Author: Rivera Sun

It’s outdated. It’s dysfunctional. It’s hated by most of the populace. No, we’re not talking about the line at the DMV. We’re talking about the Selective Service and the military draft. For decades, young men have had to register. Now, congress is considering expanding draft registration to women.

Here’s a better idea: let’s abolish the Selective Service and end draft registration for everyone.

A new bill in congress calls for the repeal of the Selective Service Act. Introduced by a bipartisan group, it eliminates this outdated, immoral, and unpopular system. The Selective Service Repeal Act would repeal the Military Selective Service Act in its entirety; repeal presidential authority to order registration for a military draft; abolish the Selective Service System, including the data center, national and regional offices, and local draft boards that have been appointed and trained for every county in the US; and end all federal sanctions for nonregistration with the Selective Service System.

Politicians from across the aisle are acknowledging that it’s time to end the draft system.

Continue reading “Ditch the Draft, Once and for All”

We may be months away from ending the US military draft, once and for all. After a court ruled that the male-only draft was unconstitutional, a Congress-appointed Commission has been studying whether or not to draft women into the US military. They make their report in March, and will likely either advocate for expanding draft registration to women or abolishing the draft, once and for all.

Instead of expanding the draft to women, it’s time to end the draft for all genders.

Drafting women is a deeply unpopular idea. For months, people have been testifying against it to the Commission. Even the former director of the Selective Service thinks it’s time to get rid of draft registration altogether. Currently, the US military draft is in a state of dysfunction. For decades, millions of men have refused and/or failed to register. The consequences can and do impact men’s lives, including everything from being barred from government jobs to being denied drivers licenses. This situation is deeply unjust and has been opposed for decades by several generations of draft resisters.

Continue reading “It’s Time. End the Draft, Once and for All”

On June 15th, 1955, Catholic Worker founderDorothy Day joined a group of pacifists in refusing to participate in the civilian defense drills scheduled on that day. These drills were to prepare the citizenry in the event of a nuclear attack, and involved evacuations of city centers, taking shelter in subway tunnels, and, for schoolchildren, "duck-and-cover" to hide under their school desks. Such actions would be futile if a nuclear attack were underway, but the drills were part of a government propaganda program to convince Americans that nuclear weapons were a necessary part of the US arsenal, and that it would be possible to survive a nuclear war.

In this particular case, Operation Alert was a nationwide, mandated, legally enforced drill. Dorothy Day, fellow Catholic Workers and other pacifists informed the media that they would disobey the law, and refused to evacuate public spaces and work places for the proscribed fifteen-minute period. Instead, they sat on park benches in City Hall Park, quietly praying and meditating. All 27 – and a shoeshine man who was taken into custody by mistake – were arrested. They were branded murderers by their judge, who accused them of being responsible for the simulated deaths of three million New Yorkers.

Continue reading “Dorothy Day Refuses To Duck-and-Cover”