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Some Bodies That Matter: The Impending Draft as a Moral Crisis for White People
Tamara K. Nopper
(tnopper@yahoo.com)
August 19, 2004
Lately there have been talks about an impending draft that would force people to serve in the US military and its “war on terror.” With two bills—the H.R.163 and S.89 sponsored by Representative Charles Rangel and Senator Ernest Hollings, respectively—being debated, folks have been scrambling to get their kids conscientious objector (CO) status. Given that if either bill passes, women and college students would be “draftable,” there appears to be a particular urgency to resisting the draft.
But which draft are people talking about? There has been a draft going on in this country for a while, one that has been successful in maintaining military enlistment despite the progressive critique of war and militarization. This is the “poverty draft,” the draft that posits the military as one of the few options for people to get their basis needs met or lures people with the promise of $50,000 in college money or job training. That many people—57%--never get a dime of tuition money and that many job skills learned in the military are not transferable to the civilian sector tends to go under the radar of many who are now currently concerned about “the draft.” As counter-military recruitment activist Mario Hardy Ramirez points out, the poverty draft has been more successful in getting people of color, particularly Blacks, in the military than any forced draft has.
This might explain why, when I answer phone calls at the counter-military recruitment and peace organization I volunteer at, parents concerned about a draft tend to be white and, from what it sounds like, middle-class. They ask for information on how to get their kids CO status, sometimes wondering if I can refer them to a lawyer to help out with their kid’s paperwork. At times they want lawyers to do all of the work for them, and are willing to shell out the money so that their daily routines are not interrupted as their kid obtains CO status. Some parents and even grandparents are looking into CO status for a young person who is in their pre-teens or even three years old.
