Both Their Names

Cedar Valley News
Friday, April 10, 2026
Both Their Names
By Dan Larson

My daughter Grace turned sixteen last month. My son Tommy is eighteen.

In December, Tommy’s name will be automatically entered into the Selective Service database. He will not fill out a form. He will not make a choice. The government will find him through its records and register him for a possible military draft. This is now the law.

Grace’s name will not be entered. The law does not require it.

I have been sitting with this all week.

Registering for the Selective Service is not the same as being drafted. The United States has not drafted soldiers since 1973. Tommy is not being called up. He is being placed on a list in the event the nation ever faces a crisis severe enough to require conscription. I understand the distinction.

I also understand what it means to a father to know his son’s name is on a list his daughter’s is not.

Karen Ames has been with the Cedar Valley Fire Department for 11 years. I built her family’s house. I watched her put on the gear and show up for this town the same way Dale Rusk does, the same way Tommy Huang does. Nobody in Cedar Valley questions whether she belongs there.

Last November, the Church I belong to announced young women may serve full-time missions at eighteen — the same age as young men. I told Grace about it the evening the announcement came. She looked up from her homework and said, “So, I could go when I graduate?” I told her yes, she could. She went back to her homework. But I saw what crossed her face before she did.

She has been watching the doors. She has been watching to see which ones open for her and which ones do not.

I find myself holding a question.

A man I respect, a good man, told me this week he thinks the exemption makes sense. Women bear children, he said. You do not put the people who carry the next generation on a draft list. I have heard this argument before. I do not dismiss it.

But Karen Ames does not have children. Neither does the woman who graduated from West Point, flew helicopters for eight years, and now runs a logistics company in Denver. Neither does the Peace Corps volunteer who spent two years building water systems in West Africa, came home, and ran for city council.

The argument reaches for a principle and lands on a category. The category does not hold.

 

Congress passed the automatic registration requirement tucked inside a defense bill. No floor debate. No hearings. The question of whether women should be included was raised and set aside. Not resolved. Set aside.

In my experience, questions set aside do not go away.

Rebecca asked me this morning what I was writing about. I told her. She was quiet for a moment, and then she said, “You should ask Grace.”

I did. I asked Grace how she would feel if her name went on the same list as her brother’s.

She thought about it for a while. Then she said, “I think I would want it to be my choice.”

That is not a policy position. It is a sixteen-year-old’s honest answer about dignity. She was not saying she wants to be drafted. She was saying: If there is a weight to be carried, I want to decide whether I carry it. I do not want to be excused from the question before I have had a chance to answer it.

I have been building things in Cedar Valley for thirty years. I have asked a lot of people to carry their share. The ones who do it best are not the ones who are required to. They are the ones who chose.

Grace already knows this. She learned it here.

I’m not sure what the right answer is. I know both my children are watching what we decide.

Cedar Valley has never been short of opinions on things worth deciding. If you have one on this, the Facebook group is open. I will be reading. https://bit.ly/40p8jKy

This editorial is part of the fictional Cedar Valley News series, written by Evan Swensen, Publisher, Publication Consultants, and Claude Marshall, AI Developmental Editor. While the people and town are fictional, the Selective Service automatic registration law, the missionary age announcement, and all service program details referenced are real and accurate as of April 10, 2026.

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