Matt's Making His Mark

Great news. Matt Shafer has begun to make his mark on the culture of Yale University. He has co-authored his first guest editorial in the Yale Daily News. "Shafer and Wittmer: Our silence is not agreement", re: student silence on the wars in Iraq and Afganistan. You can read it at: www.yaledailynews.com September 16, 2009.

As a freshman life is very busy; it must be, it took Matt a whole 3 weeks to make his mark! :-)

Good editorial Matt. As the two of you said these wars do not directly impact student life, unlike your grandfathers generation. My 1st real introduction to national political life was back in '65 when I joined a large number of students at my university in planning a take over of the administration building, to protest the War in Vietnam. Our motivation? A certain level of idealism, blended with realism; the draft was actively taking guys off US streets and putting them on the sreets, roads and fields of Vietnam.

I'd like to think that the efforts of those who opposed the war helped sufficiently sour Americans on use of the draft that today it is politically a third rail issue. I'd like to think that we have made our world a bit safer for our grandkids, who are free to chose to serve, or not to serve. Those like Matt who take principled opposition are not forced to serve against their will, or like other 1000's of our generation, to go underground or leave for Canada to avoid the draft, (not always, of course, for idealistic reasons to be sure.)

Were the draft actively used today, on the one hand, the two current middle east wars would have many more active participants, reducing the number of multiple deployments, which would be a good thing. On the other, were it a real factor in the lives of Matt and his generation, I strongly suspect many of them would oppose it as mightily as many of us did in our time.

Even Dick Cheney et. al. had enough brains to not to try to use the draft in their war effort to gain control over the oil reserves of Iraq. I believe this is one positive legacy my generation left to our grandkids. Enjoy your freedom Matt et. al.; many of your grandfathers generation had to confront their deeply held principles to either volunteer to serve in the war effort or step up to oppose our nations involvement, each group following the dictates of their consciousnesses.