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From: ag1v+@andrew.cmu.EDU ("Andrea B. Gansley-Ortiz")
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: MS letter (WARNING:strong words will be used)
Message-ID: <cbV9D7S00UzxI0wb5B@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 7 Jan 91 06:51:52 GMT
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[SOAPBOX ON]

    Just a little tidbit of information.
    The selective service throws away any cards turned in by women.  I
no longer have the phone number that I called to ask them, but I'm sure
I can get it again.  Or one could look in the phone book.
    Whether people believe it or not, it is discriminatory against both
women and men to have only one sex being drafted.  It is insulting to
both sexes to tell one (You're not worth a great deal to us, so we'll
send you to be killed) and the other (Oh, you just wouldn't be able to
cut it out there.)
    It is everyone's right in this country to be treated equally in
regards to the professional world (and the military is a profession.)
To say that women should not be treated with equal respect in the
military as men is, IMO ludicrous.  This will just drive what little
progress has been made in the military backwards.
    It is the right of every citizen to be able to serve their country.
And IMO, it is the responsibility of each citizen of this country to
serve it when called upon to do so.  This doesn't mean you agree with
the policies, or that you condone the behavior of the government.  It
only means that you are being loyal and trying to do your part.  Others
will definitely disagree with this opinion.
    I am a volunteer member of the military (at this point in time that
is redundant.)  I know many other PEOPLE who are also volunteers.  If
the military does not now discriminate against women entering the
military, neither should they keep them safe from the draft.  I consider
this a feminist point of view.  Others might not.
    If you've ever been in the military, AS A WOMAN, you know how
difficult it is to have people treat you as a fellow soldier.  Military
men, in general, have a hard time looking at women as soldiers who can
do just a good a job as them.  I've been told by many men (who haven't
seen combat) that they don't want women in combat and they don't think
it will work.  I happen to differ with thier opinion.  I also have
happened to change people's minds through my hard work and willingness
to be part of the team.
    I may not be able to lift the same things in the same way,  but I've
always been able to put on my thinking cap and find another way to do
it.  Just because a man and a woman achieve a goal differently doesn't
mean that the finished products aren't equal to eachother.  Nor are one
set of means better than another by the mere fact that one method was
done by a man and another by a woman.
    And this is where people really need to look for the equality.  Men
and women are not physically equal, but it doesn't mean that they can't
do the same physical tasks because there is always more than one way to
do things.

[SOAPBOX OFF]

Andrea Gansley-Ortiz