My dad works as a Guardian ad Litem in rural North Carolina. As such, this year he was collecting donated Christmas packages from Toys for Tots, a project of the local Marine Corps Reserves, to distribute to some of the children in foster care under the auspices of the Department of Social Services. We were surprised to find this Marines Alphabet Book inserted into a package destined for an 8-year-old boy.
I can’t argue much with Toys for Tots’ practice of distributing free toys to kids that are on rough times (even if the official mission of the organization is Christmas-specific), but this book is dark stuff to put into the hands of a second-grader. Besides “assist(ing) them in becoming responsible, productive, patriotic citizens” it also seems like they’d like to interest some “less fortunate youngsters” to think about becoming hired guns when they’re old enough to enlist. It’s tempting to rip into this hard-hearted and tactless little piece of propaganda, but I’m inclined to let the images speak for themselves…