To the Students for a Democratic Society,
My name is Nicholas Kelly, and I am an undergraduate at Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI.
As a summer research assistant at the University of Oregon with the Department of Chemistry, I take issue with certain aspects of the inquiry posited in the letter to the editor in the July 20 edition
of the Daily Emerald (“UO should eschew department of defense
research ONAMI funds”).
While I am also against supporting the prolonged conflict in Iraq, I do not believe that unclassified research in non-weapons technologies is truly evidence of University support for militarism, and hold that to “eschew Department of Defense” ONAMI funding would be a quixotic and potentially catastrophic way to protest the activities of the United States armed forces.
The Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute is headquartered in Corvallis, a facility I have personally toured. As its title implies, it is a research institute developing Nanotechnologies
applicable to, among other things, “portable power systems for use by military personnel in the field for water purification and battery power,” which was quoted in this guest commentary from DeFazio’s press release. The next statement reads, verbatim, “This type of technological development can be seen
only as a means of moving the U.S. military into a new age of warfare.” It does not take a skeptic to observe the misconstrued logic that
went into or perhaps downright pessimistic propaganda that is such a comment.
Is it not possible that such portable energy systems could be used for something beyond destruction? The power systems in question are the very ones that utilize green
energy sources such as solar, hydro, and thermoelectrics, fundamental in the struggle for renewable energy. As pernicious as water purification can be in certain circumstances (I once used an iodine tablet in a
Nalgene that killed thousands, if not millions, of microorganisms), I do not think refusing to research in that particular field, based solely on the premise that it is military funded, would be an effective measure to
dissuade further war. The military has access to any non-classified technologies that evolve through research, whether funded by the Department of Defense or not. That they are willing to put forth their own resources to develop these
capabilities, which have enormous potential for the civilian sector
as well, is something that should be embraced.
If the individuals who share the concerns of the SDS still feel that the financial endorsement of the United States warmongers is a stigma, and that all technologies developed
under their support “can be seen only as a means of moving the U.S. military into a new age of warfare,” I suggest you dispose of your
radios and cell phones; cast away your backpacks (originally designed to carry ammunition, supplies, and explosives), your computers (certainly the Internet!), and anything made of Kevlar (see: tires, sports equipment, drum heads, and body armor). All of these are spin-offs from U.S. military spending, and most of them were intentionally
designed to play a more active role in imperialist war than anything ONAMI will develop.
I agree with many of the values of the SDS, and wish anyone traveling to the National Convention at the University of Chicago an enjoyable experience in the Midwest, despite the heat. Perhaps some mention of D.o.D. research funding should be made to the research faculty there, site of the world’s first self-sustained nuclear reaction, which led to the infamous Manhattan Project?
Nicholas Kelly
Student at Kalamazoo College