Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey are war resisters in Canada. They went to Canada, like many before, because they couldn't take part in an illegal war. Both the War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist have launched campaigns to force the Canadian parliament to step up and do the job that the Canadian government once did: provide a haven to war resisters.
History is important, nostalgia is trivia. Some of the men from the '60s' need to learn the difference. Though they weren't drafted (most were in college with college deferments preventing them from being drafted), these White men continue to pontificate at length about the draft. "We had a draft then, man." Well if you come up from the haze of what may only be faded memories (though who knows? and who are we to judge?) long enough to recognize reality, you'll grasp that there is no draft today.
Your tales of "Glory Days" (nod to Springsteen) not only offer little today, they actually harm the war resistance of today. As you repeatedly go to the well on the draft (turning women invisible with laughable claims of how the 'invasive' draft physicals resulted in student resistance), you send the message that it was all about the draft.
That makes about as much sense as claiming it was all about Lou catching Donald in his underwear in Ann Marie's apartment when a mouse frightened her. (That Girl, March 13, 1969, for those interested.) War resistance didn't spring from Ann Marie and Donald switching apartments due to a mouse and it didn't spring from the draft. The draft was in place prior to Vietnam and it hadn't fueled large resistance during the Korean War.
The issue in the Vietnam era was the illegal war. We think the next person (man) who wants to assert, "It was different then, we had a draft," should immediately be escorted to a rocker and encouraged to stay there and far from the young 'uns.
What this non-stop nostalgia has done is created a myth that, had there not been a draft, Canada would never have provided asylum for war resisters. As the old boys well know, there is no draft today; therefore, their trips down memory lane onto that sidestreet have no bearing on today.
By repeatedly emphasizing the draft as opposed to the illegal nature of the earlier war, an out is provided to many (many of whom were actually against the asylum during Vietnam as well) to say, "Well, if Hinzman, Hughey, Corey Glass, et al were being drafted, that would be different, but there is no draft."
It's gone beyond boring, beyond flaunting sexism (US women could not be drafted and that did not prevent from fueling a good half -- if not more -- of the peace movement during Vietnam), to doing actual damage. It needs to stop.
The issue, whether in the asylum granted in Canada or the war resistance at home, was the illegal war. The student movement today is alive and well, despite the fact that they've had little encouragement, a lot of lies told about them, and near-universal scorn.
They aren't coming off the Civil Rights movement, they aren't coming off any broad-based, national movement. When they are 'invited' along by their 'elders' it's the equivalent of 'fill the pews' ("March in our rallies, show up for our demonstrations"). In addition, the bulk of people attempting to sell their latest books show up on campus talking about the old days and leave students with no building blocks, no useable information, only the status of audience to tales of a time gone by.
The issue was the illegality of what the US was doing in Vietnam. That's going there to begin with, that's what was happening on the ground and from the air.
Before you attempt your next heady high from what once was, you might ask yourself, "How does this help anyone today?" If the only one being helped is your own ego, consider tabling your talking points.
Students today have had to find and chart their own paths. That may be the most offensive thing about so many of the boomers today who would have gotten nowhere were it not for the wisdom, advice and assistance of their then-elders. That's a debt rarely acknowledged today and one that many 'wise voices' and 'leaders' appear to be in no rush to pay off by assisting the students of today.
Before you next wonder what's hurting student action today (which is ongoing, though largely unreported), take a look in the mirror.
