Phyllis Schlafly is best known as the dragon-slayer of the Equal Rights Amendment. Unfortunately, the failure of the ERA facilitated radical feminists infiltrating almost every nook and cranny of our institutions with no counterbalance for men.
Had the ERA passed, there’s a good chance preferential treatment based on group identity would have rapidly gone the way of the dinosaurs. We, as a society, would have been forced to treat all of us with similar regard, concern, and respect. Men and women would have been treated more fairly with similar or the same benefits, consequences, rights and responsibilities.
Schlafly opposes women registering for Selective Service too. She, like radical feminists, asks special consideration to continue exempting women from registering for Selective Service, even though women can volunteer for military service and are an ever-growing part of our military, with some in combat positions.
Young men who fail to register for Selective Service can be charged, tried, and convicted of a felony. They can be imprisoned, face substantial fines, and be denied government benefits including student loans.
In her recent article, Who is Waging War on Women?, Schlafly says that assigning women to fight in ground combat is the “real war, with real guns, real bullets and real deaths.”
Women are now police officers, FBI agents, CIA officers, and other well-armed pistol-packing professionals; a daughter of a good friend of mine is on a major city’s SWAT team. All of which is nasty business with real guns, real bullets, and real deaths. We all bleed regardless of gender. Death comes for all of us. There is no valid reason to exempt women for registering with Selective Service.
In 1981, in Rostker v. Goldberg, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that since women were not allowed to hold combat positions they did not have to register for Selective Service because they were not similarly situated with men.
Marc Angelucci, Esq., NCFM Vice President, on behalf of the National Coalition For Men, recently filed suit against the Selective Service System for their refusal to require women to register. The Selective Service System moved to strike, primarily arguing the case is not “ripe” since provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2014 are pending implementation. A court hearing is scheduled in July.
Inexplicably, the Obama administration orders the military to open its doors to women in combat while simultaneously opposing requiring women to register for Selective Service because the issue is not “ripe.” Say what?
If that were not enough, Schlafly notes that the Department of Defense recommended establishing a Diversity Czar (officer). Schlafly is concerned that achieving “diversity metrics” (i.e., female quotas) will change all requirements that women pass the same tests required of the men, which will never happen.
No matter what anyone says, “diversity metrics” will embrace weakening of qualifications and standards; similar programs always have and there’s no reason to think allowing women to hold combat positions will result in anything different.
Weakening the qualifications and standards is the only way women will be able to pass the same physical endurance and conditioning tests as men. Men generally have more upper body strength than women and are physically stronger overall. So while it is true that women will be required to pass the same tests required of men, over time men will find it less strenuous and demanding to pass the same tests required of women.
The Diversity Czar’s allegiance to her feminist political affiliations will strain her sworn oath of allegiance to her county. Her appointment, as noted by Schlafly, may indeed “trump truth, honor, and common sense.” She will be the military’s chief “political officer” not unlike the one on the Soviet submarine in the movie The Hunt for Red October.
In an early scene Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) enters his cabin where at the Captain’s table sits uninvited the Communist Party’s Political Officer reading one of the Captain’s books. His intrusion into the small private space and personal belongings of Captain Ramius is his assertion of power. “I must oversee the stability of the crew, Comrade,” he says to Ramius, “I suggest we open our orders…”
The Diversity Czar is radical feminism’s Political Officer; her primary goal will be to ease the promotion of as many like-minded women as possible to the higher ranks, thereby gaining greater control of the military. Once installed, lesser political officers will follow and be attached to every unit in the military, the majority, or all of whom, will be ideologically beholden to radical feminist orthodoxy. The Diversity Officer is an affirmative action officer for women under a different name. There will come a day, like on the Red October, when commanding officers won’t be able to open or execute orders without the presence of his or her respective PO.
Regardless, there is no direct relationship between women signing up for Selective Service and reducing the standards for ground combat training, duty assignments, men or women volunteering for military service, or even being drafted! We haven’t had a draft since Vietnam!
Unless a draft is reinstituted, registering for Selective Service does not require anyone to join anything, including the military. But requiring women to register for the Selective Service does level the playing field by extending to men and women equal benefits, consequences, rights and responsibilities.
Having a Diversity Czar is something else all together. The DC will adversely impact the military, especially military men who will find themselves open to substantially more false accusations of sexual misconduct, domestic violence, and child abuse. Men will find promotions more difficult to achieve and being drummed out of the military for little of no reason a common occurrence.
A young man’s life can be ruined for failing to register for Selective Service; a young women’s life is unaffected. By not registering for Selective Service women enjoy more benefits with less risk; they are not faced with the possibility of being fined, denied various government benefits, criminalized, or incarcerated. Yet, they can volunteer for military service with full benefits. Women registering for Selective Service do not change the military in any significant way.
Hundreds of thousands of men have sacrificed life, limb, and family in the military. If anyone has earned special consideration it’s men, not women. All we ask is to require both men and women to register for Selective Service; or, end it, one way or the other.
NOTE: Phyllis, no one is waging war on women, not even 18-year-olds. I’m surprised that you muscled in on the tired feminist “war on women” ruse. I guessing you were being cynical. You know very well that if there’s a gender-war it’s waged against boys and men of all ages.
