On July 15, 2010, Congressman Charles Rangel (D-New York) introduced HR 5741 which would require all citizens and permanent residents of the United States between the ages of 18-40 to perform two years of what is being called “national service.” This would include community service, services promoting the national defense, and perhaps most troubling of all, conscription into the U.S. military during times of war, with the numbers of soldiers and means of their selection left entirely in the hands of the President. This is at least the fifth time Congressman Rangel has introduced this, or similar, legislation (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010).
In defense of this detestable (and seemingly unconstitutional, see amendment 13) piece of legislation, Mr. Rangel said the following: “The 3.3 million military households, representing only one percent of American families, have become a virtual military class who are unfairly carrying the burden of war.” He went on to say, “We make decisions about war without worry over who fights them. Those who do the fighting have no choice; when the flag goes up, they salute and follow orders. The test for Congress, particularly for those members who support the war, is to require all who enjoy the benefits of our democracy to contribute to the defense of the country. All of America's children should share the risk of being placed in harm's way.”
It would seem that, under the guise of fairness, Mr. Rangel wishes to rob every member of America's youth of two entire years of their life. He claims those who do the fighting “have no choice” but he could not be more mistaken in this assertion. Be it for patriotic reasons, financial reasons, or merely a desire to test their own limits, members of the United States military have, of their own free will, made a conscious decision to enlist. In reality, those who would have no choice in the matter would be those whom Congressman Rangel's bill would affect. They are the individuals to which no option would be given. Young men and women would find themselves forced at the point of a gun to surrender two years of their life to the direct control of the federal government and whatever fancy may strike the political party in power at any given time.
As far as I am concerned, there is only one moral course of action in the dreadful event Mr. Rangel's abominable bill were to actually pass, and that is open defiance. Let them throw us all behind bars and remove any pretense that we would still be living in a free society that had any respect for individual rights in the process. It would be far better to spend a lifetime in prison than to willingly validate with even one minute of compliance, the despicable philosophy lurking behind this bill. The obscene belief that we are not each sovereign individuals, free to make of our own lives what we choose, but rather that we are, as Jeffery Small of Go-Galt.org so aptly put it, “Nothing more than a resource to be manipulated as our masters see fit, in service of any purpose that they may choose.”
Don't mistake my opposition to this bill as merely the ramblings of an unpatriotic coward seeking to justify his own unwillingness to fight for his country. If a foreign force were to invade the United States I would, without hesitation, take up arms in defense of my family, my property, and the ideals upon which this nation was founded. I would gladly lay down my life in their defense. Unfortunately with each passing day it seems far more likely that instead of banding together to repel a foreign adversary bent on our destruction, free men and women may one day have need to take up arms against our own government — the very institution we have entrusted with the protection of our liberty — to ensure that our freedoms are upheld.
The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Mr. Rangel, your bill infringes upon all three of those rights which we Americans hold so dear. The Revolutionary War was fought over less grievous injustices than those contained within the atrocity you wish to inflict upon the American people. Mr. Rangel, my life is not yours to administrate as you see fit, nor is it subject to the passing whims of any senator, president, king, or god. Despite what you and your colleagues may think, Mr. Rangel, my life is my own, not the government's to own.
For more: http://go-galt.org/Galt_Pledge/JG_Blog.html#138
Congressman Rangel's official site: http://rangel.house.gov/2010/07/rangeldraft0716.html
