Monday, January 13, 2014
The Draft (Class Connection Blog Post)
In class we recently finished reading The Things They Carried. I have to say, I have not read many books about war before, so this was a very interesting concept for me. I've never had to deal with war in my life. I know that my grandfathers both served in WWII when they were alive, but no one ever really talked much about their experiences. I honestly don't even know much about the wars that have taken place throughout my own lifetime. War just seems so far away that I tend to put it out of my mind. So, after reading this book, I started thinking about how lucky my generation is. We never had to experience drafting. When the draft was going on in the story, I began to wonder how the new generations would handle the idea of drafting - taking men from all over the place and taking them to serve in a war. I'm not saying that drafting is wrong - sometimes hard times call for drastic measures. But I have two older brothers, both between the ages of 18 and 25, and the idea of them being suddenly pulled into extremely dangerous situations honestly terrifies me. I don't know what I would do. Family is an essential part of life, and I absolutely hate seeing them pulled apart. Therefore, the idea of sons and brothers being pulled into a war and not knowing if they will ever come back gives me a hollow feeling inside. I hope that our country doesn't break into a bad enough war that drafting is required, but the world is unpredictable and we never know what may happen. Well, I hope that we don't have to experience drafting anytime soon. I've never been very interested in the idea of war, so The Things They Carried got me curious about things like the draft. Thanks for listening to my wandering thoughts! (:
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Hey Theresa,
ReplyDeleteAs somebody who is between the age of 18 and 25, the possibility of a draft scares me too. I have high expectations for my future and I think that losing a few years of preparing for my future because I had to go to war would be devastating. However, I currently do not feel like there will be a draft anytime soon because people are often talking about how too many people are in the military and that the military is consuming too much of our budget without a draft. If they added a draft, that would be more people to pay and more expensive military benefits they would have to guarantee. because of this, I feel that a draft will not occur during my period of eligibility or your brothers' periods of eligibility.
Yeah, I agree. A draft would hinder a lot of people's lives. I'm glad that there's not much of a chance of having one anytime soon. Hopefully the U.S. won't have to have one for a VERY long time! (: Thanks for the comment!
ReplyDeleteHi, Theresa! I also am really curious to see how our generation would react to being drafted - I feel like with the social networking of our day and age, there would be this great uproar of protests from the Internet over why drafting is wrong and/or should never happen. While I agree with you that this is probably an exaggeration and that desperate times do call for desperate measures, it's an interesting thought to think about - would the cries of protest from the public change the way that the draft occurred? Most of me thinks that it wouldn't, but it's still a possibility. So many aspects of our culture have been changed by social media that it doesn't seem like too big of a stretch to say that drafting could be affected, as well. Great post! :)
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good point, Julia! I definitely agree that today, people would most likely act a lot different than in previous drafting. I'm also curious as to how the public would react in this generation. Protests and denial could potentially affect the entire drafting process. Thanks for the comment!!! (:
ReplyDeleteWhat I wonder is, with an increasing amount of women in the army, if a draft will ever include women. It seems like an outlandish thought right now, but unusual ideas always seem that way at first. (Like letting women join the army in the first place.)
ReplyDeleteHmmmm... I don't know. That is a curious thought. Drafting women as well does not seem very likely at this point in time, but it certainly is a future possibility. I guess we'll have to wait and find out! Thanks for the comment, Ella! :)
ReplyDeleteHey Theresa! The idea of seeing people drafted into war is a frightening though, and I wonder how everyone must have felt at the time that it was happening. I don't know what I would do if my brother was that age and he was drafted, like you mentioned earlier with Brian and Patrick. Even more frightening, if I was being in the position of being drafted myself, (If it was possible, I don't know if women can be drafted) I don't know if I would be able to take it, like O'Brien had initially felt earlier in the book. You make a lot of good points when you're asking about how us as a nation would take the idea of drafting nowadays. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rachel! I know, right? I never have really thought about the idea of drafting before just because, well, it's never really effected my life. But we really have been fortunate to not experience it in our lives, haven't we? :)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. And I hope we don't have to for a long while either. But I like to think of what could happen, you know?
DeleteYeah! I know exactly what you mean!
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