From Draft NOtices, September - October 2000
November 7 election could provide an important lesson for students, parents and the general civilian community.
While most attention is focussed on the races for national and state offices that will be decided by voters this November, some of the most significant decisions will actually be made at a much more local level in school board elections — particularly in San Diego.
When it comes to factors determining the political and social climate of this country, the most basic factor of all is the way that young citizens are socialized into accepting or rejecting the status quo. And the most intense part of that socialization occurs in the school system, where young people learn values and lessons that will affect their attitudes and behavior far into the future.
The military knows this, which is exactly why they target our schools. The Pentagon is not just looking for a few qualified enlistees — it is pushing its way into K-12 schools on a massive scale in order to influence the political and social climate in this country. As a result, the prospects for progressive social change could be diminished for many years to come.
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
From Draft NOtices, September-October 2000
- Molly Morgan
A decade after the official end of the Cold War, the Pentagon budget is still astonishingly bloated and Congress routinely gives it more than they ask for. Military spending takes up over half of the discretionary federal budget — $305 billion in 2001. The next largest category, education, is only $42 billion. The U.S. military not only has the most advanced weaponry with the biggest stockpiles, but outspends every other country by an enormous amount. The combined military spending of Russia, China, and the seven "states of concern" is still much less than half that of the United States. While global military spending continues to decline, the U.S.’s share continues to increase; in 1998 it was up to 36%.
- -Ray Wolf
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VIEQUES: "Hey, how about some beads and a blanket for that island?"
From Draft NOtices, July-August 2000
-Ray Wolf
It has been over one year since David Sanes was killed by an errant U.S. Navy bomb on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques (see Draft NOtices, July/August, 1999). The killing brought to a head decades of frustration and resentment from the residents of Vieques and other Puerto Ricans throughout the islands and the mainland United States. Tired of being treated like a colony, tired of being exposed to toxic metals and chemicals, tired of having their lives endangered by stray ordnance, and tired of being treated as second class human beings, the people of Vieques, and Puerto Rico as a whole, united in an effort to force the U.S. Navy from their homeland. For a moment, there seemed to be a faint glimmer of hope for success. President Clinton ordered the suspension of military operations on the island while a study was conducted to determine if the Navy needs to continue operations on Vieques. Hopes were high. But it was not to be. The U.S. Navy resumed bombing operations with "inert" weapons on June 24, 2000.
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:
