In response to an article on two Washington educators who spent four days in San Diego as participants in the Marine Corps Educators Workshop, two commentators suggested a “Buddhist boot camp” would be more suitable for our educators.

Gregor Samsa: Wow. Rather than glorify a program probably intended to amp teachers up to be better recruiters in high schools for the military, to convince kids that their future interests are best served as being cannon fodder for the loathsome and evil Military-Industrial Complex, why don’t we send teachers to buddhist camps and meditation education programs where they can open their closed minds to a world without gun and grenade slinging hate bots, a world without the need to dominate others at the point of a gun. Sorry. Not impressed.

I often get torked by comparisons where the military and Buddhism are presented as two ends of some spectrum. That says a lot about how little people understand of both. Besides, I’d like to see Gregor Samsa go to boot camp and a 12 day meditation retreat, and tell me which one was tougher.