Draft

[Will-Mun]

Since when would, say teaching in an ESL class be back-breaking labor?

When I burst a blood vessel in frustration, fall back, and break my back on a desk.

And you completely missed my point. Compulsory service is wrong, no person should be forced into doing any service without cause. I have the right to choose what I do with my time. If I want to volunteer, I will...Don't volunteer FOR me.

And in all honesty, I would rather do labor than teach anyone English as a second language... English is one of the more fucked up and confusingly backwards commonly spoken languages there is.

[AFPheonix]

Oh no, I didn't miss your point in the least. I just happen to think a little differently, is all

I was also just elaborating on my own point that civil service wouldn't be all chain gang work out on the railroad. It could take a lot of different forms.
I guess I think of it as an extension of school, which in this country IS compulsory. I just consider it to be a hands-on learning experience that happens to do some great things for others while we're at it. More fun than trigonometry, and chances are you'll remember it better than the difference between sine and cosine in the long run.

[rahmota]

Wil-mun: I can see your point. I am definately a big fan of personal liberty and responsibility. Try and force me to do somethign I dont wish to do and I'll get my back up worse than a grumpy mule.

But I can also see the point AFPO and others are making. Compulsory service doesnt automatically equate out to military service. Not to mention that this country has forgotten a lot of civic pride and duty to their communities. No offense to you if you are young but a lot of american society and youth are greedy selfish lazy bums who only care about getting their own hot thing and dont give a rats arse about their community, their state, their neighbors, their country or the world and humanity in general. Maybe doing some service for their neighbors could reinstill some pride, some selfworth and an understanding of the world around them or at least open some eyes that they are not the end all and be all of the universe.

And with gangs of youth wandering around bored and getting into trouble, unemployed workers of all ages trying to do what they can to support themselves and their families, and college students coming into the real world with no real useful skills and common sense to back up their book learning doing something useful and worthwhile with their lives might not be a bad thing.

So how about instead of compulsory service the government sponsored, supsidized and rewarded those who participate with a wage, medical benefits, education benefits and all stuff but anyone who didnt participate would get jack and have to make it on their own. Yeah arose by any other name but it would come down to you being able to choose to participate and get a real world skills and serivce with pride.

Actually I think a lot of the rights and freedoms we have as citizens are wasted by people who have no clue how those rights and freedoms where earned and how fragile they really are. What I would like to see would be a setup where service equals citizenship. For all people. You could still choose to not serve and you would still have many of the same rights and capabilities of anyone else. For most people it wouldnt be noticable. Just if you where not a citizen you wouldnt have the right to vote, social security or other public funds and assistence etc....Read some of Robert HeinLein's works especially "To Us The Living" for a better example of what I'm talkign about.