There’s been a rather inordinate amount of discussion on Charlie Rangel saying he’ll be introducing legislation to reinstate the draft. On NPR, one faceless talking head said to the other (and I paraphrase), “isn’t this just grandstanding?” To which the other talking head replied, “yes, it is, because Rangel knows it’ll never pass. He’s just trying to make the point that if we want to continue with Bush’s foreign policy – especially increasing the troop levels in Iraq – the only way it can be done is with a draft.”

Um. Yeah. But that’s grandstanding?

Frankly (especially now that I’m way, way too old to be affected by it) I think that 2 years of compulsory service to the nation right after high school (and maybe for the balance of high school plus two year, for kids who are thinking about dropping out) would be a good idea. I think some kids would gravitate toward the military (and there’s nothing wrong with that, if they’re into it), and others could teach people to read, help build and maintain state and national parks, work with the elderly – all kinds of good things that might give them a good base for understanding something other than just going to college, or going out and getting a dead-end job or (worse) being poor, idle and unemployed. For their service, they should be paid a living wage, and awarded universal healthcare for life.

Some kids might make a career out of whatever they do, and others will perhaps have had an experience that they might otherwise have never had, that could shape the way they perceive the world – and their place in it – for the rest of their lives.

Oh, sure, you’d have to figure out how to make it fair, and the rich kids would probably be able to get the cushiest jobs and all that. But, all-in-all, I think it could do a lot of kids – and a lot of the rest of us – quite a bit of good.

I have to admit, if they’d instituted this the year before I’d graduated from high school, I’d have been pretty pissed. In retrospect, though, I think it would have done me a lot of good. Who knows, I coulda made something of my life.