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Selective Sacrifice: Reagan Shoves Youth To Altar

By Bill Davis

The campaign being waged against young men who, for whatever reason, refused to register for the draft may be the most vindictive yet by the Reagan Administration. It may be the quietest, too.

Directed by Ronnie Reagan, this film about a firm president who made movies while the body count of American dead rolled on in Europe and the Pacific during World War II doesn't seem to have a happy ending for non-registrants.

Perhaps driven by his own guilt of missing out on "the big one", Reagan is assuring us that he will stop at nothing to see this crop of youngsters get a chance to fight in a war somewhere even if it takes a whole elected term to start one.

Using the ultimate legal tool of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reagan forces managed to overturn lower court ruling that allowed students to receive federal loans to attend colleges and universities with out proof of selective service registration.

A number of colleges immediately pointed out that they will not enforce the law for the federal government. According to Jerry Condon, a spokesperson for the National Office of the Coalition Against Registration and the Draft (CARD), a number of schools, including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and the 9-college system of the University of California have, or are considering, some type of loan program in place of the federal loan. The Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Mennonite Church are working towards a scholarship fund for non-registrants.

True, most of this information is available in some form to the public. Some people might go as far as to say, "Let them work for a living or earn the money to go to school." That, Jerry Condon, a former Green Beret who refused a second tour in Vietnam, is the most known result of the Supreme Court ruling.

Rarely reported in the draft articles is the information that thousands of young men who can't or won't be going to college will not be able to participate in federally funded job training programs unless they too register for the draft. This "rarely mentioned" group may eventually out number college students. Some relief may be on the way for both groups in the form of a lawsuit being prepared for them by the Center for Constitutional Rights in Washington. D.C.

Legal moves and counter-moves can be expected from both sides, while the Selective Service readily admits failings both administrative and numerical in this registration drive. If the government can't handle this stage, wait until they try to institute a draft!

Bill Davis
VVAW National Office