My Views on Selective Service
As the draft law is written now, all American male citizens are required to register for Selective Service within 30 days of each male's 18th birthday. In the event of a national draft, males between the ages of 18 - 25 would be inducted into the military by lottery. This policy violates young males' liberty and freedom of opting to lead a non-military life - - the military is not for everyone, dammit!
Selective Service is highly discriminatory because only males are required to register. Also, if males fail to register for Selective Service they may be prosecuted and if convicted may be fined up to $250,000 or sentenced to up to five years in prison. Males who don't register for Selective Service also will not qualify for financial aid, federal job training, and federal employment. Yet, females will not be penalized under such circumstances, and will still have financial aid, federal job training, and federal employment open to them without having to sign up for Selective Service. TELL ME HOW THIS IS NOT DISCRIMINATORY!!
Back in 1975 as the Vietnam War (which never should have happened in the first place) drew to a close, Gerald Ford wisely discontinued the national draft and Selective Service by Presidential Proclamation. But in 1981, Jimmy Carter requested from Congress that Selective Service be re-activated due to increased tensions and crises in Southwest Asia. Now granted, Jimmy Carter did advocate for gender equity in that both males and females should be required to register for Selective Service. However, Congress stubbornly refused to amend the Selective Service law, and the Supreme Court ludicrously upheld discrimination against males via Selective Service in the case of Rostker vs. Goldberg, 453, U.S., 57, (1981), (USSC+). In a nutshell, their "reasoning" was that it was not discriminatory for women to be exempt from the draft because the draft law was written referring to "male persons" as the specific subjects to a draft. Since the Department of Defense did not allow women to serve in combat, it was accepted that women could be exempt from the draft and were not subject to be held to the same standards as men.
So basically, the U.S. Department of Defense has generalized the female population by viewing them as "weak" and incapable of serving in combat positions. Now true, not every woman is capable of serving in combat - - but not every man is either! And some of us don't want to serve in combat or the military, and should not be forced to! So who do I blame? I blame the Defense Department for being so narrow-minded as to restrict women from being subject to qualify for combat roles. I blame Congress for ignoring Jimmy Carter's underlying concepts of gender equity by not amending the laws and hence permitting discrimination against males. I blame the Superme Court for condoning Congress's actions and allocating gender inequality by manipulating the interpretation of Due Process. I blame Jimmy Carter for re-introducing the whole policy of Selective Service in the first place. And I blame the bull-headed oxes in the government who still continue to allow Selective Service to exist today!
The Defense Department contends that national defense regulation is governed by them based on military need rather than equity. But the American military has some strong, well-trained, capable women who can serve the United States well by voluntarily serving their country side-by-side with equally strong, well-trained, capable men.
But no, Selective Service proponents will argue that a male-only lottery of all American males for purposes of a draft ensures that "a future draft will be fair and equitable." Well I don't see how it is very "equitable" to throw often-unsuitable, previously-civilian male citizens at random into active military service with a limited capacity of pre-service basic training - - especially when there are males who don't want to even be in the military to begin with! Serving in the military should be a choice, not an obligation. Furthermore, it is a slap in the face to competent female soldiers who wish to honor their country by serving in combat positions.
The component of Selective Service that especially infuriates me is its ill-regard toward the rights of male college students. During the Vietnam War, males could be exempt from serving in the draft if they were full-time high school or college students. However, under the current draft law, male college students can be drafted.
- If a college student is drafted while still attending college, he can only have his induction into the military postponed until the end of the current semester
So legally, the military can pluck a young male right out of college against his will during a draft? That is completely unacceptable!!!!! Students attend college for a reason: to gain an education and a future career - - not to potentially be injured or killed on a battlefield in some foriegn country! A college student has every right to remain in college, and should not be drafted into the armed forces against his will! Period.
- If a college senior is drafted while still attending college, he can only have his induction into the military postponed until the end of the current academic year
So in other words, instead of being able to enter a career field relating to his major which he may excel at, he can be shoved into the military against his will following college graduation! This borders on a gray area of unjust totalitarianism.
- If a high school senior is drafted while still attending high school, he can only have his induction into the military postponed until after he graduates from high school
So this poor kid doesn't even get to go to college right after his high school graduation if he's drafted! We may as well be living in a dictatorship! (Rhetoric alert!)
The moral of this . . . the rights of young men in America are being infringed upon and potentially violated!
Of course, ministerial students and clergymen, although required to register for Selective Service, are automatically exempt if drafted. Why? - - because they're leaders of religions, of course. And a vast number of these clergymen and ministerial students undoubtedly belong to mainstream Christian religions. But would the leader of a Wiccan coven be so easily exempt from being drafted? Hmmmm . . .
People have asked me, But Tony, what if no American was willing to serve in the military? Who would fight in a war? Who would defend our country? Well obviously that isn't the case, as large numbers of Americans have voluntarily signed up for military service in the past and right up through the present. And if there hadn't been such drastic defense cuts made by Bill Clinton and his neo-leftist cronies, the American military could have maintained its strength. But no, it's a matter of let's cut defense! So any person who supports defense cuts is therefore a hypocrit by consequently turning around and supporting a draft and Selective Service.
At this point, Selective Service proponents will proceed to tell me that I as an American should be willing to serve and die for my country. Well I proudly disagree! Why in the hell should I be forced against my will to fight and possibly die in a war simply because I have a penis?! Why should I give up my own personal happiness to shed blood for a nation whose guidelines allow for me to be shafted by affirmitive action as a white male? Why should I fight for a country where I as a homosexual male am denied the right to legally marry another male as my husband? Why should I serve a country that allows me to be discriminated against or ridiculed based on my race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation? Why should any American?!
Although it is only a formality, the day I registered for Selective Service was one of the saddest and most humiliating and shameful days of my life. But I as an American male needed to register for Selective Service in order to receive federal aid and other federal benefits which American females are automatically entitled to. I had to humor the American government by check-marking a stupid box on a federal registration form in order to avoid harassment, persecution, penalization, and incarceration from my government. I must live with the repressive knowledge that I, along with every other American male, am "expected" by Uncle Sam (who needs a good ass-whoopin' from Aunt Samantha) to be subject to a military draft and service therein primarily because we each have a penis and a Y-chromosome.
The one fact I can take comfort in is my own personal knowledge that no one will EVER be able to FORCE me to fight in a war. As an independent individual, I will leave the country or be put to death before being drafted into a war. Any drill sargeant who tries to yell at me or mainstream me into the military will be shredded by my irate, empowered indignation. I will release lawsuits galore against any federal body that tries to force me into combat, and I will take my case to the Supreme Court and I will laugh in the face of any Supreme Court justice who insists that I should be drafted. I will not participate in any basic training in the military. I will not participate in any military-related drills. I will be the drill sargeant's worse nightmare. If the government throws me in jail, I will file a writ of habeas corpus due to the senselessness of my hypothetical captivity, and I will not rest until I am vindicated. And I encourage any other American male, who does not want to risk his life by being drafted into a war, to do the same in the event that he is "called upon" by his country to serve in a draft!
I will stand up for and defend my human rights as a self-empowered, politically-moderate, independent, white, homosexual, polytheist male. And I will advise any other male of any other race, religion, political affiliation, and sexual orientation to stand up for his own rights as well, if he does not wish to participate in a war. I will defend the basic rights of my fellow American males until the day Selective Service is abolished - - or until the day I die. Whichever comes first.
So . . . HA, HA, HA!
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