back the draft, along with an alternative form of mandatory national service. Every American citizen has a duty to serve the nation for at least two years. No ifs, ands or buts about it. If a high school student decides, say, to attend college first and become a doctor. Fine. He or she still must serve. Why not serve for two years in a veterans hospital? Or treat the poor who otherwise cannot get decent medical treatment? So the kid wants to become a lawyer. Good. After law school, he or she can work for Rural Legal Services for two years. Why not do something to help those who cannot afford to get their day in court? Many of them are the working poor. In the Fort Lauderdale and Crescent City neighborhoods where I grew up, the old saying that "the service makes you a man" literally guided our lives. Despite the racial discrimination that prevented us from being real citizens, I and every boy I knew believed that we had a duty to serve in the military. Our heroes were the men in our lives who had served in World War II or Korea. My uncle Joe Maxwell, for example, was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. For us, he was larger than life. His Purple Heart was the center of his living room -- and our lives. His example, fulfilling his duty to the nation, inspired me to give up a college deferment and join the Marine Corps. Throughout the years, as a college teacher, I persuaded many of my students to join the military. Later, all of them thanked me and have stayed in touch with me. I also have influenced several relatives to enlist. The most recent is a cousin who graduated from Stranahan High School in Fort Lauderdale in June. Today, he is a proud sailor; he will be stationed in Pensacola. Something bad has happened to us. And I do not believe, as George W. Bush does, that the U.S. needs a "new foreign policy" if we expect to recruit effectively. Where I am from, we call such thinking bass ackward. No, we need to scrap the all-volunteer arm...
