Rider University - Shadow Yearbook (Lawrenceville, NJ)

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Voice Cf Campus Conservatives Not as 'Flight' As imagined by Frank M. Lorenz Young Republicans Club President Our time is one of confusion, polarization and frustra- tion. Stating and communicating anyone's position on an important issue is a difficult task. What follows is my attempt to communicate my view which concurs with many young conservatives on issues which concern all of us. The issues to be tackled are Vietnam, the draft, abortion and the prohibition of drugs. I take the liberty to start with Vietnam. Whenever pos- sible, the United States should help democratic nations to maintain their right of self-determination. Hopefully, this help will include at least armaments and troop train- ing. The United States should not assist any nation to the extent that such assistance interferes with its own domestic tranquility and welfare. Because of Vietnam, New Left revolutionaries Cwho are saying much more than give peace a chance J are gaining support. Economic resources that are very much needed here are going to Vietnam. Thousands of Americans have died. We must leave Vietnam, not be- cause we are not justified in being there, but so that we l can deal more effectively on the home front with po- verty, pollution and crime. President Nixon seems to be withdrawing the troops and showing consideration for the South Vietnamese people, whom thousands of Americans have died for. His policy seems a just one. The basis of my position and that of many young con- servatives is the value of human life. There is no greater right than the right to life, without which, all other rights become insignificant. If a human being has no choice as to whether he will chance dying in a war or staying home, his other freedoms are meaningless for he has no right to life and is subject to involuntary servitude. The conservative alternative-a voluntary army-would work if four conditions were fulfilled. First, the pay scales should be raised. Secondly, mili- tary service should be open to qualified people without bias toward sex or age. Thirdly, limitations on the num- ber or percentage of people employed during peace time should be set, keeping in mind the dangers of a professional army. Finally, we should only make a troop committment when deemed necessary by an over- whelming number of qualified people. No matter how morally justifiable a troop committment is, it can't be made with a voluntary army when too many qualified people see only a senseless war as the end result. If anyone in society is to have the right to life, the child in his mother's womb should also not be ex- empted. If a child inside his mother's womb can be re- garded as an insignificant potentiality or human being, then any other group may be found too old, too retarded or too black in the years that would follow abortion on demand. Those who originally thought the unwanted insignificant may find themselves regarded as unwanted in a time and society where for them it is too late. When people choose to disregard the sanction of human life, as the abortionists do, they open a Pandora's Box filled with unknown havoc. I f X XX f ' ' l nl . l ' ffl L tl . if - 1 El ' ,jlfli Eng Aga? . a t ' f f - - if - F 1: ' l .-225 2 71. ' ii ' Tiff? i . ,'.Z'5, f V !,, . -'I I .. ff'fV'f.ix49'. 32 f' 'F A 9 LHR ill! f iw, 1 I . yt- .gy flu f A ., T 1 ,l ff-X X -fiiitil ,gf niffgff'ff-'.gfj?yg7-i'1v,2.fyj if 'H l ,J 'QM' it T J Q,-1 :, '1 1.1 ffwf i. X 1 Biggs f f ' ,'-X' 4 v If if is tygllu4!fi,'i?4lL .X X Q - ' il iq its wwf M214 . . f . .gi .. ,,,-fpf ' -. A '- .. V lt! ii-x-2'Tl :fell 4 .:-'ai1 'l:'7-0f,'iz'l Qg'l'?:Z,-Z Q ' ' I . .. 1- 41531, ,,,l.V. 5 .-.,,.f . ffjff M... ,f 'tie' F X - - 'if X ' - x Z X 1 as x , jf -slits 94 2

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student government and we'Il end up as we were be- fore, with no part in the important phases of the Col- lege, he said. Also, I want to see the Student Senate, especially under the new system, get moving. The senators take the jobs and then they don't bother to work. According to Atkinson, too many of the senators have a gripe and want to set up a committee and then when the committee is set up, they don't want to work on it. We have to get them moving somehow. They want the job but then they don't want to work. If they take the job, they better start being prepared to either work or give up the job, he said. Both may be somewhat idealistic. People's minds can be changed but it takes a long time and in a college where you only have a particular group here for four years, that may not be enough time. But if you can get a program in where you start with the freshmen and mold them so that by the time they're juniors and seniors they have an idea as to what they're doing and where 'it's at,' then maybe things can start happening. You don't do everything all at once. But with careful planning, things can start moving and then watch out! si 93

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jllllaho lt- mul if gf itil 325 lil C 2 Laws prohibiting the use of drugs should be repealed. lf such laws were repealed, I have no doubts that drug usage would go down and the issue of drugs would be brought out into the open. By repealing these laws, those who take drugs for the sake of rebellion would lose their anti-legal motivation source. Many people take drugs for the sake of rebel- lion, as many drank alcoholic beverages during Prohibition. No longer would fear of legal measures be an excuse for a drug user to avoid rapping about the justification of his habit. For many people legalization of drugs means facing the fact that as bright as they are, they have rationalized what for them is an irrational habit. Also, it is not the province of busy bodies-as right as they may be-to force others with respect to how they treat their bodies, minds and souls, Busy bodies tend to ,I-IQ Q . if do more harm than good. Laws prohibiting drug usage infringe upon the reli- gious freedom of those who take drugs for religious reasons. Marijuana offers about as much a religious ex- perience as alcohol. The latter, by-the-way, has pro- vided a religious experience for many people through- out history. Those who advocate the prohibition of drugs such as have already been mentioned should ad- mit to themselves, if nobody else, that they are depriv- ing some people of their religious freedom by taking from their reach one means of a possible religious-type experience. People should ask themselves how far they are willing to allow government to protect you from yourself. Are they willing to go so far that the result of legal prohibi- tions are worse than what they are prohibiting and are clearly limiting the religious freedom of others? SQ 95