PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

Two paragraphs from the Washington Post writer James Hohhman caught my attention this morning in his Daily 202 Column:

“Millions of young people lived in fear that they – or someone they loved – would have their number called, and they’d be shipped off against their will to the rice paddies and jungles of a faraway land for a cause they felt was unjust and futile. From 1964 to 1973, the U.S. military conscripted 2.2 million men – boys, really – out of an eligible pool of 27 million. This helped fuel the mass movement against the war.

“Young people today aren’t worried about being drafted to fight Kim Jong Un in North Korea. But many are palpably concerned that they or someone they know could get shot at school. High-profile incidents, culminating with last month’s shooting in Parkland, Florida, have shaken many middle-class kids, who would not otherwise be inclined to activism, out of their suburban comfort zones.”

Back in the 1970s, I was one of those million of young people – boys, really — a reality which became especially acute in the draft lottery when my birth date produced number 32. That meant I surely would be drafted and, if drafted, would likely end up on Vietnam.

That reality, which I heard on the radio when I was still in college in the summer of 1970, prompted me, the next day, to head down to the U.S. Army Recruiting Office in Seattle to try to sign up for the Army Reserve.

I thought I would be in a long line around the block waiting for the chance to enlist. No. It turned out I was the only one there and I immediately signed up for a six-year hitch in the Reserve, which was much like the more familiar National Guard.

What was my motivation?

I answer, without embarrassment, that it was to avoid being conscripted and sent off to Vietnam in what I believed then, and continue to believe now, was an unjust war….if war can ever be just.

My answer to the “just” question is yes, in the sense of what the allies did to counteract one of the most evil leaders in the world, Adolph Hitler. But Vietnam was nothing like World War II. There was scant real motivation for our involvement.

As students – and others – marched last weekend to express support for gun control, Hohhman’s perception is right. Note his language:

“But many are palpably concerned that they or someone they know could get shot at school. High-profile incidents, culminating with last month’s shooting in Parkland, Fla., have shaken many middle-class kids, who would not otherwise be inclined to activism, out of their suburban comfort zones.”

Kudos to the kids, I say.

They may have standing to counteract the counterfeit claims of the National Rifle Association that contends any gun control measures would trample on Second Amendment rights. The NRA’s answer to the Parkland tragedy? More guns – this time in the hands of teachers.

I wish the students success, just as I wished success for the demonstrators who opposed the Vietnam War.

The students – and those who support them – deserve credit for calling attention to the incredible tragedy of school shootings. Even writing those words tends to diminish the heartache of what has happened in America.

It’s past time to stop the gun craze!

I’ll give Hohhman the last word as he quotes former presidential candidate and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, himself a Vietnam War opponent:

“Every historic moment has its own power, and these young people deserve their own moment. Many of them have earned the right to be heard through a shared loss that innocents should never experience. Their moral clarity defies politics or partisanship. These young people have touched the conscience of the country about common sense on guns, and they have the power to make it a voting issue again.”