Saturday, July 14, 2007

Suffragette City


It's almost time for the 2008 election. Should women keep the right to vote? Should anyone in the 18-20 bracket be able to vote? If there's really a Hundred Years War underway, should everyone between the ages of 18 and 25 be drafted into universal military service?

Birthday musings a la Emmeline Pankhurst, Woody Guthrie and Jerry Rubin.



Friday the 13th turned out to be a good day for showing a visiting friend around Detroit. We lucked into the Motown Museum while avoiding a traffic jam on I-94. I've been there several times, but yesterday learned a lot of new stuff about Studio A -- and the surrounding buildings. The day's adventure ended at Baker's Keyboard Lounge and smokefree jazz. They don't make a big deal at Baker's about not smoking inside (i.e. subtly clear), but now that I've quit, such indoor policies make it a lot easier to stay clean.

Today's Rune: Harvest.

Birthdays: Emmeline Pankhurst, Gustav Klimt, Irving Stone, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Northrop Frye, Woody Guthrie, Gerald R. Ford, Jr. (b. Leslie Lynch King, Jr.), Ingmar Bergman, Harry Dean Stanton, John Chancellor, Nancy Olson, Rosey Grier, Jerry Rubin.

3 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Should there be an IQ test required before voting is allowed? I'm for it.

the walking man said...

Yes there should be a universal draft in this country and it should follow the bill that has been sitting in committee for four years that Charles Gramlich (D NY) wrote. No exemptions from military service, not for school unless you are 20 and still in high school or military verified medical reasons.With both Males and Females being drafted up to age 36.

Yes 18 and up should vote.

Women should lead all of the nations of the world and be in every seat of every congress and parliament in every country and men should just simply not be allowed to run for political office anywhere in the world.

The draft being re-instated is the only way I think people will pay attention to what is really happening in this country and why...

But pretty soon the lost middle class will join the poor in this country and then we will have our own military state or another revolution against the minority of people who dominate the majority and have taken what little wealth there was for themselves or redistributed it to other nations.

Johnny Yen said...

Sounds like a great time!

Good work on the continued non-smoking. I've endured two wives quitting-- I know it wasn't easy for them.

Col. David Hackworth, in his book "About Face," advocated a draft for various reasons. He thought it would improve the military. My friend Garrett, who is now himself a Colonel in the US Army, has other ideas. His experience with German and Dutch draftees when he was stationed in Europe-- they clearly viewed their military service as an interuption of their lives (let's face it, it was) and their attitudes, and consequently performance, was shitty.

One of my former co-workers belived that a draft would help break down gangs in urban areas. This came from a middle-aged African-American man. His arguments were intriguing.