Thun'doy May 19. WW

SCARLET AND BEACK

Love is the Only Salvation

By BOB VAN WYCK

! am presently seeking Conscientious
Objector status with the Selective Serv-
ice. I have come to the realization that
I cannot participate in a military ma-
chine which wantonly destroys human
lives. I object to war in any form on
the grounds that all war is a negation
of love, and love is, I feel. the only
salvation of mankind.

I wish I had thought about the CD.
alternative years ago. but at is i knew
very little about myself and my relation
to the world. I think that naivete is a
legitimate reason for not requesting a
8.0. at 18, but few draft boards do.
Most draft boards feel that CO. status
belongs only to a few indoctrinated
youths; they feel there is no real in-
dividual decision involved. Believe me,
there is — and the decision is a rugged
one.

The idea that 0.0. status belongs to
a Ielect few is not limited to draft
boards. Many students have the same
misconception. An examination of re-
cent Supreme Court cases, particularly
the Seeger decision, reveal that many
more persons are qualified than apply.

The court has considered the Su«
prune Being clause, and insisted only
that the beliefs of Ihe individual must
be parallel to those focusing on a
Supreme Being in an orthodox rar
ligious system. in other words, a be-
lief, religions in nature, which oocih
pics the same place in an individual‘s
life as does a Supreme Being in the
ills of u person obviously qualifying

for the 0.0., legally satisfies the re
quirements.

Since the Seeger decision, Congress has
reiterated its insistence that 0.0. status
be “by reason of religious training and
belief,” and not “essentially political,
sociological, or philosophical views, or
merely a personal moral code." Cases
which further test the legality of these
restrictions are pending in the Supreme
Court. The insistence upon religious
training and belief is designed by Con-
gress to give a draft board guidelines,
and to make the individual tie his be-
liefs to an individual background,
against which his sincerity can be eas.
lly judged.

It must be stressed. however, that
no particular type, formal or informal,
of religious training and belief anti»
matically excludes the possibllilty of
attaining C. 0. status. One need not be
I devout Quaker to quality. Until you
read a wide range of material of
the CO. position, for God’n sake
don't automatically presume you’re
illeligibie.

Anyone who is interested in seeking
alternatives to the draft should look into
the possibilities of obtaining C 0. status.
You can get a C.0. handbook from
any local draft counseling service, or
for $1 from the Central Committee for
Conscientious Objection, 2016 Walnut
St., Philadelphia, Pa.

If you feel you conscientlolmiy ob-
ject to war, start planning NOW!
Don’t waitl You have as much right
as a draft board to decide the course
of your life. Perhaps even a little
more.

Best Wishes
For a Happy Fuiure

TOWN 8c COUNTRY

BEST WISHES
CLASS OF '69

Moyer’s East End Grocery

If You've Walked
a Mile for Your VB.A.
COME SEE US!

Moyer's Shoe Service

Wnside is Out
And Your Outside is In

So Come On

By RICK EXNER

It seems a bit strange to be writing
to other people when I can hardly talk
to myself most of the time. The truly
public poet is a prostitute. But words
proceed, as a certain knowledge lives
apart from feeling.

You hand in the last paper and you
realize that you can die. You have
completed the required portion of life
and are now on your socalled own.
You will take a number of breaths and
then you will meet your Maker.

Certainly every graduate isn’t so
badly-off. A lot of us have plans. I am
talking about those of us (or that part
of us all) who are simply wanting to
know what we want, and who have
spent the year trying to calm down
enough to ask the question. This college
is a thinking place, not particularly a
knowing place, You think in the biol-
ogy lab. You know at the bio. preserve.
For a second we all knew in Gates
Lounge. Today in Montezuma we tried
to decide whether Jim Lew actually
could have seen part of Molly Mal-
colm’s left breast. The Jury bites its
corporate lip, and next year the sociol-
ogy department comes to the aid of
social change by offering courses an-
aiyzing the neuroses of the New Left.
Never a word of actual criticism, you
understand; the social sciences recog-
nize no absolutes. A community or man
based on moral principles?—classically
pfimitive!

I was a guerrilla-taxi driver Saturday
when the red sun came up. Mist lay
thick in the lowland and haii—a-tree up
off the plowed flats. Driving back alone,
I wondered at my ability to hold the
mustang on the road. Who — me will?
I mean, it's been a long time. Why, I
could turn around and be on the beach
in thirty hours. I could just go, mani
New respect for the bike guys and my
friends going to Canada. Understanding
your life through the pattern of your
reactions to the environment. Maybe
the next»best thing to knowing.

But this place of writing is dedicated
also to the stationary knowers: dog
lovers, nighthuwk-heroed cottonwood
confidante. and liberated inscmnlacs in
the ring with Christians. It is to us
when we are not too preoccupied with
being impressive and un»up-tight to have
a truth live and a little beauty to give
to another traveler. it is trying to be
about how incredibly sensitive we all
are really.

I am the Wednesday-night-Longhom—
foiksinger. One night this spring about
12:30 I’m playing along to myself and
this old guy walks in and asks for a
beer at the bar. I'm doing “I Was Born
in East Virginia" — is personally favor-
ite song this year. I’m into it, and after-
ward the old man gives me the first ap-
plause of the evening. Everybody else
motionless. and he’s clapping and mum-
bling approval. So I play him the best
of my other country songs, and he acts
as if he likes them.

After I put the guitar away I sat
down beside him at the bar. His clothes
were dusty and his boots worn down. He
spoke in an alcoholic dialect almost too
thick for hearing.

“You know," he says right off, "that's
really beautiful. You have in there «
in your music — a truth. You know,
my friend, that music is the truth, and
truth is beauty - one and the same."

He showed me how to roll Bull Durs
hams with ungummed papers. Said be
was travelling through from Kansas.
where he had secured a copy of his
birth certificate in order to collect on
Social Security. He'd spent the day in
the woods, he said, with a bottle of wine.
It was plain to see he wasn’t popular
with some people at the bar.

“This lady today. She just said ‘get
awayl get awayl' You know how some
people are.”

He finally walked home with me on
my invitation.

“These police, they get you when you
come into town with no money, and
they shake you down. Say, ‘What you
doin’. boy?’ and they grab you." He
jerks the air. ”So I have my identiti-
cations sewn right in here. in my coat.
, . . You know, I have been a working
man must of my life, on and on. Oh I
could do a good day’s work! Carpentry,
masonry, such work.”

“You know these people who thinli
they‘re better than you. Just because
they got this and that. Why. let me tell
you! I've rode the freights and We
slept outdoors; been from Florida and
Texas to Minnesota. And those people,
very often these same people who -
they don't know anythingi 'Get away
from my yard,’ they don’t know any-
thing.”

"I used to be a fighter. Want to see
what I can do? Here, put ’em up. Come
on."

We had two free beds.

"1 don’t need no bed. Many time.
i’ve slept out with only a coat. Just a
blanket and a can for wee-wee, that’s
all i need."

We set him up in the livingroom with
Mozart and the Rolling Stones.

“You know. Rick, there are so many
people and this is the first time some
one has —- 'i'll just make a little coffee
in the morning and then 111 be gone.
Just a wee- wee can and a blanket...‘

Next morning as I wonder whether
to tell him again that l have to go to
class:

“Now. Rick, I just want you to re-
member one thing. There's only one
thing that you need — and that is
Christ Christ is aIL Because, you know,
you are a God! We are all Godsl Yes
we are. and you must have Christ in
your life!”

We said goodby in the kitchen but he
stopped us again at the back door.

“Now, you've all been so good to
this old man. There’s only one more
thing I have to sayl Workers of the
world unite!"

 

Welcome, Parents and Alumni

Congratulations, Seniors
Best Wishes for the Future

rennet”

mnwwm