"I wish you a good Memorial Day, with plenty of hot dogs on the grill and beer in the cooler.

Those of us who choose to defend ourselves in the class warfare begun by the one percent should, on Memorial Day, give some thought to a different one percent, the one percent of us who choose military service.

At the outset, I should confess to the greatest political error I made in my life. I was opposed to the draft. Don’t get me wrong. It was true that the draft was not fair. It was more likely to fall on guys like me than guys like Willard Romney (who did his public service as a missionary living in a very impressive mansion in France) or George W. Bush (who had the pull to get into the Weekend Warriors back when they did not have to fight) or Dick Cheney (who had “other priorities”).

In spite of the fact that the draft was not fair, working class guys volunteered, as I did, in greater numbers than volunteers of the class that produced Al Gore and John Kerry."

Get the Story:
Steve Russell: On This Memorial Day, Reflections on Hot Dogs, Beer and the Draft (Indian Country Today 5/28)

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