Resist Registration

DRAFT REGISTRATION is now an unhappy reality; the choice for 19- and 20-year-olds is no longer how to oppose passage of the law. Instead, young people now face a personal choice--whether to register.

We urge those called upon to register to refuse, and to refuse loudly. The arguments against registration are sound--it is militarily foolish, coercive, and motivated in large part by President Carter's re-election campaign. Registration now will trim by only a handful of days the time it takes to induct Americans--on that ground alone even former Calif. Gov. Ronald Reagan opposes the plan. As a sign of "national solidarity" in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, draft registration is a part of Carter's dangerously confrontational stance of reviving the cold war. And as a part of the Carter "doctrine" of military intervention in the Persian Gulf, draft registration represents Carter's failure to enact a sound program of energy independence.

Young people opposed to registration have not avoided their responsibility to dissent within the system. Hundreds of thousands have demonstrated legally. Others have lobbied on Capitol Hill, or written letters to Washington.

Now, when their voices have been ignored by older men intent on personal political gain and committed to a reactionary and senseless foreign policy, young people must continue the fight. Those who refuse to register should publicly explain their reasons, to local newspapers, to their friends, parents and Congressmen, and to local registration boards.

Registration is more than a personal problem--it is an integral part of burgeoning American militarism and a device that will make intervention in other nation's affairs more easy and likely, psychologically if not practically. Resisting registration becomes, on one level, a way of saying no to a system that places spending for military accumulation above spending for human needs, and of opposing a government that feels it has "no reason to apologize" for the damage it has done to the people of other nations.

REFUSING REGISTRATION is not a light decision--currently the law exacts a penalty of up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines for resisters. And if registration takes place over the summer, as seems likely, it will be hard for many young people to find the support they may need to make a hard choice and live with its consequences. Many will label resisters selfish, but the charge loses its sting in the light of the political selfishness that brought registration back. Those who resist a policy at high personal cost because they find it immoral and unwise are courageous next to those who legislate the fate of others for the sake of their own gain.

There is another probable cost to resistance. The societal upheaval that widespread and active opposition could produce is not something to be discounted. But it appears now that nothing short of it will suffice to change the minds of those who run the country. Furthermore, a climate of resistance to one abuse of contemporary society may bring to the surface needed discussion of other problems facing the country. A mass display of civil disobedience would offer America much hope along with its turmoil.

Many will argue that registration is only a first step that there is little need to resist until some civil servant starts pulling draft numbers out of a hat. Those who oppose the draft must continue political efforts to stop its adoption, but resisting once a draft goes into effect may come too late. It is time now to warn the nation that we do not plan to be used as tools in one man's political campaign or as cannon fodder in a war that can claim no moral justification. If the unhappy day comes when a necessary and moral battle needs to be fought, we will volunteer. For today, we say resist.