70-75% Do Not Qualify For Our Military

General Collin Powell gave this statistic in his talk at St. Christopher's Leadership Symposium. Here are the reasons he gave: 1) Obesity 2) Criminal records 3) Not fit. Let that sink in - 70-75% of military applicants can not even qualify. Another speaker, Wes Moore quoted the same stat- only 30% qualify for military service. Wes More in his book "The Other Wes Moore" describes 2 lives- he came from inner city Baltimore and went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, paratrooper in Afghanistan and a White House Fellow- now youth advocate. The other Wes Moore, grew up several blocks away, also from inner city Baltimore, is now serving a life sentence for murder. In his talk, Wes Moore emphasized how much education matters. He believes we have had a holistic break down to create these problems with our youth, and we need a holistic build up to get back on track. One small step for mankind would be to get back to having a dinner hour- I would even settle for a dinner 1/2 hour. We have just celebrated Thanksgiving and what a great time of enjoying good food and family. The other stats are- kids who eat 4 or more meals with their family per week are less overweight, better students and less involved in risky behavior. What if here in Virginia we could change the above statistic to 1 in 2 (50%) of youth applying for military service DO qualify for the military? Is there a better place to start a holistic rebuild of our society that a simple dinner table?