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Resisters face felony charge in draft issue
The fires of civil protest are again being
fanned by the seemingly inextinguishable draft
issue This week, beginning Feb. 28, all those 18
20-year-olds who didn’t register for the draft were
“technically" federal felons. The deadline for the
grace period was Sunday, yet, draft officials are
saying they will allow registrants a couple of
weeks, just in case they didn't “get the word."
According to reports, nearly a million poten
tial registrants failed to observe the Reagan ad
ministration's second deadline. That may indicate
those who chose not to register did indeed "get
the word.”
However, the Reagan administration's stand
has become tougher. Thomas Turnage, director
of the Selective Service, said, "the Justice
Department will initiate appropriate enforcement
action." That “appropriate" action for failure to
register is a prosecutable felony punishable by a
jail term of up to five years, a $10,000 fine, or both
Attorney General William French Smith has
promised to prosecute those who didn’t register
It is inconceivable that nearly a million regis
tration resisters will be brought to trial by the
government. The government will probably
choose a handful of cases to prosecute — and do
so in selected areas of the country. From the
government’s point of view, prosecuting a
registration resister may frighten those not yet
registered into compliance
The prosecution of registration resisters
amounts to coercion of those who oppose the
concept of mandatory registration.
All signs indicate that registration was the
precursor to reinstitution of the draft that the
government said it wasn’t. On March 20 the
selective Service will stage a “mock call-up" of
1,000 army reservists to test the system. A larger
“mock call-up” is planned for sometime this year.
Why would the government be testing the draft
apparatus and be willing to prosecute registration
resisters if a full-scale draft were not imminent?
Beyond all the rhetoric lies the individual’s
dilemma Groups such as Eugene’s Coalition
Opposing Registration and the Draft are against
the entire mechanism of government draft regis
tration, but it all comes down to the 18-year-old
either registering or not by the dictates of their
conscience No group, nor government, can die
tate what that decision should be. The
18-year-old, in good conscience, knowing the risk
involved, has to live with his decision.
Perhaps the conception that history repeats
itself is indeed accurate On March 11 an anti-draft
demonstration will be held at the Federal Building
in Eugene Add to this the reinstitution of the draft,
and a trial for a registration resister, and the 1980s
will resemble the 1960s It's a shame the same
ground has to be gone over time and again
<Hii MNAK
1WjP
"BUDGn" taHDuP AT THE t>OuBLE-R
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letters
!
Male curfew
I saw the male curfew notices
on the University campus and
after reading your article on
them, I feel the need to com
ment At first I thought that they
were amusing, but after thinking
about them for a while I realized
that they made an important
point I otten feel frightened on
the streets after dark Even
though a curfew for men may
not be a realistic answer,
hopefully the notices made
other people think
A group of my friends were
discussing the notices and we
were surprised to find that the
men among us did not realize
that even walking to a night
class is very scary. None of us
realized how common rape is
The poster pointed out that well
over 100 rapes were reported in
Eugene last year. That makes
more that two rapes reported
every week. It really makes you
think, doesn’t it?
Sarah Buckley
Sociology
Servile
Congratulations In their
servile desire to please their
peer group the editors of the
Emerald have missed the real
story of the Springfield
ratepayers march
The huge increases in some
electrical bills that brought peo
ple into the streets of Springfield
has nothing to do with WPPSS
In an attempt to conserve elec
tricity SUB changed the rate
structure so that the more you
use, the more you pay Con
sequently, some people are
facing bills in the $150-$200
range Termination of WPPSS
reactors 3 and 5 has not affect
ed electric bills yet and its effect
on heavy users will be much
smaller than the change in the
rate of structure
DeFazio, Ratley and Dix are
well aware of this, I’m sure They
care little for the Springfield
ratepayer; their only interest is
in their blind war against
WPPSS and advancing their
tacky political careers They are
engaged in the shabbyist bit of
demagogery I have seen since
the days of Richard Nixon
This is the real story behind
the Springfield protest, three
shameless politicians hoping
that people will be too stupid to
know what is really going on
Obviously they have guaged the
I.Q of the Emerald editorial staff
accurately.
Jim Linn
Molecular biology
Pluralism
Last October when Paul Olum
was formally installed as 13th
President of the University, one
of the inaugural events was a
symposium on the challenges
facing American public univer
sities in the 1980's Among the
participants in that stimulating
exchange of ideas were Harold
Enarson, president emeritus,
Ohio State Univ.; and William
Boyd, immediate past president
of the University
In their remarks, both Enar
son and Boyd included higher
education's responsibility to as
sist students to deal effectively
with problems of alienation and
questions of identity I believe it
was Boyd who asserted that
during the recent past we may
have "made a new god of plur
alism," and that universities
must help today's students to
see themselves as whole human
beings
I was reminded of those ob
servations the other day when
Los Angeles Mayor Tom Brad
ley, a black American, formally
announced his intention to seek
the Democratic nomination for
governor of California
When the matter of his race
was broached during a press
conference following his an
nouncement, Bradley respond
ed by noting that voters will
decide, as they have in several
previous elections in Los
Angeles, on the basis of
demonstrated competence and
the contenders' proposed poli
tical programs — rather than on
the basis of irrelevant factors
such as race
I applaud Bradley's wholistic
perspective ” And I shall con
tinue to encourage those of us
who belong to non-white Amer
ican minority groups to learn to
accept our racial characteris
tics as only one component of a
much larger mosaic of personal
identity
Ronald J. Rousseve
Professor of
Counselor Education
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