Those of us who are "of an age" remember the influence of the Draft Board on the lives (and deaths) of us and our brethren. Even if the closest we ever actually came to experiencing that influence was listening to Arlo sing about the Group W bench.
Several years ago, when speculation about the possibility of an Iraq War draft was rampant, there was talk in liberal circles of applying to join Selective Service local boards so that a less militaristic viewpoint might be represented. Just to see what would happen, I submitted such an application.
This week, I received a response.
Hi [N in Seattle],
I also left you a voicemail, but about 3 years ago you sent an application to the Selective Service System to become a Seattle Local Board Member. Since we had no vacancy at that time, your application was held in my files, until now when a retirement of an active member has created an opportunity. If you are still interested in this position, I would be glad to provide more details. ...
I can certainly fulfill the qualifications for becoming a Draft Board member -- I'm an American citizen, (well) over 18 years old, neither active in nor retired from the military, live in Seattle, not employed in law enforcement, no criminal offenses. Though I don't yet know what the time commitment would be, I'm sure I could arrange it so that I could participate if I wanted to.
But do I really want to? The draft was a fearsome institution to those of us who grew up during the Vietnam era. I was in high school and college as the war heated up, so when I registered my classification was 2-S, student deferment. In the December 1969 draft lottery, my birthday came up as #149. Thus, I retained my deferment in 1970, when the draft took those with numbers up to 195. When the 1971 draft reached only to #125, I dropped the deferment, was briefly a non-draftable 1-A, and then became a 1-H ... no longer subject to the draft. I was fortunate, but even that not-so-close brush with Selective Service left a bad taste.
On the other hand, I doubt that there were any people with a story even remotely similar to mine on the Local Board in my hometown. I assume, without evidence, that that Board consisted entirely of people who were gung-ho to get as many kids into the Army as was humanly possible. I assume, without evidence, that they would have made it extremely difficult for anyone who appealed for a hardship deferment or Conscientious Objector status. I strongly believe that if the draft is ever reinstituted, a Draft Board that is truly representative of Seattle must include members whose view of military adventurism is, shall we say, skeptical.
I should also mention that there's something of a personal interest involved here -- my nephew, who turned 14 earlier this week, lives here in Seattle. He'll register with Selective Service four years from now.
I haven't yet replied to the message I received from the local Selective Service representative. I'm leaning toward doing so, if only to obtain further information about the time and effort that would be required of a Board member. And, perhaps, to see whether Selective Service would seriously consider putting someone like me on the Board.
But I'd still like to hear what my fellow Kossacks have to say about this situation. I don't promise to follow whatever advice or comments I receive, but I'll take all that into account.
Finally, for your listening and viewing pleasure, here are a YouTube link to Arlo performing Alice's Restaurant Massacree (embedding is disabled, since it runs nearly 20 minutes) and the trailer for the 1969 movie Alice's Restaurant: