My biggest worry when I was 18 is no American’s biggest worry in 2025.

It was the draft. The Vietnam War was on – and I was one of my many peers who thought Vietnam was a stupid, evil idea.

And not just because being drafted to go to Vietnam would screw up my life plans. The idea of dying in a war about as far away from New York as possible, for no reason that I thought worthwhile, was about as pathetic a thing as I could imagine.

The draft was abolished just in time for me to miss it. I actually went through the lottery in 1973 and came up with 89 – out of 365. Those odds wouldn’t have been good. 

So I never served in the all-volunteer U.S. military.

Over the years, I’ve grown to respect and admire the men and women who serve because they believe it is what Americans are supposed to do. That was wrong in Vietnam and Iraq, as history has proven. But it reflects a love of country that seems honorable from here in 2025.

The idea of doing something for your country before you begin a lifelong career seems to be lost on most young Americans. It was tarnished by the Vietnam experience; many of the parents and grandparents of today’s teenagers are adamant that their kids not serve in the military, especially involuntarily.

But what if the draft wasn’t only for the military.

What if all Americans, by the time they turn 23, were required to perform some sort of national service. It could be in the military – there are millions of people who are inclined to serve that way.

But it could also be for purposes that don’t require guns. National service could be used as a conservation corps to maintain national parks. It could be used to help convert commercial buildings into affordable housing. It could be a way to teach underserved kids to read, to feed senior citizens and veterans.

It would be almost an extra education year that would come with some sort of renumeration. 

Why is this a good idea?

Three reasons.

First, it would put the energy and imagination of our nation’s young people toward solving problems that just never seem to go away.

Young adults would not do dangerous jobs. They would get some leeway in choosing the service they perform, much as those who sign up for the military now pick the branch of service they want.

In the process, they would challenge the way we do things and improve on them. They would be a force for the change they want to see in the world, taking responsibility for it in a way that getting a job out of school wouldn’t.

Secondly, it would give different things to different people.

For those coming from underprivileged backgrounds, a national service requirement would provide training and guidance that they’re not getting in school. It would give them an opportunity to find something on which to build a career.

As for the privileged, working a year in public service would show them how the things they do affect society on an interpersonal level. Doctors, lawyers, bankers, among others, often don’t understand how their decisions play with the people of a community. This would be a chance to see it at ground level.

When the draft existed, it was easy to duck if you had the resources. Example No. 1 is the current occupant of the Oval Office, who despite attending military school managed to get out of induction because of supposed bone spurs in his feet. (This is a man who his doctor currently describes as 6’4″ and 224 pounds, so his medical history might be questionable.)

This draft would not be duckable. If you have bone spurs, you can still work as a clerk in a food distribution warehouse. You can help sort stuff cleaned off a beach.

Finally, a national service requirement would provide something that’s been missing from the United States for a long time.

A sense of empathy for the other people in our country.

There’s this nonsense that stratifies the coasts from the interior, recent immigrants from people whose families came here generations ago, blue states from red states.

A national service requirement would force young people to interact with other young people from around the nation. New Yorkers have no concept what rural Wisconsin is like – Wisconsin farmers have all kinds of Fox News-induced ideas about the terrors of Manhattan.

In World War II, getting to know fellow Americans worked to create the most powerful fighting force in history – one that defeated fascism around the world. And that was with the kind of discriminatory laws that prevented everyone from taking part.

A national service requirement might help stop the nonsense that we’ve seen in this country this year. 

It’s probably never going to happen. But it’s an idea worth considering.

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