of our youthful citizens not just in military strategies, but in fields needed now and in the future. The very way the military looks at things is needed. Today, young person seeks training in a field they enjoy or where they see future profits, It is a selfish, capitalistic way of viewing their education and future. In the military, a conscript is evaluated, tested, and aptitudes found. The soldier is placed within areas the military has needs. Society has many needs, and yet most needs are not met due to a lack of workers and professionals. The struggle between capitalism and societal needs continues, with selfishness often the winner. Within a military structure, young people can be trained in fields needed within our society, pointed in directions that offer citizens flexibility within future employment. In the military citizen, soldiers have an opinion when they are asked for it. In the private sector loyalty, effort and longevity in employment are always in question.
The Global Military Community must evolve towards social interaction, and away from its traditional support of the establishment, and only then the people of their nation. More areas of interaction and assistance can be provided.
1. Training police in socially aware practices. Most military police are employed by public police forces.
2. Training medical needed medical staff in numbers that will fill their national health needs in both national and emergency practices.
3. Training of professionals that are hard to find within the private sector…psychologists, medical staff, tradespeople.
4. Socializing the military profession in every way. In the past military was separate from society, and only seen when needed. Much like the military in Israel, our military need to be fully part of our society and its full participants.
5. Educational institutions are an important part of this new system, training youth and young adults in offered and essential professions. Money should not be a problem, as the very health of our nation is at stake here.
6. Essential services like energy, and hydro task forces are created to be prepared should a natural incident happen with immediate assistance.
The military used to give certain regions within our nations a financial injection of funds that create employment within said neighbourhoods. Perhaps our national defence objectives must expand and evolve much like our communities and their needs do. Our national defence and the economy, and the very needs of our society can all be a singular theme, and an effort to improve and forward every part of our communities. Better, well-trained young people are prepared to give back to society, as the military train their people. To serve, to give of one’s self, for a better neighbourhood, society and world.
Steven Kaszab
Bradford, Ontario
skaszab@yahoo.ca
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