Learn about each other

Editor,

One of the luckiest events of my life was being drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II. I say this because the Army exposed me to people from all walks of life: the rich, the middle class and the poor, people with college degrees, high school diplomas, and people with little or no education.

The experience opened my eyes and broadened my thought process. As a result I took advantage of the GI Bill of Rights and earned both a BA and MA after I left the Army.

As I look at and listen to the United States we live in today it is painfully obvious that far too few of Americans are getting the benefit of learning how the other guy lives and thinks. It is painfully obvious that class warfare is rampant in the United States. Millions of upper and middle class Americans simply don’t know how the less fortunate live or feel about our society.

Unfortunately, today’s wars are fought by young men from the middle and lower classes. The rich don’t need a GI Bill of Rights to go to school. And as Fresno State Anthropology professor, the late William Beatty taught in his Ethnic Studies class, they drive through poor neighborhoods with their windows rolled up and the sound system going full blast.

We need both the rich and the poor to have to live together and learn about each other.

To bring this about I propose universal military service. Every young American boy and girl would be drafted for two years of military service when they graduate from high school.

The benefits would be immense. Senators and Congressmen with children wouldn’t be so anxious to get us into a war when their own kids would have to serve. The children of the poor would earn GI Bill education rights and be able to get a college education. And the burdens of citizenship would be shared by all.

I rest my case.

Robert Latour
Porterville