“Hell No, We Won’t Go”
The Covid Draft Dodgers
Many Americans refuse to sign up for the war against Covid. Defying vaccination and mask-wearing, they choose not to serve our country in a war that has now killed more of us than our deadliest conflict ever, one also waged among ourselves — the Civil War. Covid has also killed more of us than the combination of World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and our longest war, Afghanistan. Yet millions of Americans refuse to serve against Covid. In a very real sense, they are draft dodgers in the war on this brutal foe.
These folks proclaim they are patriots safeguarding personal liberty. They believe they are protecting freedom by not fighting a deadly foe that has already killed hundreds of thousands of their fellow countrymen, bringing suffering to millions and weakening America’s competitive strength. What would these anti-vax, anti-mask patriots say about Americans who refuse to take up arms against a common foe? They seem to think the war on Covid is so different from our other wars that one ought not give up anything. Turning President Kennedy’s inspirational words upside down, they say, “Ask us not what we can do for our country.”
Historically, Americans have united against our enemies. A few times we have later changed our minds about the wisdom of a war and regretted the patriotic fervor that drove us into it. Yet repeatedly we have been willing to kill and be killed, maim, and be maimed, and sacrifice our normal lives to safeguard this nation. In our most recent conflicts, the general populace has not had to worry about being conscripted for this service but has been able to delegate all the dangerous work and sacrifice to our volunteer military. But we always have expected loyal country-loving citizens to answer the call to arms.
I can imagine what the patriotic Covid draft dodgers of today would have thought back in the 1960s of a guy who defied conscription for Vietnam, instead opting for prison or Canada. Remember the righteous persecution of Muhammad Ali? The hatred heaped on less prominent dissidents? But there is a big difference between draft dodgers then and now: today they deny their responsibility to serve our country against a threat that has proved far more real, immediate, and deadly to us than the communist hobgoblin we imagined in Vietnam.
We have been asking little of the Covid draft dodgers — infinitely less than we require of a person facing military combat. They won’t even allow themselves to take a pinprick “shot” or endure the inconvenience of a face-covering. No one is asking them to risk death or a lost limb or even spend some time serving their country. The Covid draft-dodgers want to pay no price at all in a struggle to save American lives and prevent the other suffering wrought by this disease.
If the country ever again feels the need to conscript its citizens for a struggle against a foreign foe, the lesson these defiant Americans will offer a draftee is obvious: “Protect your personal liberty by refusing to fight. Don’t let the government or anyone else tell you what to do with your life. Don’t make any sacrifice at all to safeguard your rights as an American. Don’t give up one iota of your freedom. Only then can you be truly free.”
In the ‘60s I considered evading the draft because I had come to believe our war in Vietnam made no sense. However, the idea of abandoning my country was repugnant, so I gave up personal freedom, delayed my professional studies by more than two years and submitted to the draft. Compared to the thousands of individuals who made many big sacrifices, including the ultimate one, I was insignificant, and I ended up sacrificing nothing with my cushy, safe stateside assignment as an Army instructor.
But an immediate family member who supported the war saw heavy combat. While more fortunate than those who died or were maimed, he suffered a variety of debilitating health problems from his service, forever changing his life much for the worse. Yet he has never complained about the sacrifices he made back then. This year he readily accepted the Covid vaccination, seeing no conspiracy against his liberty or his health. And last year, early in the crisis, he decided to start wearing a mask. Unbeknown to him at time, that choice was just a little too late to avoid hospitalization from exposure to family anti-maskers who were attending church services where the rejection of masks was a red badge of braggadocio courage. Those family members should have been more sensitive to the relative right in front of them whose obvious health problems displayed an honest badge of courage — with silent humility.
This dear man and I disagreed over Vietnam — deeply. But like millions of others in this country we shared a belief in the ultimate goodness of America’s highest aspirations, and in the need at times to sacrifice personal freedom to preserve that freedom. We thought then, and still do, that this is a bedrock ideal of a democratic society. Optimistically, I believe the vast majority of Americans agree.
