The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 15, Ed. 1, Friday, January 16, 1981 Page: 3 of 23
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Draft usually follows registration
To the Editor
The growing concern among high school and
college students about the return of the draft
following this summer's registration has
prompted us to prepare the following article for
the high school and college press. I hope you
find some of our material and ideas useful.
The Central Commitee for Conscientious
Objectors the nation's largest draft counseling
agency warned this month that the start of
draft registration has added to the increased
likelihood of an actual draft.
This past summer's draft registration of men
born in 1960 and 1961 was just the first step
toward returning to the draft. After January 5
men born in 1963 will be required to register as
they turn 18. It should be noted that the U.S. has
never had a registration without a draft and
rarely a draft without a war.
The need for young people to be informed and
to consider going on record as conscientious
objectors to war has never been greater.
CCCO has sued Selective Service for their
draft plans and learned that they plan to allow
registrants to claim hardship medical and
conscientious objector status only at the last
possible moment after induction orders are
issued.
Unless students begin to think about and
collect evidence for conscientious objection
claims and other options they are certain to be
caught unprepared.
There is also growing sentiment within
Congress to begin debate early this year on
whether a peace-time draft should be started. It
is important for young people to realize that
under the current draft law all men between
the ages of 18 and 26 are eligible to be drafted.
Also students should know that there is no
longer a college student deferment under the
new draft laws.
Young Americans must start thinking about
whether they could participate in the military.
CCCO has already registered over 20000 young
people through its conscientious objection card.
These cards are available free of charge from
CCCO P.O. Box 15796 Philadelphia PA 19103.
They simply state "Because of my beliefs about
war I am opposed to participating in the
military."
The usefulness of this card is that it provides
a record of an individual's opposition to war and
the military. This CO card will help to
demonstrate to the military that hundreds of
thousands of young people will not serve in the
military. Conscientious objectors along with
the large number of non-registrants and the
vocal anti-draft movement may deter
Congress from establishing a peacetime draft.
CCCO was founded in 1948 as the Central
Committee for Conscientious Objectors and is a
national non-profit agency counseling young
Americans facing the prospect of military
service or those already in the military.
Thank you very much for your interest and
concern.
Larry Spears
Director of CCCO's Youth and
Conscientious Objection Campaign
Philadelphia PA
The family's the last to notice
Mm
By MERLIN MANN
Optimist Staff
Answers sometimes don't come until you've
made your final gas stop on the road back to
Abilene. The family is now hours away and
sitting behind a steering wheel you've had
plenty of time to ponder.
Answers olten emerge
more clearlv when voiir
JF L riders are asleep when
Vf W you're alone and talking to
you think of things you
should have said when your
mother was asking when
you'd be home from your
date. Couldn't she see I've grown into my own
person now? I have new friends new activities.
I make my own decisions now. and I'm
responsible for my actions.
The family seems to be the last to notice.
Maybe you're more accepting now of the faults
in others. Maybe you're discovering the Lord in
a more personal meaningful way. Maybe your
self-confidence is just beginning to grow. You
can feel the changes - and it's exciting but
why can't they see them at home?
The first hugs and hellos were exhilarating
and stimulating. You notice the wonderful
things you always liked Dad's smile creeps
slowly and mischievously across his face. Mom
touches your arm when she speaks. Everyone is
eager to exchange news. But by the third day
the crisp smiles have-faded a bit and old habits
filter onto the scene.
Your sister still leaves her shoes in front of the
fireplace. Your brother still chews gum with his
mouth open. Dad still lets the fire burn low and
expects you to put on the next log. Grand-
mother still has the shrill voice that turns your
eardrums to mush. Mom still reminds you to put
gas in the car when you already intended to fill
the tank for them.
Holiday vacations can be so frustrating. By
the second week you're snapping just like
before: "Yes I will Mom. There's just two
minutes left in the game."
It's so hard to be different when everyone
treats you and expects you to be the same.
And once frustration has set in how can you
help but react when your brother steals a look
at your cards. You discover your patience and
your temper haven't matured as rapidly as you
thought.
How easy a few days later in the car to
think of things you should have said or should
have done. That planned talk with Dad didn't
happen. And you forgot to kiss your sister
goodbye.
Jesus knows the frustration of trying to
return home. When he was ready for his
ministry and returned to Galilee he wasn't seen
in a new light. Everyone knew him only as the
carpenter the son of Joseph and Mary .
Obviously. Jesus never received leg cramps
trying to drive across this endless state of
Texas but He knew the value of time alone to
think and pray. Maybe that's why today He can
still use those long stretches of highwa which
force vou into reflection.
Glfo ?P8g8ffio8ga
If time permits
By DOUG MENDENHALL
Optimist Editor
Fall 1980 was a three-week -long semester
for me. I looked up after one week and it
was already Homecoming. After two
weeks it was already too late to study for
midterms. A week later it was Christmas
Eve.
" I don't know what
flb happened to the other
KL 12 weeks of the
Pyv V semester. Maybe
r" . someone else had a 27-
Rf ' week -long semester to
Vp balance things out. Or
V l maybe the semester
rolled along at its usual speed but I was on
fast forward.
Just in case the spring goes by as fast as
the fall did I'm going to start right now
making a list of the things I need to do this
year.
1. Send out Christmas cards for I960. And
1979.
2. Find my way past the Browsing Room
of Brown Library. Actually I have been
further than that. I had to use the Xerox
machine once.
3. Either take up jogging every day or
start lifting weights. Or at least join an
intramural team. Or maybe just subscribe
to Sports Illustrated.
4. Balance my checkbook. If I don't do it
soon I'll have to change my major to
accounting just to figure it out.
5. Keep up with the assigned reading in
my classes. I understood and remembered
everything I read last semester but un-
fortunately my teachers didn't ask many
exam questions from the table of contents.
6. Learn to use an iron so I don't have to
stack dictionaries on my clothes to get the
wrinkles out.
7. Learn to type with all ten fingers. It's
embarrassing to be the editor of a
newspaper and not know which finger to
hit a semi-colon with.
8. Write all the people I owe letters to. I
think I'll answer the ones with the 13 cent
stamps first.
9. Straighten out my filing cabinet. It.
doesn't cause me any problems but the
folders labeled "miscellaneous" take up
more than half the space.
10. Replace the license plate that broke
loose and washed away in a rainstorm last
summer. The only thing that's saved me
from being ticketed is that police officers
around here are so surprised at seeing
Oregon plates that they don't notice that
one's gone.
11. Write the insurance company I've
dealt with for three years and ask them to
spell my name right.
12. Figure out what all the little buttons
on our office phones are for. Most of my
enemies are people I've accidentally hung
up on while trying to transfer calls.
13. Write this column earlier each week.
Last setnester I usually waited until
Thursday morning (after a sleepless
Wednesday night) and wrote something
that was humorous only because it was
incoherent.
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The Optimist (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 15, Ed. 1, Friday, January 16, 1981, newspaper, January 16, 1981; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth99571/m1/3/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.