Rachel Maddow is Even More Brilliant in Person

This past Spring Break, I had the amazing opportunity to see Rachel Maddow speak at the University of Miami. Donna Shalala, president of UM acted as a interviewer/mediator of the conversation. My first impression of Rachel was, as superficial as this is, that she is much more petite in person that in real life. I feel stupid commenting on her wardrobe since she is such an intellectual person and one shouldn't be speculating on such frivolous things, but, it was super sleek outfit; blue, slim-cut blazer, fitted black blouse, blue jeans, and a huge white watch. (Sorry, she is one of my fashion icons so I have to notice these things).

But anyways, a lot of the conversation and questions were about Rachel's book, Drift, which I am currently reading. The book is about the unsettling shift in American military power that may be leading us into a never ending state of perpetual war. There are many reasons that this is occurring; post-effects of the overly-powerful Bush-Cheyney regime, LBJ/Vietnam era policies, and a plethora of fear tactics and glorified war strategy manuals. According to Rachel, one of the biggest reasons that there is a perpetuation of war is because of the lack of civilian involvement/awareness. Back in the days of WWII, there was almost 100% civilian involvement. I know from my own families experience that this was true. My granny tells me about how everyone would grow there own vegetables because they sent the canned food overseas to the troops. They'd have meatless Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to send that to the troops. My granny knew many women who got jobs when their boyfriends or husbands went to war in the factories making tanks and arms. My granny's brother enlisted and was sent to Germany. When America went to war before, we all went to war. Now compare that to today. How often do you think about the fact that we are in a war right now? How often do you see it covered on the news? I have sent care packages to my cousins when they were serving, but otherwise I've never sacrificed my food or money for the troops. There is such a disconnect between civilians and soldiers.
A student asked whether we should reinstate a draft because of this disconnect, the idea being that if we are all feeling the impact of war then we will be less prone to wanting to be in it. There are many problems with the draft, no doubt. But it is an interesting point. Maybe we've distanced ourselves too much from the people who are willing to die for us...