University of Virginia Library

ROTC Vandalism

The vandalism to the Army
ROTC exhibit this past weekend
was a most unfortunate incident.
Anonymous petty pilfering and
glass-breaking does no real harm to
the military system, serves no
educational purpose of exposing
and clarifying issues, and simply
redounds to the shame and
discredit of those involved. More
lamentably, it tends to cloud
legitimate efforts to achieve an end
to the war and the draft system.

Certainly it is possible to assert
that the present undeclared war in
Vietnam is an evil to which good
citizens should not assent. The
desiccation of the countryside of
South Vietnam alone and the
permanent and wanton destruction
of property there, one could argue,
far outweigh in violence,
irrationality, and sheer sin this
small amount of destruction. One
could also contend that the cost to
America both in terms of lives lost
and disrupted and of the
development of militaristic
mentalities justifies protest against
an aspect of the responsible system.
And, lastly, one could never come
close in evil to the obliteration of
human life to which this nation is a
party in Asia.

Even assuming all of the
foregoing, however, I find the
vandalism of the weekend to be an
inexcusably puerile and cowardly
act. Honest civil disobedience
undertaken with an educational,
communicative purpose and
executed with enough manly
courage of conviction to
acknowledge one's deed and accept
its consequences is something quite
different. The action of the
"Catonsville Nine," currently on
trial in Maryland for the napalming
of draft records, can serve as some
measure. Virginia gentle boys — if
such ye vandals be — grow up!