The Price Of Pacifism

To the Editors:

I refused to register myself for military conscription in the summer of 1980, because I was not and am not prepared to kill another human being or cooperate with a system whose goal is mass murder. I have written Ronald Reagan to tell him what I have not done, and sent copies of my confession to the Selective Service and the Justice Department. If the United States Government had seen fit to indict and prosecute me, find me guilty and then fine or imprison me. I would have felt that justice had been served. I would have welcomed the opportunity to make my oppositions to registration and the draft as clear as possible. As events would have it, I am indeed being fined, to the tune of $2500, but I have never set foot in a courtroom or seen asked by the government for an account of my actions. No witnesses were called, no testimony taken, no jury convened. Instead, I was refused all federal financial aid because I declined to return the registration compliance form sent to me by the financial aid office. The United States found a way to punish me anyway, when its constitutionally established procedures proved too cumbersome to deal with massive resistance.

The Solomon Amendment was found unconstitutional in Federal District Court in June because it violated the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. This ruling was overturned. But not everyone is as satisfied with the law as your article makes out. Is it right, for instance, that U.S. citizens are being punished under the measure without due process? Is it right to penalize lower and middle income students while those who can afford to do without federal aid remain unscathed? The law and its history encapsulate much of the present administration's hatred of dissent and disregard for the economically disadvantaged.

Granted, your news article (11/9/83, "Federal Linkage of Aid. Draft Increases Rate of Registration") focuses on how the vast majority of students are responding to U.S. strong-arm tactics. However, you quoted no one who was critical of the Solomon Amendement, except for a Boston Alliance Against Registration and Draft spokesperson, and even these ironic remarks on the amendment's efficacy were rather misleading.

The fact that the U.S.'s tactic is working is only part of the story. Lots of oppressive measures work, but it is assumed that people's resistance, community objections and philosophical protests are integral aspects of the situation, and will be reported. By punishing thousands of people without granting them a trait the government has succeded in serving its own interests and quelling dissent without the critical dialogue and messy public debate usually associated with courtroom proceedings. Especially in conditions like these, the writer was obligated to consider more than merely the bald fact of increased compliance. It would seem routine to interview a student who is actually being affected by the measure as long as there are apparently three of us here at Harvard. (My own status a resister, and as a man who is being denied aid, you could easily have ascertained from my past letters to The Crimson.)

Sure, it's unfortunate that the price of pacifism has just gone up, and in such an underhanded way, too. Some people will be faced with the difficult decision of quitting school and remaining true to their principles, or compromising in order to conduct their formal education. I have been fortunate and by working as much as full time in my one remaining semester I am just able to get by. If faced with the choice of leaving school or registering for the draft. I cannot say with certainly what I would do. Thus has the government succeeded in blackmailing people into acting against what they know to be right. I do encourage those others who can afford it. So refuse to sign their registration compliance forms (this path is open to women as well and demonstrate their opposition both to the Reagan brand of "justice" and to the business of killing people. Kenneth Hake-Wehmann `83-4