Don't expect America's political, business, and academic leaders to fight Trump for you. History tells us the privileged almost never act courageously because they have too much to lose.
In June 1964, I married my college boyfriend; in August, the Gulf of Tonkin "incident" put the war in Vietnam in our headlights. After graduation in 1965, we moved to L.A., where he had been accepted at the USC Grad School of Business (He was 1-A; there was no student deferment for business grad school). After one semester, he changed to get a second undergrad degree in engineering. Again, no deferment for getting a second bachelor's. He remained 1-A. he became an engineer; we divorced, no kids, end of story. Except that "miracle" of 8 years of war with a 1-A deferment...? About ten years ago, or so, maybe more, the building that had been, in the '70s, the site of the Palo Alto Selective Service Office, was demolished. And when it was....several hundred files of potential draftees were found hidden behind a wall behind a hanging picture. .... The files of the white boys whose fathers--who played golf together at the posh courses along the Peninsula-- knew of the employee at the SSO who, for what? $500? Less? shoved the physical files of their sons into a wall, and drafted the Black sons from East Palo Alto to serve and die in their place. (Everything except the "found files" in this account is anecdotal and conjecture on my part. There was no investigation, no public outcry.)
I was declared 4-F after my induction physical due to a knee rebuilt at 14. But a friend of mine got the same classification by refusing to do anything when called up. He refused to take the intelligence test, saying calmly, “I am a civilian, the military has no authority over me.” When ordered to disrobe for the physical, he repeated the same sentence Personnel were brought in to question him about his intransigence, he offered that one sentence reply. He so frustrated the hapless officials at the long gone Fort Holabird, that they angrily told him to get out of the building. He told me, “I guess they realized I wouldn’t follow orders.”
Before even reading your piece in TNR, this post involving Fallows was excellent.
In June 1964, I married my college boyfriend; in August, the Gulf of Tonkin "incident" put the war in Vietnam in our headlights. After graduation in 1965, we moved to L.A., where he had been accepted at the USC Grad School of Business (He was 1-A; there was no student deferment for business grad school). After one semester, he changed to get a second undergrad degree in engineering. Again, no deferment for getting a second bachelor's. He remained 1-A. he became an engineer; we divorced, no kids, end of story. Except that "miracle" of 8 years of war with a 1-A deferment...? About ten years ago, or so, maybe more, the building that had been, in the '70s, the site of the Palo Alto Selective Service Office, was demolished. And when it was....several hundred files of potential draftees were found hidden behind a wall behind a hanging picture. .... The files of the white boys whose fathers--who played golf together at the posh courses along the Peninsula-- knew of the employee at the SSO who, for what? $500? Less? shoved the physical files of their sons into a wall, and drafted the Black sons from East Palo Alto to serve and die in their place. (Everything except the "found files" in this account is anecdotal and conjecture on my part. There was no investigation, no public outcry.)
I was declared 4-F after my induction physical due to a knee rebuilt at 14. But a friend of mine got the same classification by refusing to do anything when called up. He refused to take the intelligence test, saying calmly, “I am a civilian, the military has no authority over me.” When ordered to disrobe for the physical, he repeated the same sentence Personnel were brought in to question him about his intransigence, he offered that one sentence reply. He so frustrated the hapless officials at the long gone Fort Holabird, that they angrily told him to get out of the building. He told me, “I guess they realized I wouldn’t follow orders.”
nailed it! GRRRR