[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I'm pretty much dead set against military recruitment using any sort of
records other than a draft registry.
If we want to be smart and fair, we could institute a two-year national
service component to our lives. This is everyone doing two years of some
national service--army, civilian conservation corps, Americorps,
whatever. Everyone lives away on a base or "quarters," in a place far
from one's home, wears a uniform and, in general, does what is assigned
24/7. Regardless of your family's wealth--two years. War or peace--two
years. No one is exempt: male, female, undecided--two years. Genius or
dummy--two years. Ritualize it as the premier rite of passage.
Then when world conditions are fairly quiet, MN gets more young hands to
focus on specific work, fewer hands to make mischief, a clear point
where adulthood begins and childhood ends, a ritual to coalesce
community. Maybe your job for two years becomes care giving to someone
who, for reasons of profound disability only, cannot serve "actively,"
but could serve by learning to adapt to a different set of conditions
while teaching mates how to deal with the other compassionately, but
skillfully so as to maintain everyone's dignity. Some of the gains for
kids could include learning, for the first time, to live away from
parents while learning to rely on themselves in a largely unforgiving
situation with a fairly rigid set of standards.
WizardMarks, Central
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