McCOMB - I don't know state Rep. John Mayo of Clarksdale - never met the man so far as I can recall.
But I have come to a preliminary conclusion - based on a few news reports I have read about him over the past few years - that he possesses an uncommon amount of intelligence, wisdom and integrity when measured against the average of those attributes in the Mississippi Legislature or the United States Congress.
His opinion at times is not in the majority when it comes to voting or speaking out at the state Capitol. That's OK with me. Mine's not either.
The latest thing I read about Mayo was actually written by Mayo - a guest commentary in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, wherein he advocated a return to the military draft.
I liked it because it expresses many of my thoughts on the quagmire this country finds itself in Iraq.
Mayo posed these questions at the beginning of his column: "When do we win? What do we win? When do we leave? When is the phrase 'we are doing a lot of good over there' no longer enough to justify the next soldier killed in action?"
The legislator, himself a veteran, wrote that "more than 35 years ago from a rice paddy, I wrote a letter to the editor of The Clarion-Ledger chastising 'the American media' for their reporting on 'my' war. I outlined a lengthy list of good deeds we were doing for the people of Vietnam. The longer I remained in Vietnam, though, the more I realized that 'doing for' was not the same as reducing the threat of 'the commies' from invading the U.S. The more I re-read that letter, the more somber about Iraq I become.
"Those people who say one cannot compare the two wars are correct. In a democracy such as ours, all persons, we like to think, have an equal voice. And for nearly 200 years, the draft offered assurance that all Americans had an equal opportunity to defend our country and our freedoms. The end of the draft after Vietnam brought with it an end to equal opportunity to protect democracy and liberty.
"Today's volunteer army is not in the best interests of a democracy. A volunteer military does not allow enough people to answer the questions" posed at the beginning of the column.
Mayo continued: "A military draft assures all Americans have an equal opportunity to defend and die for our own liberties or someone else's freedom from oppression. A military draft assures that a president thinks twice before fabricating 'intelligence' or allowing himself (or herself) to be duped by 'intelligence' personnel in order to justify war. A military draft brings democracy to the political decision-making process to go to war.
"We are not at war in Iraq to defend our freedoms. If we were, every red-blooded American male who has rattled the sword for war would line up at the recruitment center to go off to battle to defend his loved ones."
Mayo admits that "we are doing good for Iraqis. Yes, we are bringing good water and schools to Iraqi children. And, yes, we are introducing American values to an oppressed people. But, with our money, we are doing the same in Communist China without loss of a life. We are doing the same in Vietnam and we have not lost a life there in more than 30 years."
Asserting that the Iraq war never would have begun or would have been over by now had there been a military draft, Mayo concluded:
"At some point 'doing good' is not enough to justify the loss of another American soldier in Iraq, unless we have an equal opportunity to die to 'do good.'
"If Americans are not ready for an equal opportunity draft, it's time to call it a day and come home because most Americans sacrifice nothing for the outcome of the war, or worse yet, are just plain clueless on the war.
"The people who volunteer can't do it alone, forever."
