Uncle Sam wants you -- online
Starting Wednesday, any man between the ages of 18 and 26 who has a social security number and access to a computer can register for the draft online at the US Selective Service's Web site. "This will be real, interactive, on-line registration," Gil Coronado, director of the Selective Service, said in a release.
According to the Selective Service, about 13.5 million men between the ages of 18 and 25 are currently registered. That means some 97 percent of men between the ages of 20 and 26 are legally registered. Failure to register is a felony.
But lest anyone fail to appreciate the advance over the bad old days when would-be draft registrants had to traipse down to the post office, mail in registration forms, and wait two to three months for acknowledgement of receipt, the Selective Service is staging a capital "E" event to make the point.
The big switch
"At 10:30 a.m. (EST) on Dec. 2, a senior US government official will throw a 'switch,' at a Virginia high school," reads a Selective Service System press release. "Instantly, millions of young men will find it much easier to fulfill a civic and legal responsibility."
As soon as the "8-foot-high, old-fashioned, symbolic switch" gets thrown, a passel of 18-year-olds from George Mason Senior High in Falls Church, Va. will race each other to become the "very first man to register on-line with the selective service." Registrations will be acknowledged within two weeks.
Ashley Craddock is a freelance writer based in San Francisco.
More details to follow.