While in the grocery store check out line picking up my 80 percent off Adkins single serving pizzas, there was a woman appearing in her late 50s unloading four jumbo bags of ruffles chips, talking with Carla, our late night clerk. (Carla knows that we writers only come out at night.)

At any rate, Carla asked the chip lady "Hey, looks like you're having a party!"
"Yes" the woman replied. . . a baby shower."

It was what the chip lady shared afterward that made my heart sink. Went somethin' kinda like this:

"The baby's going to be my daughter's first. Her husband is in Iraq. He knew he would go there since 9-11. He was home just a few times when they LET HIM GO for two weeks. We hope they LET HIM GO so he can be here when the baby is born.

It's really sad because if they LET HIM GO he'll have to leave and go right back to Iraq, then again, he might miss it all together, and that's going to be hard on him."

And my thought then was "how hard is it going to be on the baby never knowing his or her father.?" I can answer that first hand; I never got to know my own father. A combination of racism and faulty medical practice during an operation room procedure is the reason he is dead. No one can prove malpractice.

But when it comes to this war, I scream MALPRACTICE! The woman in the check out line took home her chips, tried not to let her emotion show, was a good supporter of her son-in-law serving his country.

That's all well and good. What about her son in law doing God's will, and serving as the leader of HIS family, a family he may never get to see because THEY did not LET HIM GO.

The rest of this concerns an email I received about the draft. Rest assured, those in Washington right now are only concerned about their own financial security while the rest of the nation rots in unemployment lines. If you want more info, then do some research.

Then get out to the polls, and let ex-cons know that they too, in many states CAN register to vote!





Subject: MILITARY DRAFT

FYI. . . . from an email via a sister performing artist in Kentucky via a university connection:

Mandatory drafting for boys and girls 18-26 in the works by Bush Admin

Mandatory drafting for boys and girls FYI: Mandatory drafting for boys and girls (age 18-26) starting June 15 2005, is something, I believe, everyone should know.

This literally affects EVERYONE since we all have or know children that will have to go if this bill passes.

There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) which will time the program's initiation so the draft can begin at early as spring 2005 -- just after the 2004 presidential election.

The Bush administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections, so our action on this is needed immediately. Details and links follow. Even those voters who currently support us.

Actions abroad may still object to this move, knowing their own children or grandchildren will not have a say about whether to fight. Not that it should make a difference, but this plan, among other things, eliminates higher education as a shelter and includes women in the draft.

In addition, crossing into Canada has already been made very difficult.

ACTIONS, ACTIONS, ACTIONS: Please send this on to all the parents and teachers you know, and all the aunts and uncles, grandparents, godparents.... Moreover, let your children know -- it is their future, and they can be a powerful voice for change!

Please also write to your representatives to ask them why they are not telling their constituents about these bills -- and write to newspapers and other media outlets to ask them why they are not covering this important story.

At least $28 million has been added to the 2004 selective service system (sss) budget to prepare for a military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005.

Selective Service must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation.

Please see website: http://www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html to view the SSS annual performance plan - fiscal year 2004.

The pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide. Though this is an unpopular election year topic, military experts and influential members of congress are suggesting that if Rumsfeld's prediction of a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan [and a permanent state of war on "terrorism"] proves accurate, the U.S. may have no choice but to draft.

See http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5146.htm, www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html

Congress brought twin bills, S. 89 and HR 163 forward this year,

http://www.hslda.org/legislation/national/2003/s89/default.asp entitled the Universal National Service Act of 2003, "to provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons [age 18--26] in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes."

These active bills currently sit in the committee on armed services. Dodging the draft will be more difficult than those from the Vietnam era. College and Canada will not be options.

In December 2001, Canada and the U.S. signed a "smart border declaration," which could be used to keep would-be draft dodgers in. Signed by Canada's minister of foreign affairs, John Manley, and U.S. Homeland Security director, Tom Ridge, the declaration involves a 30-point plan which implements, among other things, a "pre-clearance agreement" of people entering and departing each country. Reforms aimed at making the draft more equitable along gender and class lines also eliminates higher education as a shelter. Underclassmen would only be able to postpone service until the end of their current semester. Seniors would have until the end of the academic year.