Posted on 02/26/2002 8:13:21 AM PST by NorCoGOP
NEW YORK -- As the World Economic Forum becomes a distant memory, the memory that I will hold for at least a little while will not be the protesters yelling or the police in riot gear, but a lone demonstrator with a brown cardboard sign with big, black block lettering which said, "NO POLICE STATE." I found this to be rather amusing as this chap who could not have been older than 20 had never lived in a police state, just the freedom of the United States. Granted, I did not speak with him, so for all I know, he may have been from East Germany, but for the sake of argument and fun let us assume he is from right here in the good ol' U.S. of A.
Living in a police state is no laughing matter. Webster, through dictionary.com (cheers for the Internet), defines a police state as a state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the people, especially by means of a secret police force. Now conspiracy theorists can harangue the CIA and FBI all they want and tell you how they are looking at you right now, but for the most part this definition has no place in this country. As a country that practically pioneered the popular vote, it seems strange to see this nation as a police state. The fact is that if you do not vote, you are a non-person politically; political leaders on both sides of the spectrum do not care about people who do not vote for them.
Fifteen years ago, people protested our nuclear buildup the same way they protest globalization today. They claimed that nuclear power was irrelevant in mass quantities because it did not matter how many times over we could blow up the world, but never stopped to think about the potential. If you find yourself in a boxing match, where you get to decide a fight between a 250-pound bruiser and a 130-pound toothpick without even thinking, you would go for the meatier guy. But little do you know that the meathead has a glass jaw and asthma and the man you think you can take is an 8-degree black belt in Wu Shu and knows multiple ways to incapacitate you with two fingers. The point is that a strong presence is hopefully enough of a deterrent that corporal action never has to be taken. If people understood this and other concepts that may not seem so obvious, maybe they would be more reluctant to claim this place is a police state.
It is easy to complain about things that we never have to worry about, like a police state. What we need to do is work to be able to gain respect for the privileges and rights that we should hold in high regard. A lack of physical work has turned us into the fattest country ever with more children developing diabetes and other weight-related diseases through inactivity and poor nutrition. A military draft would teach us more than anything we can learn in a classroom. It sounds mundane, but maybe all we need is to put young men in uniform and make them appreciate what their grandparents went through, the sacrifices made long before we crept into this world. We need to climb over that wall in the obstacle course to show ourselves that we are worthy of this country.
Tom Brokaw calls our grandparents the greatest generation. While this a lofty title, these men certainly deserve it. We stand on the shoulders of generations past. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be known as the generation that complained about saving an environment that is not going anywhere, or about a program of globalization that optimists see will make the gap between developing and non-developing nations practically gone by 2100. We are only 61 years past the start of World War II, the hardest trial ever. With their blood at Normandy, Bastogne and Iwo Jima, to name a few, our forefathers defended our ability to protest in our own country. They saw a police state and died to prevent their own country from becoming one as well.
We are a babied generation. We have the luxury to post signs about our government and show no appreciation for history. This is a problem that predates Sept. 11. Whether you agree with our nation's response to the tragedy, military service has the potential to be a tie that binds us together. We, as a generation of young men and women, do not know hardship. We are living at the best time in history and do not even know it. If we had some sort of mandatory service, either military or public, then we might better understand why we need to have the right to protest.
Luckily, for those who shake when they think about the draft, or having to get off the couch at all, it does not seem to be in our future. Both Press Secretary Ari Fleischer and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld have said that conscription is not in the foreseeable future. So open up the cake mix, you aren't going anywhere.
I didn't and I don't. A draft in extreme situations may be necessary, but certainly not as a character building program.
If their service is needed to defend the nation, that's one thing. But drafting them to "toughen them up" is not needed, thank you.
Before we get TOO critical here, lets look back at the Baby Boomers! Basically, you (also) grew up in an economy that saw unparalleled growth (at that time). Your parents who grew up toughened by hard times spoiled you rotten! You threw a collective fit, because you were asked to fight for this country, and the American way of life. So, your parents fixed it so that you wouldn't have to do that anymore, and ensuring that somebody else would do the dirty work for you. You repaid the sacrifices of your parents by forsaking everything that they stood for, and embracing anything that is UN-American!
Now you have the gall to blast another generation as being "the most babied?" Unbelievable!
Just who would be responsible for making sure all good citizens take part in this forced service? Could that be the United States government? I think that would start to fall under the defintion offered by Dictionary.com:
"A state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic, and political life of the people"
EE, 1958, US Army 76-92
Is this really the job of government??
Thank you! Doesn't anyone realize that 'Gen X' is in it's 30's now and having kids of its own.
If we are the 'babied' generation, It sure wasn't anyone I knew...
None of our parents were together long enough to 'baby' us. My parents split when I was 13, I only know 1 other 'Gen Xer' whose parents are still together.
Hell, I've been laid off from defense-related companies 4 times since I left active duty in '95. In the past 6 years, I was out of work for 16 months (well, odd jobs and crap to make ends meet...). I am now a software systems engineer--it all worked out well.
While somebody was getting babied, a surprisingly large 'unlucky few' of us have been living like it's 1934...
One case I know of at the fort was a man accused of sexual harrassment by a women because when he answered the phone the cord touched her breast as she handed the phone to him. I kid you not! This accusation resulted in his having to attend sensitivity training after months of trials.
I appreciate the fact that the military defends our country, but I would never suggest to my children that they join any kind of military service. Now the militia is a different story.
Being forced to provide for your own future is a guaranteed character-builder.
Don't forget that the generation which the government drafted to fight World War Two also saddled us with some of the biggest entitlement programs in history.
How does that correspond to an idea called Freedom?
Do you support a military draft as a character building program?
Your resonses indicate that you do, but I want to be sure I understand you correctly.
However today's military is different, and having many friends and relatives that serve, I am glad that they approach their jobs as professionals. They have skills that are essentially mind-boggling to me, and I'm a techie.
With today's advanced weaponry, I want to have the best and brightest as soldiers serving my country.
Ask me if I think Jesus Christ is God and humanity's saviour, and I'll give you perhaps a dozen convoluted answers all coming eventually to, yes.
And yes, I do feel compulsory military service builds character, depending again, on the individual. As I said earlier, some of the greatest individuals I've ever known, I knew as conscripts.
Best to you.
I respectfully disagree. While a compelling argument can be made that being forced to serve your country in the military and perhaps even face combat duty is a character-building experience, there is no evidence that a draft has ever produced freedom-loving citizens. On the contrary, the generations which fought the First and Second World Wars have saddled this country with the most onerous entitlement programs and national security regulations in its history.
OTOH, with a draft, people might think twice about cheerleading for the government's rapacious foreign policy and military adventures.
Any military draft must only occur under extremem circumstances, not when we run low of fodder to throw at some small country in a remote area of the world fighting ambiguous causes for ambivolent residents.
IMO, a draft for anything other than a driect threat to American soil (NOT American 'interests!) is wrong.
Building character may be a side effect of a draft, but must not be the reason.
BTW, I had more than a decade of military service.
Good point.
1968 - "No Draft, I'll enlist if the country is invaded."
2002 - "No Draft, 'should only be invoked in cases of national survival.'"
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