As coincidence has it, I'm reading (bad habit of mine) a book, just
out:
Democracy's Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the
Right to Dissent, by Ernest Freeberg. Debs was one of my first
and lifelong heroes, which is what attracted me to the title. Also,
the fact that our freedoms have been so curtailed and promise to
shrink further as the Empire's wars continue on and on...
Well, I was hoping folks would weigh in less with anecdotes and more
on the issue, inasmuch as I am reading about a significant part of
what happens when you institute a draft. People resist, people evade,
people get put in prison...it's complicated. As one whose political
life effectively began and was formed by the then-rising war against
the Vietnamese people, I have vivid memories of what "the draft"
entails.
Oh, for those who want something personal: I was one of the very
lucky few, receiving a Conscientious Objector deferment to serve in a
civilian capacity (Friends Hospital, in Philadelphia).
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