That Old Bad Penny Turns Up Again...

Back in the day, the United States military was staffed by means of a draft; young men of the correct age were forced against their wills to "serve our national interests" by forced induction into and deployment with our Armed Forces.

Now, I'm a veteran. I volunteered; I signed right up, did what I was told, went where I was asked, and came home. I think serving in the Armed Forces is a good way to contriubte to our society, and I wish more young people would sign up; it gives them valuable life experience, self-discipline, and strength of character not easily matched in the civilian world.

But.

I also believe that the primary right - the one upon which all other rights are predicated - is Life.

And that right cannot be taken from you.

And a government must not try.

The House just passed H.R. 1388, also known as the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act.

This is the one talking about setting up a mandatory national service of some unspecified pseudomilitary character that President Obama was talking about a few months ago, when everyone thought he was kidding.

Well, he wasn't.

Mandatory.

Let me explain, for the folks in the cheap seats.

If something is "mandatory," it means YOU HAVE NO CHOICE.

If you have no choice, that ALREADY violates your inherent right to freedom. But when it's something where your life might be at risk - and kids die in the Peace Corps every single year - it violates your right to your life, as well.

The draft was immoral and wrong when we were using it to fight wars in Southeastern Asia; it is just as wrong to use it to fight potholes. Just a lot less dramatic, and not fit for a LifeTime Movie.

I would gladly advocate - have done so, for quite some time, actually - the establishment in this country of a system by which you trade the franchise for public service, a la Robert Heinlein. If you don't contribute - you personally, with your very own sore back muscles - then you don't get to vote. But that's all; no PENALTIES for not wanting to play, you just don't get to pick our next generation of leaders, is all; that right being reserved for people willing to lend a hand.

You know why?

Because the difference is CHOICE.

Under the system I advocate, you have one. Either serve - and vote - or don't, and don't.

Under the Obama system, EVERYBODY serves, and EVERYBODY votes. Whether you want to, or not.

And when you don't have a choice, it's morally wrong.

The draft is back; predictably, it was a Democrat who did it.

Is anyone even seriously surprised by this anymore?