Wanting to reinstate the draft is bad enough. Now Democrat John
Edwards has made mandatory service for all young people part of his
campaign. «One of the things we ought to be thinking about is some
level of mandatory service to our country,» said Edwards in a recent
interview, «so that everybody in America not just the poor kids who
get sent to war are serving this country.»

«Who does he think he’s kidding?» said George Phillies, front-running
candidate for the Libertarian Presidential nomination. «Mandatory
service is a euphemism for conscript labor. If America wants more
teachers or nurse’s aides or people cleaning local parks, it should
try paying them an honest wage. That’s not a minimum wage so small
that no one can live one it, either.

«National Service supporters claim service doesn’t mean military
service. They dodge the word ‘draft,’ » Phillies said. «That’s
because National Service is worse in many ways than the military
draft. You can claim that you can’t always pay people to agree to
risk death. I guarantee you can pay people enough to read to
pre-schoolers or help old people go shopping or build public service
projects.

«America’s young people are free citizens, not the property of John
Edwards. A century and a half ago, half a million Americans gave
their lives to end slavery, the belief that some people can be
required by law to give their labor to their masters. Now southern
Senator Edwards wants to bring back forced labor.

«Mandatory national service has no place in the land of the free and
the home of the brave. If you want young people to work for you, you
should try paying them. Or ask them to volunteer! Volunteerism works
for my Presidential campaign, and it will work across America.»