Some months ago I blogged about a proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow the government to force all Americans into involuntary servitude (something currentlybarred by the Thirteenth Amendment). Unfortunately, Pres. Obama endorsed a similar program--though without the intellectual honesty of repealing the Amendment explicitly. And it appears that his plan is getting closer to becoming law.
This proposal, to force every American into "national service" against his or her will, is a direct violation of the Constitution of the United States, of the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and of the natural, inalienable rights of all. Whatever supposedly inspiring rhetoric might lie behind it, this proposal is nothing more than what Senator Charles Sumner once called "an outrage...[whose]ever-present motive power...is simply to compel the labor of fellow-men without wages!" That is, slavery.
