LETTERS: INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE FOR STUDENTS

To the editor:

Curiosity and a little research revealed a startling fact to me that should interest all those who are not brain dead. It was reported in the news media that some, if not all, high schools in Chicago were requiring all seniors to perform some act of community service before they could receive their diplomas. Bear in mind that this was after they had completed all required studies and earned the required credits with passing grades. So they were already entitled to a diploma.

I consulted a dictionary, and it defined involuntary servitude as slavery. Next I researched the U.S. Constitution. I wasn't surprised by what I found in Article XIII, Section 1, but it served to prove what I already thought. It states:

Slavery Prohibited: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Where is the crime these seniors committed? Is complete their required studies a crime?

Our esteemed representatives in government continuously try to brainwash the citizenry into believing that the only form of slavery is black people picking cotton. And they are right to denounce it, but that was around 130 years ago, and it's all over now. It's getting to be a tiresome subject, and they should be turning their attention toward the present-day attempts to reduce our schoolchildren to slavery. Our representatives have a deceitful habit of calling things by a different name and thereby making the unwary believe it is different. But you can call a horse a cow 365 days a year, and it still remains a horse.

RAY UMBDENSTOCK

Cape Girardeau