Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)

: admincomd; Articles Archive; 01 July 2006; Hits: 3363

Why COMD Opposes the California Military Recruiting Opt-out Bill

From Draft NOtices, July-September 2006

At the time of this writing in early July, California Assembly Bill 1778 had passed the full state assembly, been approved by the senate education committee, and was on its way to a final vote this summer in the full senate.

AB 1778 says that if a school district collects emergency information for its high school students, the information card must include a notice that informs the parent or legal guardian and pupil of her or his right to request that the student’s name, address and phone number not be released to military recruiters or institutions of higher education. (The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has made it mandatory for schools to release this information unless a student or parent has opted out.)

Militarism Kills Whales

From Draft NOtices, April - June 2006

— Mernie Aste

Whales and other sea mammals are the “collateral damage” of the U.S. Navy’s use of low-frequency active sonar.

The struggle to keep the Navy from wreaking havoc on ocean mammals continues. As recently as January 30, 2006, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has written a formal comment in response to the Navy’s draft environmental statement proposing a 500-square nautical mile range to be used for sonar testing about 40 miles east of North Carolina. The missive warns that the Navy significantly underestimated the danger posed to whales and other marine mammals and used flawed science to reach its conclusions in a report on the use of the site for training sailors to detect foreign submarines that come near U.S. shores. In its own statement, even the Navy concluded that the species most likely to be found in this site off North Carolina include fin, humpback and right whales, all of which are endangered, as well as sperm, pygmy and beaked whales, according to PilotOnline.com.

The F-18 as a Theme Park Ride

From Draft NOtices, April - June 2006

— Susan Massey

A teacher’s response to the military in her school.

At the end of the last semester, the principal of the small rural high school where I teach Spanish and ELD announced that there would be a change in the exam schedule. (ELD — English Language Development — is what used to be English as a Second Language.) The semester usually ends by giving exams on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We go back the following Monday to start the new semester. However, this year the principal had run into someone from the Navy SEALs who had offered to help us celebrate the end of the semester by bringing a flight simulator to our campus. The only day they could come was on Thursday. Easy solution. Finals were to be moved up to Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and on Thursday the day would revolve around getting all the students onto the simulator, 20 at a time. Friday — well, Friday was just up in the air.

I was horrified. Our school has mostly low-income students and we are constantly visited by military recruiters. Last year we had a special program by the Blue Angels, who have their winter home 15 miles down the freeway from us. The idea that our school was welcoming recruiters so that they could bring in a fighter plane and teach our students that going to war was like going to Disneyland was outrageous. I railed on this topic to my colleagues, but only one shared my feelings. The principal was so excited about the arrangements she had made that I decided objecting would be futile.