Page 4-Saturday, November 17, 1979-The Michigan Daily
The draft.may come back:
Wbr 3tcihian BazuI
Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom
Vol. LXXXX, No. 63 News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
PIR GIM
fights to keep it dead
By David DeVarti
and
Eric Larson
The London talks: A step
toward peace in Rhodesia
THEY WERE A tense 10 weeks.
Swinging back and forth between
promise and frustration, the talks in
London to end the civil war in Rhodesia
have occupied a quiet place in the
agenda of international affairs.
Perhaps because nobody ever expec-
ted any progress.
Ten tough weeks, though, have
sowed the seeds for eventual peace in
that bitterly divided land as members
of rival sides reached agreement two
days ago on arrangements for a tran-
sition from guerrilla war to all-party
elections. They met yesterday in Lon-
dbn to discuss a permanent cease-fire
t1 prepare the departure from 14 years
o war to a future of peace.
:The future seems brighter now than
it'did just a .few weeks ago. That was
When the British government's
proposal met heavy opposition from
the leaders of the Patriotic Front, a
stalemate that threatened to send
everyone home to continue the
fighting. But a few concessions here
and there and failure was averted.
What's most encouraging about the
settlement is that a framework will
r 6w exist for fair elections in that
e6untry, contrary to last year's hoax in
which Bishop Abel Muzorewa was
d4osen as prime minister. That elec-
4n may have seemed democratic in
tile eyes of many ,Western observers
but the Patriotic Front was unable to
participate. Many blacks support that
doalition, and thus had to.vote for the
ioderate faction lead by Muzorewa,
an Smith's black puppet..
-'The Muzorewa victory resembled a
gnificant change for many watching
the Rhodesia situation, but in effect, it
was no change at all. The whites, lead
j'y Smith-the. former prime minister
Who became Minister Without Por-
tfolio in Muzorewa's regime-still had
authority to reject any amendments to
[he constitution. It is a constitution
Against the majority blacks.
From the wages that workers
deceive to .the quality of education,
Smith
blacks have received a raw deal in
Rhodesia. Any hope for a progressive
change in that country's constitution
remained slim as long as the whites
maintained the final say on it.
But that is no longer the case. Accor-
ding to the arrangement just reached,
the whites will initially receive 20 of
the 100 seats in Parliament. To some
this may seem unfair since it would
be more democratic if the whites ear-
ned that amount of representation.
While this may be true, to fight for that
concession from the British and the
Muzorewa-Smith combination would
be more than these talks could handle.
Anyway, the new government that
would take control in Rhodesia could
move ahead to amend the constitution.
No one, however, should expect any
immediate changes in the structure of
Rhodesian affairs. The conference has
to settle the moves to achieve the long-
awaited cease-fire. British Foreign
Minister Lorl Carrington said yester-
day he expects those talks to conclude
in a "matter of days." That may be a
bit optimistic since arranging a cease-
fire can be a very delicate matter.
However long it takes, the London
breakthrough has been more than
anyone could ever have expected, and
it has the potential for peace.
When the 96th Congress got
started last January by in-
troducing no less than ten draft,
registration and national service
proposals in both the House and
the Senate, many did not take
notice. The SALT II and military
budget debate, however,
provided what draft advocated
felt was a climate conducive to
the draft and pushed for it with
vigor. Early last spring draft op-
ponents, antiwar activists and
young people who would be effec-
ted by a draft began organizing in
response to the threat.
Several summer demon-
strations throughout Washtenaw
County and the formation of the
Washtenaw County Against
Registration and the Draft
(WCARD) demonstrated signs of
growing antidraft activity
throughout the country. Early
September saw the defeat of the
first proposal to be voted on in the
Congress, when HR 4040 was
defeated by a 259-155 vote.
This margin of victory was
largely won through antidraft.
organizing activities throughout
the country. Several Michigan
votes were swayed by citizen in-
put, thus demonstrating the need
to remain involved and watchful
of the remaining proposals in
Congress. S109, a bill introduced
by Senator Nunn (D-GA) now in
the Senate, will be the next
proposal considered sometime
next year. S109 would revive
registration for all men age 18
through 26.
WHY WE DO NOT
EVEN NEED THE
DRAFT
The Democratic Study Group
in Congress, among others, has
analyzed the performance'of the
All-Volunteer Force (AVF) and
found that it is working. Contrary
to what draft advocates have
argued, active duty force levels
are being maintained at
authorized levels. While some
draft advocates have inferred
that initiation of the AVF has led
to a lower quality military, the
opposite seems more likely; sin-
ce the draft ended in 1971, the
amount of high school graduates
in the military has risen 9 per
cent and standardized intelligen-
ce test scores of AVF recruits
"Conscientious objection is a moral,
religious or ethical opposition to war and
a refusal to participate in it."
have shown a dramatic climb
since the end of the draft.
Although the Selected- Reserves
such as the National Guard are
below strength, the General Ac-
counting Office has recently
suggested a number of ways for
improving the efficiency of the
reserves through reorganization
and reform.
Perhaps most importantly, the
President already has the power
to reinstate draft registration if it
should become necessary. Both
President Carter and Defense
Secretary Harold Brown agree
that registration is not presently
needed. Once the order to
register people is given the Selec-
tive Service believes that it could
register two million people within
five days. The director of the
Selective Service maintains that
the agency can meet the induc-
tion needs of the Pentagon's wor-
st possible case requirements
without presently resorting to
registration the draft.
be considered.
A draftee would be given only
ten days from the mailing date of
the induction notice to prepare a
conscientious objection claim.
The long and searching questions
posed to conscientious objectors
by the Selective Service and the
very limited time allotted for the
preparation of claims would
make the status of conscientious
objector difficult to achieve.
Because registration proposals
now being considered by'
Congress present significant
hurdles for the potential C.O., it is
important for people working on
these issues, as well as potential
C.O.'s, to familiarize themselves
with the C.O. option and the
current threat to it.
COURT CASES .
EXTEND SCOPE OF
C.O. STATUS
Three Supreme Court cases are
of special importance. In U.S. v
THE CONSCIEN-
TIOUS OBJECTOR
CAMPAIGN,
WORKING TO
INVOLVE STUDENTS
PIRGIM (Public Interest
Research Group in Michigan
has been active in affiliation with
WCARD and MCARD in working
toward the September defeat of
draft legislation and in
organizing to defeat further draft
proposals. PIRGIM is currently
involved in a C.O. campaign to
educate people regarding con-
scientio(us objection. Using cards
provided by CCCO, the Central
Committee for Conscientious Ob-
jectors, PIRGIM hopes to solicit
a large number of commitments
for conscientious objection. For
each conscientious objector a
completed C.O. card will be sent
to CCCO in Philadelphia to main-
tain a record and a copy will beM
kept by PIRGIM-UM in Ann Ar-w
bor or another organization of the
person's choice. These records
will document for the conscien-
tious objector a long held belief in
conscientious objection should
the need to document a claim
arise.
The limited time alloted for
preparation of C.O. claims under
the proposed legislation for
registration necessitates the need
for those of draft age to
familiarize themselves with the
C.O. option available.
Registration proponents are
pressing hard for the \rein-
stitution of this unneeded system.
Perhaps no other issue affects
the student population more.
profoundly, and the need for
knowledge and action is vital.
Consequently, it is the student's
responsibility to become aware of
what is happening with the draft;
to assess the issue and take a
stand; to pressure Congressional:
representatives and to monitor
their actions; and to perhaps file
a C.O. claim if desired.
PIRGIM can help if you need
more information on this issue.
And we need your help in the fight,
against registration-we cannot
delay our need for action now.
CURRENT
REGISTRATION
PROPOSALS CAUSE
CONCERN FOR
POTENTIAL
CONSCIENTIOUS
OBJECTORS
Conscientious objection is a
moral, religious or ethical op-
position to war and a refusal to
participate in it. During the time
of a draft, draftees can qualify
for C.O. classification, thereby
not serving in the military again-
st their moral beliefs. Although
the Selective Service mechanism
r'emains intact in the law and
needs only Presidential
authorization to resume
registration, there is presently no
registration for the draft. Under
proposed plans for resumption of
draft registration no provision
whatsoever would be made at
time of registration for
registering any exemption what-
soever from forced enlistment.
Only at time of mobilization, that
is, at time of war, would con-
scientious objection exemptions
Seeger (380 U.S. 163 (1965)), the
Court ruled that an objection to
participation in war based on a
"sincere and meaningful belief
which occupies in the life of the
possessor a place parallelto that
filled by the God of those admit-
tedly qualifying for the exem-
ption" on traditional - religious
grounds was sufficient for C.O.
status. That is, a profound ethical
belief may be considered as in-
vioable as a purely religious one.
In U.S. v Welsh (399 U.S. 333
(1970)), the Court exempted
"from military service all those
whose conscience, spurred by
deeply held moral, ethical, or
religious beliefs, would give them
no rest or peace if they allowed
themselves to become a part of
an instrument of war." The
Schacter Decision (1968) may
have extended Seeger to enable
even avowed athiests to qualify
for C.O. status. The point to be
made is that conscientious objec-
tion is found not only in the
province of traditional religious
groups, but also in the secular
world.
David DeVarti and Eric:4
Larson are
PIRGIM.
members
of
I
the Daily:
,In their Nov. 7 letter to the
faily regarding the Klan mur-
Oers in Greensboro, N.C., the
$partacus Youth League made it
main point to call for opposition
gun control and to focus on ar-
med self-defense as key tactics in
.te struggle to thwart the Klan
ferror. However, while the right
to bear arms is a right that must
,e defended and maintained, the
necessity of a campaign against
$un control is hardly the main
lesson to be learned from the
Greensboro killings.
And it is simply not enough to
Invoke "mass action of the labor
mnovement" to defeat the KKK
_nd the Nazi Party on their own
-rounds. In fact, as evidenced by
Ahe KKK march in Dallas and the
,murders in Greensboro, the main
political base of these fascist
organizations is in the South
Ovhere organized labor is weakest
and, at this point, least able to
Letters
to
th~e
Daily
0
fight back. This is due mainly to
the existence in all southern
states of the Taft-Hartley "right-
to-work" laws which legitimize
overt union-busting there. It is
this political and legal att
mosphere-npt the legitimate
call to outlaw the KKK and Nazi
party-which emboldens the
Klan to attack trade union
organizers and sympathizers
such as those in Greensboro,
many of whom were active in the
Amalgamated Clothing and Tex-
tile Workers Union.
Michigan has the highest per-
centage of trade union members
in the workforce of any state; vir-
tually everyone here either
belongs to a trade union or knows
a friend or relative who does.
Therefore, if we are really
serious about stengthening the
labor movement in the South in
order to help rid the South and all
of the U.S. of terror directed
against labor, minorities and
religious groups, then we citizens
of Michigan bear a special
responsibility in this task. We
must help lead the effort to repeal
the Taft-Hartley anti-labor law,
to clear the way for organizing
the unorganized throughout the-
South, and. to politically
strengthen the labor movement
to go on the offensive and call for
outlawing the KKK and the Nazi
Party.
-John Keller
To the Editor:
I would like to commend Daily
writers Adrienne Lyons and Beth
Rosenberg for writing the
November 8, 1979 article entitled,
Cadavers: The cold, hard facts.
It is high time the general
public received a candid, but
truthful look at some of the prac-
tices that go on in one of the most
professional schools in our
university. The public has a right
to know the consequences of
donating a body to science-both
good and bad. If this article has
scared some of those persons who
were contemplating the donation.
of their bodies to science, well
and good. I hope this article will
help both medical and dental
students realize that the
profession they are attempting to
enter is an extremely
professional one-one that
historically has been dedicated to
the service of the public. This in-
volves being open, honest and
respectful to that public-those
dead as well as alive.
This article has helped to show
the public that the medical
profession is not one which
resides in an ivory tower, and
also, hopefully. it has helped the
medical students realize that
medical service is a demanding,
intense profession, one that does
not need unprofessional prac-
tices, even if they are behind
closed doors and beyond the
scrutiny of the public.
Thank you, Daily writers for
exposing such a gross discrepan-
cy in the medical field between
theory and practice.
-Janette Zichi
To the Editor:
As a fellow student of the third
year dental students, whom you
spoke of in your article entitled,
"Cadavers: the cold, hard facts",
I feel compelled to add definition
to the "facts" which this article
lacked.
The dental education, although
oriented toward the head and
neck region, is founded on a study
and understanding of the human
species as a whole. Obviously, to
develop an appreciation of the
human species, courses such as:
Human Physiology, Human
Pathology, Human Anatomy, and
the like are essential. In fact, the
Human Anatomy laboratory is
"the ground floor" of our
education! It is indeed a
necessity, but moreover, it is a
privilege given to us and the
other students of the medical and
health professions.
The mis-representation of the
U. of M. gross anatomy depar-
tment, its faculty, and the studen-
ts involved, that was reported in
your article is truely a sad and
poor example of journalism.
There is indeed, a great deal of
desensitization that is required
by the students and staff involved
in the gross anatomy laboratory;
which is surely understandable
for death is a difficult, and very
final thing. To approach the sub-
ject, one must pre-condition him
or herself in such a manner as to
keep on functioning to achieve
the goal of benefiting mankind.
Above all of this, I, in my
dealings in the gross anatomy
laboratory have neither been of-
fended nor have I witnessed the
comlete and total disrespect for
the humna body that your article
has reported.
-Jeffrey C. Knorr
The public is encouraged to submit letters to the
Daily which will appear in this space periodically.
Letters may address any topic, and must be typed and
signed. No unsigned letters will be printed.
M1
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