Alan Keyes Should Know Better: National Service is the Hallmark of a Dictatorship

by | Mar 25, 2000 | POLITICS

Alan Keyes [a candidate for the Republican nomination for president] is correct in stating, in his March 4 op-ed, that “national service is an obligation of citizenship” — in a totalitarian dictatorship. All life in a dictatorship belongs to the state. If the state wants nursing home aides, it forces you to collect bedpans. If […]

Alan Keyes [a candidate for the Republican nomination for president] is correct in stating, in his March 4 op-ed, that “national service is an obligation of citizenship” — in a totalitarian dictatorship.

All life in a dictatorship belongs to the state. If the state wants nursing home aides, it forces you to collect bedpans. If the state wants you to risk your life in some pointless foreign war, it has the power to conscript you.

But national service is antithetical to the principle on which this nation was founded: the principle of individual rights. As the Declaration of Independence states, each person has “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

However, there is no such thing as partial liberty. Liberty does not mean a citizen is free for all of his life, just not for the two years after he turns 18, as Mr. Keyes recommends. Liberty means being entirely free, free of bedpan duty, free from a military draft, free from servitude.

The sooner conservatives like Mr. Keyes understand the true meaning of freedom, the better off this country will be.

Sandra Schwartz is past president of Second Renaissance Conferences.

The views expressed above represent those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the editors and publishers of Capitalism Magazine. Capitalism Magazine sometimes publishes articles we disagree with because we think the article provides information, or a contrasting point of view, that may be of value to our readers.

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