| Commentary |
■ Guest commentary
Campus Strike For Peace calls for full military disclosure
In the best definition of the role of the press
in America, thorough research would provide
citizens with the basis for making sound judg
ments as the primary engines of our system.
Unfortunately, the press more often provides
fuzzy details of decisions our servants have al
ready made, and fodder for gossip that distracts
us from effective participation. Through media,
we learn of decisions made by profiteers
without our knowledge and consent.
In a microcosm of this national dysfunc
tion, University students are upset with ever
rising tuition costs while their school is profit
ing, researchers are annoyed by the vague
language accompanying their projects, faculty
senate members are alarmed by the campus
administration’s consistently unilateral ap
proach to decision-making and graduate
teaching fellows and others are angered by
ongoing unfair treatment, low wages, poor
benefits and the increasing divide between
what is and what could or should be.
Our military exists to guard us, not to control
us or generate profit from our taxes. The United
States has supplied more than 200 wars since
weapons became its top industry after World
War II. Business in America relies on increased
profit margins; for the weapons industry, that
means permanent conflict.
The issue of military-funded research in our
schools is therefore vastly important to our
common future. The stated aims of the peo
ple now in control of our military go beyond
providing a reasonable defense to include
domination of the world’s resources. America
cannot be a great nation as long as its top in
dustry is making and selling weapons. We
must take the profit out of war or war will
take the life out of us.
Albert Einstein said, “Those who have the
privilege to know have the obligation to act.”
We in our schools are responsible for ensuring
an informed public and determining the way in
which research is applied.
The right approach in resolving this glaring
fault in our system lies in taking back our
country. The priority of weapons profit above
human prosperity must change.
Strike for Peace recognizes that in a repub
lic, workers work and students study not to
fall into permanent debt, but to secure a safe
and better future. We recognize that Ameri
ca’s foreign policy is incompatible with the
growth and security that education should
provide. We recognize that without vigilant
participation of the people, assisted by a dili
gent media, America falls from the grace of a
government of, by and for the people.
We call for military funding for research to be
frozen at current levels. We call for full disclo
sure of all aspects of on-campus military-fund
ed agreements in plain language that reveals
their true intent. We call tor the language in
volved in such agreements, including the def
initions of “weapon” and “unclassified,” to be
closely reassessed in an openly democratic
fashion. We call for a vigorous and competi
tive search for alternative funding sources to
disconnect institutions of higher learning
from the industry of war and reconnect them
to pure scientific research. We call for ad
vancements in technology to primarily benefit
people and secondarily provide a reasonable
defense based on protection rather than profit
and the rhetoric of fear. We call for public
servants to serve our interests.
Our thanks go out to the many people we
spoke with during fall term, and our hopes for
a better world extend to all for a safe and
refreshing holiday season.
Visit Brian Bogart’s Web site at
StrikeFbrPeace. org.
Protest targeted ROTC as well as military policy makers
I am writing in response to Gabe Bradley’s
article “You call this a protest?” (ODE, Nov.
22). I was shocked that the Emerald would
publish such an article that clearly has little,
if any, value.
For someone who describes himself as a
“huge fan of the First Amendment,” it seems
strange that he would bash those exercising
that right, even if he doesn’t agree with it.
Bradley’s assertion that the protesters “were a
world away from the policy makers” is true,
except the “policy makers” used coercion and
deceit to get us into this debacle, and they
have given up on the public.
What other course of action can be taken?
We all know you can’t have a war without
boots on the ground, and working to keep
young men and women from enlisting is, in
fact, a way to stop wars and prevent deaths.
Bradley’s logic is flawed when he asserts that
protesting the ROTC building and a recruitment
station is the equivalent of protesting the
troops. This protest was against the institutions
that help carry out wars, institutions that are
controlled by the “policy makers” themselves.
No doubt the protesters also agree that the sol
ders are brave and choose “the defense of free
dom as their profession,” but we should help
them in this, not stand idly by as our county
fights a war quite to the contrary.
As a side note, a vast number of those in our
armed services are in Iraq right now as a result
of things such as unemployment, money for
school, traveling the world, escaping from a
home town, supporting a family and many
other reasons. Many join to better their lives,
not because they are supportive of the war in
Iraq, but as a means to an end as listed above.
I like Bradley’s use of the civil rights move
ment as a measuring stick for this protest; he
seems to forget that on the first day of the
movement there were not millions, or even
thousands in the streets.
The civil rights movement, like almost all
others, started with a few who had a vision
for all. Bradley himself goes on to belittle
those who are fighting by arguing that the civ
il rights movement was trying to preserve
“God-given dignity,” and an anti-war protest
does not reach this level. If he truly believes
that life and death are such non-issues, I
would ask him to re-examine his thinking and
maybe stop by the recruitment office tomor
row and catch the earliest plane to Iraq. But
this won’t happen, even though he has a great
fondness for the First Amendment. He will re
fuse to take a side, by either signing up to go
to Iraq, or protesting the fact that we were
conned into going. It seems to me the only
joke is his article.
Benjamin McKechnie is a political science
major at the University and served six years
in the Oregon Air National Guard.
1
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