From Draft NOtices, May-June-July 2001
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Latest proposal would help the armed forces force their way into high schools.
Apparently, the Pentagon and its supporters aren’t satisfied with only using extreme political pressure to accomplish a military invasion of civilian high schools. They would rather employ a more familiar method: force.
That’s the underlying meaning of an amendment attached by Representative David Vitter (R-Louisiana) to an education bill that was recently passed by the House of Representatives. The amendment states:
Any secondary school that receives Federal funds under this Act shall permit regular United States Armed Services recruitment activities on school grounds, in a manner reasonably accessible to all students of such school.
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
From Draft NOtices, March-April 2001
- Rick Jahnkow
"[W]here military power is introduced, Military Maxims are propagated and adopted, which are inconsistent with and must soon eradicate every idea of Civil Government." — Samuel Adams, 1768
When the U.S. submarine Greeneville executed a rapid ascent on February 9 and speared the hull of the Ehime Maru, killing nine people who were on the Japanese trawler, it revealed much more than a tragic failure in seamanship and Navy equipment. For those who care to open their eyes, it also provided an example of the degree to which the U.S. has thrown its own national soul overboard and sunk into the depths of militarism.
Much of the attention and debate surrounding the Ehime Maru incident will focus on whether some piece of sonar equipment on the Greeneville malfunctioned or was misread by a sailor, or whether the choppy seas prevented a periscope sighting of the trawler before the submarine rocketed to the surface in an "emergency blow." What will be missing from the debate is any serious examination of the question of why the submarine was executing an emergency blow in the first place.
From Draft NOtices, March-April 2001
The extent to which the U.S. military has to comply with environmental laws varies from statute to statute. There are generally three ways they get around compliance with these laws: direct exemption, sovereign immunity, and the Unitary Executive policy. They are exempt from many important environmental and public safety laws, such as the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and sections of the Clean Water Act, and naval nuclear reactors are not regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Even when the law does apply to military operations, regulators have no ability to assess fines, shut down polluting operations or otherwise enforce compliance with the laws that cover the military. Communities neighboring military bases have less environmental protection than other cities in the nation. Until the military is brought under complete regulation, our public health and safety, as well as our environment, will be at increased risk from military pollution.
Read more: SUPPORT THE "MILITARY ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT"
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:
