IT'S TIME TO BRING BACK THE DRAFT

One of the questions we always ask each other when we're sitting around in a real conversation, especially now since none of us are watching NFL games anymore, is: "What is happening to our country, and when did it start?"  Then you hear, "When the liberals invaded U.C. Berkeley," "When Reagan left office," and "With the invention of television."  After some jawboning over those possibilities, someone invariably comes up with, "When we got rid of the draft."

You know, when you really analyze the way things were back in the days when we had patriotism in this country, and the way they are now, I think getting rid of the draft is when it all started.   Up to that point, every male 18 and over was eligible to be drafted into the U.S. Army.  There were some deferments, such as physical disabilities, and late in the game just before the draft was eliminated, they allowed an educational deferment if you were going to college.  But, by and large, every male had his name on a list and his name could be drawn by the local draft board and he'd be off to two years of mandatory U.S. Army duty.  If you wanted to join the Marines, Navy, Coast Guard or Air Force for four years, you could do that but you had to do it before you got drafted.

Once you got into the military, you learned how to take orders, what the Uniform Code of Military Justice was all about, how to take apart a carbine and clean it, how to spit shine a pair of brogans, and what being an American was all about.   Once out of the military, you had become a man who could be called upon again to serve if the country ever needed you... and you'd have experience.  These days, young men without that experience don't know how to shine boots, don't know how to take orders, don't have the slightest idea of how to shoot a gun and they don't know what America is all about.  

We should all be required to give two years of service to our country.   All men and women, regardless of disability or educational status, should be required to give service to their country.  That doesn't necessarily have to be in the military; it could be in the Peace Corps, for example.  There are plenty of jobs people with disabilities can do to support the rest of the mission, unless they have a severe mental handicap in which case they can go to Washington and serve in Congress.  And in the process, everyone learns a trade they can use when their required service is over. 

Moreover, everyone learns what it is to be an American.   

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.