Hundreds of words have been cast into the void in these pages and in others like them around the country as op-ed writers berate their colleges. The dismal performance of thoughtless minions has been minutely examined. The dreadful weight of injustice heaped on the fragile frame of the student loaned, parentally purchased, or scholarship granted rights of students by tyrannical administrations has been exposed and harshly criticized. Demanding better housing, food, sports and parties, writers have exercised their freedom through that of the press and it has been a thing of beauty, awful to behold.
We stand thunderstruck by this cacophony of protest yet not a peep is heard about a heinous danger to your rights as a citizen. This hazard lurks in the very stuff of your life. Walk into the local post office and its ugly face leers at you from a wall or counter space demanding your attention and slyly threatening your freedom. It is not the tattered and dusty posters of tattooed and toothless criminals. It is not the inexorably increasing cost of a stamp for Aunt Mame's birthday postcard. It is not these things that order you to give up your liberty. Something else waits patiently.
The placard, or pamphlet that subtly announces this true injustice is the red, white and blue demand, couched as reminder, that you, young man, have reached your eighteenth year and it is time for your entry onto the rolls of the war ready flesh of this country. The muffled but steady beat of the conscription drum requires your name to maintain its silent rumble. "It's easy, it's fast, IT'S THE LAW," or some variant of that pleasant refrain urges you to present yourself and register for the draft, but it is not a request and it is not the same as registering for the spring term.
Bleached memories of young men forced into a seething Army and poured into a humid hell of jungle may flicker at the edge of your life. Perhaps a history course has roused your interest in a forgotten disaster that murdered the bodies and killed the dreams of thousands of men and women. Maybe your fathers or your uncles, someone's sister or a stone carved name spoke to you of the card they carried and the letter that summoned them to serve. The easy and fast registration facing you today carries the same terrible destiny for you who blithely walk with its deadly weight hanging over your innocent head.
Make no mistake about this; you are listed for one purpose. You will feed the machine when it roars into action. The call will go out and demands will be made that you give up your life and don a stiff new uniform, casting your lot with others thrown into the bloody maw of war. Our nation has learned nothing from past blunders, for if we had we would not need the bulging roster of sturdy youth amassed in the bureaus of our government. You will pay the price of collective ignorance.
If you do not register you will be denied student financial aid including, Pell Grants College Work-Study, Guaranteed StudentPlus Loans, and National Direct Student Loans. You may not even be admitted to college in many states. If you are a resident alien and seeking citizenship you must first provide the rights to your flesh and bone before you can become a citizen. If you want federal job training through the Job Training Partnership Act, you will not be eligible to train. If you do not register you may not carry the mail that serves notice of your selection for war.
Think of what you are denied when you reach the year that marks you as ready for the hammers of conflict on distant shores. You may not drink, except in the combat zone when free alcohol is helicoptered to you and the crushed and torn bodies of your comrades are flown away. You may not own a gun, however you may operate the one given to you by the government.
If you are fit fodder for the guns of war, you are certainly fit for the saloons of Hanover, the beer isle of the grocery or the shotgun of the hunt. You must raise your voice and demand the rights you deserve if you are subject to death or maiming in riotous fields. Understand this; your life or your limbs may be taken if you are called to service in the armies of our nation. 1,766,910 men were drafted from August 1964 to February 1973 during the Vietnam war. Many suffer still. Speak out. Now.
The slyly official website for the selective service is http://www.sss.gov. Go there and get informed.
