Editor:
It often has been said that a nation that does not know its own history is doomed to repeat it. That is certainly true of U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan’s idea to require young women to register with the Selective Service in the name of equality with men (“Women might soon be registering for the draft,” Reading Eagle, Oct. 7).
First of all, what kind of equality is she talking about? Women who are drafted during wartime will be shot at, just like men; perhaps captured, just like men; and killed, just like men. We’ll all be equal all right, equally dead.
Secondly, women are the child-bearers and mothers of society. If enough of them are killed, we will significantly decrease the U.S. population.
Finally, the draft is very unpopular. During the Vietnam War men protested it by burning their draft cards. Many fled to Canada as draft chargers or enrolled in college solely to get a draft deferment, buying their way out of it by knowing the right people, a gimmick of the rich. It was blue-collar workers and the urban poor who ended up in Vietnam. This was outlined in the 1968 book “Our Unfair and Obsolete Draft.”
After Vietnam the Joint Chiefs of Staff decided on an all-volunteer military, which is what we have today. Women can serve if they want to but should not be forced to do so.
JoAnne Brancadora
Reading
Source: Berkshire mont
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