From Draft NOtices, January—March 2008
— Michael Lujan Bevacqua
A part of the U.S., yet apart from it; a colony in a world where colonialism supposedly no longer exists; the “tip of America’s spear” in Asia — welcome to Guam, USA. This is a place where the residents, including its indigenous population, the Chamorros, are U.S. citizens, yet cannot vote for president and have no voting delegate in Congress. And notwithstanding the promise of American democracy, all federal laws apply to Guam and supercede all local laws.
Despite this colonial relationship, or perhaps because of it, most U.S. Americans know nothing about Guam – not only that it is a colony, but that it is their colony. The place of Guam in the U.S. American consciousness is constituted through a paradox of everyday popular ambiguity and ignorance along with an almost solid military certainty. Because of this, in U.S. popular culture (such as blogs, movies, newspapers, magazines, and novels), Guam has been represented as literally anything – a foreign country, a tropical paradise, an island full of cannibals or exiled homosexuals, and Guatemala.
If the average U.S. American is unaware of or unclear about Guam, this perspective is not shared by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), for whom Guam is one thing only: a military installation. From the moment it was first taken during the Spanish American War in 1898, in order to provide a transit point for U.S. military and economic interests into Asia, this mindset has governed U.S. policy and control over the island.
In the century since it was taken, Guam has played a critical role in every U.S. conflict in the Asia-Pacific region, including as a forward base; a site for the transportation of U.S. troops and bombs into Japan, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East; and a transit site for the evacuation of refugees from Vietnam, Iraq or Burma. This role continues today, evidenced most recently in the magazine Foreign Policy, which listed Guam as one of the six most important U.S. bases in the world.
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
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Criticism of JROTC Program Leads to Gag Order and Investigation by San Diego City Schools
From Draft NOtices, July-September 2008
— Paula Hoffman
Crawford High School, 900 Building; Hoover High, 800 Building; Lincoln High, Room 1416; Madison High, Room 206; Mission Bay High, Room 162; Serra High, Room 415; Morse High, JROTC Room. If you would like to see San Diego high school students learning to use guns, these are the locations of some of the shooting ranges on our campuses.
The San Diego community at large, grassroots organizations, parents, teachers and students all understand the absurdity of having weapons training on San Diego high school campuses. Readers of this article undoubtedly recognize the same. Amazingly, the San Diego Board of Education does not see the contradiction in enforcing “zero tolerance” while at the same time promoting target practice. Or is it that they are too afraid to enforce the zero-tolerance principle when it comes to a military-sponsored program? Eleven out of the thirteen San Diego high schools with JROTC have weapons training programs. And these gun ranges are not located at police or military facilities, but rather on public high school grounds!
Since its formation in October 2007, the Education Not Arms Coalition (ENAC) has campaigned for the removal of weapons training from all San Diego City schools. In response, it has been hearing outrageous justifications for the shooting ranges from the Board and JROTC instructors. “It’s an Olympic sport.” “It helps with stress levels and teaches concentration.” “Students can get scholarships just like in any school sport.” Do they really seriously believe these absurd rationalizations?
From Draft NOtices, July-September 2008
— Mernie Aste
Following a recent vote by the San Francisco School Board, students in San Francisco can no longer get physicaleducation credit for the military’s JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps). The San Francisco Chronicle states, “The 4-1 vote will likely cripple the 90-year-old military education program that serves 1,200 students because most use it to satisfy their PE requirement.” Cadets currently in JROTC attended the meeting in uniforms to show their support for the program. San Francisco School Board member Norman Yee was quoted as saying, “This is an emotional issue for many people.”
Within that same month, the Long Beach Board of Education unanimously decided to no longer count JROTC (along with dance, drill team and marching band) toward meeting P.E. graduation requirements; while the California Department of Education has required that P.E. classes address all state standards and be taught by teachers with P.E. credentials.
Ninth CIRCUIT COURT RULING: CONFRONTING MILITARISM BY USING EQUAL ACCESS TO HIGH SCHOOLS
When the military comes to your local high school, you have a legal right to give students an opposing view. This has been the position taken by federal district courts in Florida, Pennsylvania and Illinois and two federal appellate courts. The most broadly-worded decision came from a case that COMD took to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the 1980s. Here is the background:
