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Ongoing Thoughts 19:
By William E. Steinman:
God Emperor again 2:
Continuing with the details of the universal draft, I found
an area of need in a Military Support Service (MSS). This would be basically a
logistics service for the
Traditionally these functions were performed by military
personnel. That is how it was when I served. Later, the military came to
realize what a waste of trained service people that was. You spend half a year
or more training a person to be a soldier then use him as a very expensive
servant. Now the military farms that work out to firms like Haliburton. The
work gets done for a price and the specially trained military people are freed
up to do what they were trained to do.
Now I am proposing that work be done by a specialized
service organization of drafted people. These people would be part of a
quasi-military unit attached directly to the military units they were serving.
The term of service for these people would be three years. It is less rigorous
and dangerous than military service, but rigorous enough and it carries some of
the inherent risk of field operations.
Our situation in
As I see it, this IPTS organization would fill that gap with
qualified police officers. They could act as local law officers and also train
other people to replace them as law officers. This is definitely a dangerous
occupation so I would visualize the commitment as one of two years, much like
the military. I would think these people would have to spend their first half
year or more in a special police academy. There they would be trained to be
effective law enforcement officers rather than foot soldiers.
This would not be the extensive training I have propose for
a
As I see it, this service would be useful in situations like
Now I get to my promise. This is the service of last resort.
I call it the United States Domestic Service (USDS). It will be the least dangerous
and least rigorous of all the services and would require a four year
commitment. This is where all of those who do not choose or do not fit in any
other service will be used. For some people it will be a good choice. For
others it will be the reluctant last resort. However they get here, there will
be a task for them.
Parents and single parents will be among these, whether they
became so by accident, by choice, or just because they thought they could beat
the draft. They cannot beat the draft. No one can! Physically and emotionally
handicapped people will be here if they could not be uses in the other
services. Let's not kid ourselves. Some handicapped folks will make it in the
other services. We should give them every encouragement to do that.
I will still insist that this USDS be organized as a
quasi-military enterprise. For many reasons, some of these people will not be
able to travel. They will be bound by commitments to children, older parents in
need, or personal needs for specialized services like medical attention. That's
fine, they can still serve their country locally. There are many areas of need.
Our parks, national and state, need enormous attention.
There is all kinds of work needed, from picking up trash left by scum-bums to
clearing nature trails. The same kind of effort can be applied to our highways.
They are a disgrace. We also have public monuments that need attention. The
Statue of Liberty got a lot of attention, as did the
We will have a definite need for daycare for the kids of the
parents we draft. No problem. We test the people for qualifications and use
them in daycare if they qualify. The same kind of approach can be used. A
daycare center can be operated by a nine person squad with a squad leader.
Contrary to popular belief, daycare workers do not have to be women. Men can do
it and should if they qualify.
In some case we will need to make unique arrangements to
help some of the handicapped people serve. One way to do that is to create a
buddy or team system. People with no handicaps can be teamed with people who
need some help. Another way is to have people with different kinds of handicaps
work together. One might be good at understanding and another at executing
simple tasks. As a team, they get something done. Something is much superior to
nothing and can have a very positive effect on one who has had to struggle for
everything.
Of course, all of this starts with complete reform of our
educational system. We have to make kids want to go to school. When kids hate
school, there is a reason for that. The reason does not lie with the kids. We
must answer the question, “Why do kids hate school?” We must take
that seriously. The kids themselves can answer the question, but no one has
ever asked them. Except for the so-called precocious kids, the suck-ups, the
answer will be consistent throughout the student population. “It’s
dumb and boring.” We can probably understand that to mean, we are not
making education relevant to their lives. We are doing it wrong. If we
don’t change that first, we will not be able to build prisons fast
enough. We are already at that point. We have more criminals that we have
cells. I have discussed education thoroughly in my book, Will-Yam in the
There are many other problems in our society that need a God Emperor approach. I will get to them later.