As a parent of two sons in high school, I feel I must respond to Jim Brokaw’s recent Maine Voices column (“Don’t let military continue to violate high school student’s privacy” Aug. 25) Most of the parents I’ve spoken with don’t seem to have the same viewpoint.

The real gist of his column has less to do with contact information and more to do with equal access for groups such as Veterans for Peace and the American Friends Service Committee.

Brokaw feels that our students haven’t been sufficiently taught how to make informed, career decisions without face-to-face contact and that the military has an upper hand by being in the schools.

His perception of unfair advantage presupposes that our children live in a vacuum.

On average, Maine teachers have master’s degrees and have spent 12 years teaching our children critical thinking and research skills.

Teens aren’t persuaded as easily as Brokaw thinks. It will take more than a uniform to get their attention.

The news devotes time to peace activism and, during the last presidential election year, most of the news shows were devoted to promoting demonstrations associated with these groups.

War is shown as the viewer magnet but if our military helps victims of tsunamis and earthquakes, saving thousands of lives, they barely get a mention.

We need to stop fostering old stereotypes. Stop making every issue an “us versus them” situation.

Maybe if the news started portraying the military in a more positive light and the schools gave a stage to peace activists wishing to speak about alternative ways of dealing with what’s going on in the world, this could be achieved.

I’d like to see all sides working with rather than against each other. Education makes a better soldier. Better soldiers make for a safer world. A safe world grants peace to all.