Burning Draft Cards

During the 60s the country was deeply mired in the unpopular Viet Nam war. Young men were being drafted and sent to fight in this far away war. Protesters demonstrated on college campuses and marched in the streets. Many draft eligible men burned their draft cards in a public demonstration of their distain. Burning a draft card was a federal offense and those who did it were often arrested.

The University of Iowa campus was a hot spot for demonstrations and in the news a lot. Iowa Wesleyan students tried to copy University students but on a much smaller scale. The FBI visited students known to be involved as a method of intimidation more than anything else. I knew one student who was identified as a leader of the local dissidents and visited often.

In 1968 I was still at Southeastern Community College and only read or heard about the things happening at the University of Iowa and Iowa Wesleyan. There were a few posters around our campus but not much was happening.

In the fall of that year I was taking Speech I and having a fairly easy time of it because of my experience in speech and drama in high school. We were assigned different topics and then learned about the different parts of a good speech. We learned we needed a good introduction with a strong attention getter. The teacher thought the first 30 seconds were the most critical. The speeches were usually 3-5 minutes. That seemed like a long time then but seems very short now.

We were assigned a 3-minute speech on a topic of our choice with the focus on our introduction attention getter. I had a weekend to think it over. Headlines in the press on Saturday were about a University of Iowa student who burned his draft card. He was arrested immediately. A year or so later he was sentenced to 2 years in prison.

I decided that was what I was going to do, burn my draft card. Well, not really my draft card, but the card that came with it that was exactly the same size and from a distance indistinguishable from the real thing. Then I planned to talk about the origins of the conflict and it’s impact on the youth of America. I saw the fake card burning as a good way to get everyone’s attention and accomplish the assignment. I had no idea about the stir it would cause.

Eager to get it over with I volunteered to be first. The teacher reviewed the goal of the lesson and then went and sat down in the back of the room. “You're on, Perry.” She said.

I went to the podium turned and faced the class and pulled the card out my breast pocket and then a lighter out of my jeans. I held the card up about eye level and then lit the lighter and held it to the corner of the card. The instructor screamed! The class gasped and the card was gone in a few seconds. I let the last bits of it drop to the floor and stepped on it. The instructor was shouting and trying to get out of her chair. Another teacher in a nearby room came rushing in to see what was happening.

I had to assure my instructor that it really wasn’t my draft card before she let me continue with my speech. She was visibly shaken the rest of the class, but afterward told me I had done an excellent job and she gave me an A. She also told me that if I ever was going to do anything like that again I should tell the instructor in advance.

By lunchtime that day several students and instructors had approached me and said they heard the whole story. Everyone, even the other instructors were quite amazed by the whole thing.