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crime and punishment general freedom moral hazard national politics & policies Regulating Protest responsibility The Draft too much government U.S. Constitution

For Genderless Freedom

When President Obama announced last week that he wants my daughter to register for the draft — as a symbol of the nation’s commitment to gender equality and a “ritual of adulthood” — believe me, I noticed.

Sure, the symbolism rings hollow, I wrote at Townhall. The president is on his way out and Congress just agreed on a defense authorization bill blocking any Christmas-​time sign-​up of women by the festive folks at Selective Service.

Still, President O’s symbolism is all wrong.

Free societies don’t require the involuntary service of men and/​or women for their defense, much less celebrate conscription as a secular rite. Our All-​Volunteer Force is the most effective military in the world. Its leaders neither need nor desire to swell its ranks with draftees — even if, heaven forbid, a major war bubbles forth from all the foreign conflicts and interventions in which we’re currently engaged.

As for the “it’s just registration” argument, and promises by politicians that they don’t support a draft. Well, it’s registration for the draft. Per politicians’ promises, I rest my case.

Yet, this comment at Townhall called me back into service: “Has this author been against draft registration for the last 30+ years or is it just because his little princess might have to register? If men have to do it, so should women.”

With slight edits, I replied: “I oppose the draft on principle …  As Daniel Webster pointed out, government has no constitutional authorization to conscript citizens. The draft further violates the 13th Amendment. Conscription has been the hallmark of dictators and totalitarian regimes, not America. We’ve had a draft rarely in our history.

“In 1980, I refused to register for the draft when Jimmy Carter brought it back. Candidate Ronald Reagan said, ‘The draft or draft registration destroys the very values that our society is committed to defending,’ and pledged to end registration as president. But Reagan reversed himself and prosecuted 13 of us who had spoken out against the policy and refused to register. I served six months in a Federal Correctional Institution (without being corrected) — the longest of anyone post-Vietnam.

“Here are the reasons I resisted at the time (1985) and a more recent reflection (2010).

“My daughter will make her own decision, and I’ll be supportive. But it is a terrible policy that will diminish our military defense, while also violating … ‘the very values our society is committed to defending.’

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

 

* Today, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016, marks the 32rd anniversary of my arrest by the FBI for violating the Military Selective Service Act by refusing to sign a draft registration form.

 

Additional Information

Common Sense: Needless List

Townhall: Draft the Congress and Leave My Kid Alone (2003)

Townhall: Americans Gung-​Ho to Draft Congress (2004)


Printable PDF

draft, register, registration, woman, Paul Jacob, resistance,

 

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links

Townhall: Resistance in Munich

The White Rose dissidents have lessons for you and me, even today.

Click on over to Townhall, for Paul’s latest discussion of the White Rose students and their sacrifices. Then come back here to learn more. And get involved in making the world a better, freer place.

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video

Video: The Last Days of the White Rose

If you have been following the “Today in Freedom” and new visual meme features here at Common Sense, you are aware of The White Rose, the group of German dissidents who in 1942 and 1943 produced pamphlets against the Nazi regime.

There have been several good books and movies produced about these young and now long-​gone heroes. One of them is available free on YouTube. It focuses on young Sophie Scholls, and her final days — that is, her and her brother’s direct encounter with the Gestapo and the totalitarian Nazi state. Well worth watching, though prepare yourself — it is not a light, comic romp; anything but:

See the Townhall column of these events, now published on this site.

You owe it to yourself to read the six pamphlets of the White Rose, now available here.

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meme

Read the White Rose Leaflets

“Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be ‘governed’ without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct.”

Click here to read a complete collection of the White Rose leaflets


White Rose

Click the thumbnail image above to view at full size, and then “right-​click” or “control-​click” to download. And please do feel free to share with your friends!

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meme

Protesting the Nazis in Munich, in 1943

A brother-​and-​sister team of anti-​Nazi activists were arrested on this date in 1943:

To download the full image, click it [above] to view it first in a separate window; download it from there.

Read their pamphlets at our Library on This Is Common Sense.

Categories
Today

Hans and Sophie arrested

On Feb. 18, 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl, a brother and sister, were arrested at the University of Munich for secretly (or not so secretly) putting out leaflets calling on Germans to revolt against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. In the previous year Hans had founded a group of students, who called themselves “The White Rose.” The group wrote and distributed six leaflets aimed at educated Germans. The leaflets made their way across Germany and to several other occupied countries. The Allies later dropped them all over the Third Reich.