People, the draft is NOT back (yet).
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@noplasticshower @mattblaze @LeslieBurns You got it! The Alice's Restaurant Photo Tour: https://urbandinosaurs.org/blog/2024-12/2024-12-07.html
@noplasticshower @mattblaze @LeslieBurns (I should post a link every Thanksgiving…)
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@LeslieBurns @mattblaze Back when the world was young and the Vietnam War was raging, there was a lottery based on birthday during some year, assigning each person a number. There was a cut-off number for the year, and if you were eligible for the draft even one day during the year but your number was too high, you were effectively exempt. I lucked out with a high number, and so on December 31 of the appropriate year, I was on line at the main post office in Manhattan to send a certified letter to my draft board surrendering my student deferment. The clerk asked me why so many people were sending certified letters to their draft boards that day…
@SteveBellovin @LeslieBurns @mattblaze I had a low draft number - and mine came up. I had a minor transient, but grounds for exemption, medical condition - so I went to the UCLA medical library and learned how to make it worse, much much worse. I had the full Alice's Restaurant draft physical experience - my ears still are ringing from when the goons screamed into my face that I was lying when I could not read the lines on the eye chart. But my medical "learning" paid off when I got inspected by a doctor who did not want to be there and knew that I did not want to be there.
On the way out some guy in a uniform gave me condolences saying "now you'll never be able to join the military".
I think I went to Pinks Hot Dogs in Hollywood to celebrate.
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@noplasticshower @mattblaze @LeslieBurns You got it! The Alice's Restaurant Photo Tour: https://urbandinosaurs.org/blog/2024-12/2024-12-07.html
@SteveBellovin @noplasticshower @mattblaze @LeslieBurns Was hoping for
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@noplasticshower @mattblaze @LeslieBurns You got it! The Alice's Restaurant Photo Tour: https://urbandinosaurs.org/blog/2024-12/2024-12-07.html
@SteveBellovin @mattblaze @LeslieBurns awesome. Thanks Steve.
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@noplasticshower @mattblaze @LeslieBurns (I should post a link every Thanksgiving…)
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@SteveBellovin @LeslieBurns I understand that the preferred strategy was to get yourself arrested for littering....
@mattblaze @SteveBellovin @LeslieBurns That only got you some extra time on the group W bench during your pre draft physical. I can verify that a pending hitch hiking ticket (got it a few days before my physical and hadn't yet paid the fine) also got you a seat on the bench.
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@mattblaze @SteveBellovin @LeslieBurns That only got you some extra time on the group W bench during your pre draft physical. I can verify that a pending hitch hiking ticket (got it a few days before my physical and hadn't yet paid the fine) also got you a seat on the bench.
@marchyman @SteveBellovin @LeslieBurns Had you rehabilitated yourself, though?
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Quite a few states have automatic voter registration (AVR). My state, Oregon, has AVR.
It's often called "motor voter" because it started at the DMV (dept of motor vehicles) Some states are looking beyond the DMV to get more people automatically registered to vote.
And then there's North Dakota which doesn't even require registration!
Sorry if this is too rambling, voting issues are interesting to me.
@ahimsa_pdx @LeslieBurns Motor Voter was signed into federal law by Bill Clinton. All states are required to ask people if they'd like to register to vote when they get their driver's license/state ID.
Automatic voter registration would be simpler--you turn 18 and you're registered to vote. No need to do anything else. (It should also mean no voter purges due to inactivity and other shenanigans, but obviously none of that will change without a new Voting Rights Act)
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@mattblaze @LeslieBurns Student deferments were arguably even more unfair, since they applied primarily to college students—predominantly white, at least middle class, etc. Earlier, I had sent a letter to my draft board saying that I didn't know if I could take part in a war I considered morally unjust, and I spent a lot of time wondering what I would do if I received that dreaded letter, but it never happened. (Aside: by that point, other than college students, student deferments were available to seminary students—so seminaries therefore saw quite an enrollment jump, with lots of DD degrees awarded.)
@SteveBellovin @mattblaze @LeslieBurns
Agree, 60s student draft deferment program was rigged for white middle class males. My best friend and I went down to the local draft board office for a chat in 1966. We wanted all the information from them about the process beyond a deferment(we thought they were blatantly unfair). All old white guys there. At the office we both decided to 'volunteer' to be drafted immediately, agreeing if assigned to Vietnam we would not go. We both made it.....
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@mattblaze @LeslieBurns Student deferments were arguably even more unfair, since they applied primarily to college students—predominantly white, at least middle class, etc. Earlier, I had sent a letter to my draft board saying that I didn't know if I could take part in a war I considered morally unjust, and I spent a lot of time wondering what I would do if I received that dreaded letter, but it never happened. (Aside: by that point, other than college students, student deferments were available to seminary students—so seminaries therefore saw quite an enrollment jump, with lots of DD degrees awarded.)
@SteveBellovin @mattblaze @LeslieBurns I bet you now wish you'd run off to Canada instead.
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R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
