The President Speaks: The draft

Tonight I will speak to the nation about the proposal to draft young men and women 18 years old and older into the military. As it stands, I reject the proposal.

18 is too precious of an age to be sent to war. Women shouldn’t complain about the barbarism of men, then seek to be part of the barabarism.

It is unfortunate that middle age men prey upon young mens’ desire to be passionate, physical and of service to others by sending the young men to war. An 18 year old is too young to understand that he is being used. He is too proud to refuse to serve because he thinks everything will turn out well.

A proper minimum age for the draft is 25. At 25 a man knows when he is being used. He is able to judge if the war he is told to serve in is a legitimate war, or something undertaken to benefit rich people and distract Americans from issues such as poor wages and a lack of health insurance.

At 25 soldiers might rise up against an order for an unnecessary war. That kind of threat to politicians, business owners, investors and the military is necessary to keep our leaders honest, to save taxpayers money and to prevent unnecessary grief for the many so a few can have unnecessary wealth.

Raising the age at which people can be eligible for the draft helps to do something that parents can’t seem to do or will not do. It keeps the youngest men out of war.

Parents rightfully want to be proud of their sons. Parents understandably do not want to encourage their sons to break the law. But parents should, and don’t, criticize war enough or risk the ire of their neighbors, employers or the government enough.

I am acting as a parent when I make this proposal. I am acting in the common interest of the country by saying the youngest men must be spared from military service so they can properly develop their hearts and minds through love relationships and education.

War must not be considered a good thing. It must be considered the worst way to serve your country and to prove your manhood.

By imposing this age restriction on the draft, boys out of high school can spend the next seven years proving things to themselves in ways that do no injury to others and do not entail mutilating themselves or giving themselves psychological damage.

There is much work to be done. America’s forests need to have the debris from logging removed. Trees need to be planted in the nation’s cities. Jobs should be established and reserved for this age group to use their bodies doing demanding tasks.

Young men can be encouraged to babysit, teach and coach four year olds, eight year olds, fifteen year olds, rather than go to another country to destroy children’s fathers and neighborhoods.

It amazes me that we are outraged at the violence of our young men at home, but have no problem sending them to kill people who are no threat to us. It amazes me that women fear to be on the street because of men, but demand the right to join the service and instill fear in foreign women.

Women cannot have it both ways. You cannot complain about rape and violence against women, then seek to wage war because you want equality with men. The logical things to do would be to stop complaining about violence if you want to be in the military, or refuse to join the military because of what war does to women and children, and to men too.

There is a double standard in this country. Men are discouraged from working with children because female policy makers say men cannot be trusted. Yet these policy makers have no qualms about women serving in the military and being indoctrinated to live in fear and to be violent.

One reason men commit violence against women is because men retaliate against being defined as criminals by nature. Another reason is men no longer see women as having a different and complementing role to men. Violence against women will not ebb as long as women adopt the worst characteristics of the male and men fear being accused of a sex crime when they exemplify the male’s best attributes.

What I am proposing to Congress is to set the minimum age of military service to 25, and to prevent women from being active in combat.

I am willing to have a draft because I think a draft keeps presidents and generals and politicians in check. As part of my draft bill, any time war is declared two members of the family of each senator and representative who voted for the war must serve as a combatant in the war. The same thing applies if the president supports the war.

To accompany this bill is a college funding proposal. Every young person in the country will have the opportunity to attend four years of college or career training at the expense of the federal government. An educated and prosperous work force will be more difficult to persuade that war is necessary than an uneducated poor work force.

Though war is something we must be willing to fight if necessary, we do not want America to be a war machine any longer. I highly encourage ministers, parents and teachers to tell their ministry, children and students that rich people benefit from war, not those who fight in it or have a war fought in their city.

I ask the nation to support me in this. When America gets back on track we will be able to breathe deeply, for more money will be going where it should have always gone, toward creating confident and principled young people.

A place in the sun

When poets believe in beauty
They will sit on one of these benches looking at the capitol
Asking for forgiveness for having idolized absolute profanity and absolute perversion
For rejecting absolute truth and absolute justice

They will repent
Vowing to be absolutely good
As a poet and a person

Removing their sunglasses
They will cry over the glaring perfection of the capitol
Their maturity for now loving it
And the disgrace they once proudly made of poetry

Friday, June 8

Dear Jim,

It’s been a great week. My trip to the peninsula for our nephew’s graduation was a good one. He looked great. About twenty-five people went to the party. Over the weekend I had great cheese pizza our brother-in-law made. Then I had meat two days in a row. I should eat more meat.

At the party I sat at a table with the fellers while the woman sat at their table. It amazed me how accepting the men were of our police state. They were talking about what a tough job cops have. Then they talked about the good cops they know or have met.

I said ”Cops love to intimidate people.” They agreed. Then I said, ”There’s a book- Arrest Proof Yourself. A retired cop wrote it. Cops have twenty minutes to spend with you. If they haven’t arrested you in twenty minutes, they have to let you go.”

Nobody said anything.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the country. Last night I read an article in the New Yorker about victim impact statements.

They are statements the friends and family of a murdered or raped person make in court, claiming how great their loved one was. The intention of the statements are to help get the accused convicted and then sentenced with either the death penalty or a more than life sentence. The article scared the shit out of me.

Mom and dad would not have made a victim impact statement against your killer. I wouldn’t have either. I didn’t consider myself a victim of your murder and I don’t think mom and dad did. They asked God to have mercy on the bastard.

It’s bad enough that our country is unforgiving. It’s even worse that so many people consider themselves victims: unwed mothers, illegal aliens, the homeless, gays, jail birds, families of murdered people. What these family members and friends are saying is that the beauty of the murdered guy or raped woman should count as evidence against the accused.

I wrote a letter to the New Yorker. I asked if people who made victim impact statements would apologize if twenty years later the guy in prison was found not guilty. Probably not.

People look at me like I’m a criminal all the time. It is terrifying to think that I could be arrested for a murder I didn’t commit, then have to listen to all these people tell me how great their loved one was and then have to see all the baby pictures, graduation pictures, and wedding pictures.

We’re a vengeful society. I’m more concerned that the accused get a fair trial. Others aren’t. They don’t understand that in our police state you or your family member might be arrested for something you didn’t do.

One of the points the article made was that making these statements is a great catharsis for the family and friends of the murdered guy. That may be. But do you want to cheapen our criminal justice system by saying your pain should count as evidence? Now I understand what scholars mean when they say America has lost its’ ability to reason.

So, Jim, things have been sinking in. We aren’t much of a country. We are a nation of little men – all the rectal intercourse, all the gang guys, all the jail birds, all the homeless.

We are a nation of even smaller woman – the lust for a right to an abortion, the demand that the government pay for the baby of unwed mothers, the right to claim that any encounter with a man that the woman doesn’t like is a rape.

Really we are nothin’.

People complain about the president, but he is a typical selfish boomer. Just like the hippies, he is doing what he damn well pleases even though it will damage the country in the long run.

On the trip to the party The City looked good. I sat on the Embarcadero and watched a freight liner sail in. There wasn’t one person on deck.

Remember the Hills Brothers Coffee building? There’s no smell of coffee anymore. The building is a place for high tech businesses.

It’s the only building south of Market that I like. The building north of Market that I like is the one way up on I think Sacramento Street. The one with the radio tower at least half as tall as the building. You probably walked by it a lot.

That’s it for now.

It’s a beautiful morning.

Love,

Dave