Maybe everyone is already tired of hearing the waging war and the possible draft that President Bush has been clucking about for over a year, but I remember the first thought I had when I heard that young men would be recruited.
The draft worried me because I had friends from high school who had enlisted in the Air Force, Marines, and Navy the summer before.
I was also panicking because I had bothered my close friend Chris to fill out that Service registration form at the post office six months earlier. I couldn’t believe that I was the indirect cause for his departure to a situation that I know he would not come out of alive. I was so relieved to learn that only to extreme measures would they draft college-age males. My thought processes lead me to thinking about my friends who had gone directly to the Armed Forces.
For example, my friend Arthie was the biggest clown in the class. He couldn’t let a single comment go by without a joke. He never handed in work but at the same time was a genius whose intelligence you couldn’t help envying. He was a wrestler, so maybe the physical aspect of training wouldn’t bring him down right away. My point is, from what I knew of him, I don’t know if he was prepared to go to a foreign country and fight for something as abstract as a whole nation. Was he ready to give his life for a multitude of people? Does he understand the gravity of his responsibility?
Looking at the majority of people our age, I wonder if our concerns encompass things other than school, friends, family, jobs, and searching for something fun to do. If you had to pick one person out of the crowd, would you know if they had the capacity to do such an important job for our nation? I don’t want to seem as if I were underestimating my friend Arthie because I don’t. I applaud his bravery in deciding to do something of his life that I know I would have chickened out of. We are lucky to have pretty normal lives. I think we should remember all those kids (essentially) that stepped out into less familiar waters. It should also motivate us to be more involved in the decisions that will eventually affect our future. Only thing is, Arthie and thousands, if not millions, more have done it already.
