If it makes you feel better, I went to the post office and filled out the form and then when I got a federal-related job twenty years later, nobody could find it. They took my word that I had.
I talk a good game on the internet and around the breakfast table, but I'm not a real activist at all - I go to the occasional protest and give small amounts of money to candidates and causes, but mostly I live my comfortable middle-class life and don't do shit that does much good for the world. Sally has become much more of an activist than I ever was, and I am so proud of her for it. (Newt, good politics, paying more and better educated attention than I was at his age, but less engaged than his big sister.)
I too would like my kid to be an activist who above all stays safe. I can't bear the idea that he could come to harm.
But since he's trans and 22, he's not likely to be safe, not in this world.
He does choose the protests he attends with a certain amount of care. And he lives in Gayetteville, the only (semi) LGBTQ-friendly town in Arkansas.
It's weird. If you talk about your ideals in front of children, even if you don't live up to them yourself, there's a good chance they'll believe you.
I think I'm about the same age as political football, and our political views in the 1980s were fairly similar, but I took the path of least resistance and registered for the draft. I don't remember it ever coming up again.
My kid is very interested in saving the environment and, at the same time, doesn't like to go outside.
It turns out that I'm more of an activist than I ever thought I'd be, but I mostly fell into it. I don't go in for protests much, but my career path has evolved such that a lot of the work I do in my business directly supports efforts toward world peace, which is nice. And then I got myself elected to a minor local position, which I never actually realized was possible until I did it. That opened up a lot of doors, and now I've got activists coming to me with various requests/demands on a range of issues. I'm always happy to do what I can, which somehow seems like its never enough. And it hasn't always felt safe.
I try to make sure my kid sees all of this and I hope he's getting it through osmosis. Like all of us, he'll have to figure out his own path toward making a difference in the world. He does seem to have the desire. But, again, its getting him to go outside that's tough.
It's very strange that Republicans' strongly-held beliefs about minimizing government waste, fraud, and abuse never lead them to suggest eliminating this completely superfluous registration system. I wonder why that is?
It's very strange that Republicans' strongly-held beliefs about minimizing government waste, fraud, and abuse never lead them to suggest eliminating this completely superfluous registration system. I wonder why that is?
I live similar to 2, and don't look forward to kids, so that's largely where I settle. My Dad was similar; he fought hard within his teacher's union, but it rarely spilled into rallies or politics. He was a believer in education and providing information to reach the right conclusions. His kids turned out 50% matching politics, but none of us is very plugged in.
9: Back in the 80s, I think lots of them did.
Back in the 80s, some of them might have had actual principles.
My selective service registration predated the automaticity and resulted in a truly hilarious name for my bithplace--which started out pretty funny, as it was.
If you're from Gross, Nebraska, we're almost county-buddies.
Two of us 4 kids ended up in labor movement jobs and a third in non-profits, which is interesting to me. We didn't grow up in a union household and my dad worked for an oil company and voted Republican.* We did go to a do-gooder UU church and imbibed civic participation principles from my parents. We never did activist stuff until my mom went a little radical in middle age and started cooking at a soup kitchen founded by anti-war activists. She and I got arrested together when I was 14 at a protest against Reagan's SOTU address.
In my 20's and 30's I was an active activist and organizer but I'm not much of one anymore outside of work-related things. But we take the kids to some protests and I think have successfully imparted the idea that we all have some responsibility for other people. Kraabniece #1 helped start a DSA chapter at her college before the world shut down, of which I am enormously proud.
*Not anymore.