I'm not an amateur and some hams even rub me the wrong way but I think eliminating the morse code requirement is wrong. In the event of large disasters, perhaps larger than we have already seen, truely long distance communication could be quickly established using whatever kind of transmitter you could "ham" together and do CW, morse code. This may sound science-fictionish but this is the reason it was always there. Next thing you know they'll be creating special "no-license" bands!