University of Virginia Library

Draft Counselors Combat SS Ignorance

By Mike Russell

Ignorance for thousands of
years has had attributed to its
characteristics, by various wise
men, the quality of allowing
man to live in a blissful state.
Most of the wise men have
regarded the quest for
knowledge as not being worth
their time or effort, or as being
too demeaning a goal. The sum
total worth of all their
philosophies of ignorance and
bliss is an Arabic zero. To
remain ignorant in the world
today is to forfeit one's
existence.

Despite this obvious
indictment of ignorance, the
vast majority of the American
society between the ages of 18
and 26 are functionally
ignorant of the single most
decisive process guiding their
lives - the draft.

Certainly anyone in this
bracket can recite upon asking
the facts that Louis Hershey is
the director of the Selective
Service System, and they will
certainly know the number of
their local board and maybe
even the secretary's name.
Possibly they will know what
their classification means and
the exact limitations it imposes
upon their lives, but after
vomiting forth these useful
trivia, the questioner can be
fairly certain that they will
know little else of the
monolithic draft.

Systematic Ignorance

Even more appalling than
the ignorance of a system that
could send them to their death
at the age of 19, or put them in
prison for up to five years, is
the hostility prevalent in the
society and directed against
those people who would offer
technical assistance, or point
out the shortcomings of the
draft. More than once at this
University the term
"irresponsible" or
"communist" has been
caustically applied to a person
offering a confused registrant
assistance, and many members
of this community feel secure
to let this characterization
stand, unchallenged. The
Charlottesville Draft
Counselors have for several
years provided their time, their
energies, and their concern to
help the members of the entire
community understand the
concept and intricacies of the
draft.

Operating out of the
conference room behind the
main desk of Newcomb Hall,
this organization attempts to
help students trying to find a
way to complete their
education, tries to help those
who feel that they
conscientiously cannot, for
moral or non-moral reasons,
comply with the draft or enter
military life.

Becoming a Draft
Counselor is not extremely
difficult. Primarily it requires
that a person be willing to
spend two to three hours a
week first learning the
operations and technicalities of
the system, and then applying
his knowledge to the people
and situations he meets.

Good Counselor

A good counselor must be
aware of the types of
classifications, and their
meanings, the basic operations
of the local board, the various
forms that the registrant is
required to fill out, the method
for obtaining a Conscientious
Objector's status or other
classifications, and the appeal
process if the desired
classification is not granted. He
must further be able to
illustrate to those who wish to
resist, the type of life they will
lead in prison if they decide to
stay in this country, and if
they wish to leave the United
States, the counselor can tell
them of the type of life they
will find in those countries
receiving draft dodgers.

Non-Legal Aids

Counselors are not in the
strict sense legal aids, but
knowledgeable people in the
field of the draft. In situations
where legal advice is needed,
they counsel the inquirer to
seek out a lawyer. A number of
the counselors are Ministers or
Priests from the various
parishes, some are graduate
students, and a number of
them are undergraduates. All
of them have received the same
training.

The culmination of this
fall's training program is the
visit of David Maynard, who is
the Youth director for the
American Friends Service
Committee. Mr. Maynard has
been in the counseling program
for five years and is considered
to be one of the top authorities
in the field.

On Tuesday and Wednesday
evenings of this week the draft
counselors will receive their
advanced training from Mr.
Maynard. Wednesday he will be
available to students from 9-12
in the morning for individual
counseling in room 4B of
Newcomb Hall. From 3-5 that
afternoon Mr. Maynard will
hold an open discussion on the
Draft and its implications for
the future of America in the
South Meeting Room of
Newcomb Hall.