Lots of mail on today's column on Bush, the draft and national public service. A sampling:

From Richard Morrell, Lochearn:

I agree with the need for mandatory public service, but for somewhat different reasons. As we have expanded choices with cable television's hundreds of channels, xm radio, dvd's etc. the choices we have make any shared experiences rare - usually only great moments of disaster or of triumph. School and college curricula have become so diverse that the idea of a shared culture has become almost extinct. As a Vietnam era veteran (who was against the war) I came to the conclusion that had there been no draft there would have been few antiwar protests. The shared sacrifice that the draft brought insured that the country would not go blindly into an adventure however slowly the process took to affect change. I want the personal investment into the country that mandatory public service would bring, and I want the shared experiences that such service would also bring. I prefer no exemptions for any reason except physical and mental incapacity and I suspect it should be required at the point of high school graduation (or age of 18) for one or two years. I am less concerned about what someone does - military, Peace Corp, AmeriCorp, helping in schools, picking up trash, or anything else that contributes to improving the society - than I am about creating some sense of shared responsibility for each other and the country. As a child of the 60's I have come to believe that the worst thing my generation did was to discard the shared culture (it did need to be changed) and the the acceptance of almost anything as being of equal value and importance. We need some routine parts of life to bring us together and not just tragedies and reality shows.

From Jo Fisher:

Thanks for your stand on compulsory public service.  I've heard more than one college professor say that their best students are those who took a break between high school and college.  According to some of them. military service or voluntary service such as the Peace Corp results in more serious, dedicated students. I support Rangel's call for a return to the draft because I think we need to have a comprehensive discussion of how young people can benefit from serving our country and of how all of us can contribute to the current wars in ways other than putting "support our troops" stickers on our gas guzzling cars. I'd like young people to have a choice of how they serve our country but I also recognize that if the draft were reinstated, we'd be a lot less likely to go to war. One last thought - I am bothered by all the air-time the climbers who perished on Mt. Hood have received relative to that received by our military personnel who have died in the Middle East during that same period.  Those climbers elected to take that risk.  Our priorities sure are screwed up!

From Sharon Wright: I agree with mandatory public service but I disagree with  the military being mandatory. As a veteran I've always said I NEVER want a daughter of mine in such a controlled environment that doesn't allow creative growth. It should stay VOLUNTARY! This idea only started because recruiters target poor kids and the rich affluent are smart enough to find means to go to college and don't see the military as a desperate move as I did to excape E.St. Louis/St. Louis. I have told my daughters if they did decide to join the military get the education FIRST because the military makes promises it doesn't keep!