This is an edited transcript of the talk that Frances Crowe gave at the CO counseling session at Grace Church in Amherst, on December 2, 2004.
(also available as a Word file)
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During World War 2 the definition of Conscientious Objection was changed to include not only objection to war based on religious belief, but also moral, ethical, or philosophical objection to participation in war, if held with the same intensity as one would hold if based on religious belief. It applies to you if you oppose participation in war in any form facing you. You don’t have to be concerned about previous wars – World War 2, the French and Indian war, or hypothetical future wars – only war facing you. And you don’t have to answer what you would do, for example, if you were a guerrilla in Africa defending your land – only in wars facing you as an American. It is the intensity of your belief that is important.
When you go to register for the draft, if you have not registered yet, you can write on the face of the form, “I am a Conscientious Objector.” Make a copy of that. Mail a copy to yourself, to be able to prove to the Selective Service that you are a Conscientious Objector. The Selective Service won’t do anything about it, but it will then be recorded and your copy can serve as part of your file, a file to prove to the Selective Service the basis and sincerity of your belief.
If you are given Conscientious Objector status, then under the present system, if you are called, you would do two years of civilian alternative service, something in the national health or safety area, for a non profit organization, slightly disruptive to your personal life, for example away from your home community so that it is not obvious people in your community that you are not in the army. You get paid whatever the job pays, you get free transportation to wherever the job is, and you don’t have to wait for the draft board to assign you a job; you can look around and find a non profit organization that could employ you – food banks, farm co-ops, health care co-ops, private and alternative schools, and such are good places to work. You can go outside the country, in private peace corps type placements, though not in the US government’s Peace Corps.
You do the alternative service only if your number comes up and you have passed the physical. If you are registered as a CO, you don’t go into the military, and nobody else goes in your place either; the draft board quota is reduced by one for every CO registered. During the Vietnam war, we found that COs failed their physicals more often than others, because then the draft board would not have to administer the alternative service.
We found that people who went through the process of applying for CO status found it a very rewarding experience, because it helps applicants figure out who they are, where they are going with their life, and why.
You have to answer three important questions.
One, to define the nature of your belief, to try to explain what it is that you are objecting to, and why you don’t want to go into the army, and why you don’t believe in killing as a solution to international problems.
Two, where your beliefs came from – whether they come from your family for instance. If your family has Quaker roots it is a little easier. If not, you try to figure out the environment that you grew up in, how you felt about life and the preciousness of human life. We found that some experience, for example the shock of killing an animal, was often formative. And often music was important – Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan and others helped many to crystallize their beliefs about war. Films, literature – things that bring the reality of war closer to you.
And Three, what are you doing about your beliefs? Are you living by your beliefs? It is important to think about that right now, to build your CO file. It doesn’t mean that you have to be a vegetarian, but do you go to vigils, do you write letters to the editor, are you searching for answers, reading and writing about these things? When you start thinking about this, you may find that you have done quite a lot. Perhaps you have been working with young people, perhaps you had a summer job where you were trying to help people find themselves, perhaps you have done volunteer work. What were the values in your home?
It is extremely important that people of 18 or 20 years do not define themselves as mentally unstable, if they are not, or sick, if they are not, for such things go into your record and can have long lasting consequences, for example in trying to get health insurance or a job. We have a hard enough time trying to define ourselves without confusing the issue with such claims. It is not easy these days, when the dominant culture tries to sell us war.
People who took the route of being very clear and positive and open as possible about their values and beliefs ended up feeling very good about themselves. Often I hear from them many years later, very thankful about the clarity they reached, and thankful for the path it set them on in life. Often they are now doing very useful things with their lives.
If you pass the physical and are called up, and you have answered the questions of the draft board, you should get three to five letters of support from people who have known you for a long time – ministers, not relatives, perhaps from a person who disagrees with you but acknowledges the sincerity and honesty of your beliefs. We found that often ministers were willing to sit down with an applicant they did not know well and help the applicant clarify his beliefs, and if they felt the person was sincere they would then write a good letter of support. A flyer is available for guidance on these letters.
It is useful to be in a group of people all working out their beliefs – often some people who are articulate but not very in touch with their feelings, and others who are not very articulate but quite in touch with their feelings, can help each other, picking up ideas from others and hearing others express themselves. Role plays are helpful in preparing applicants to answer the crazy questions often asked by draft boards.
We found that draft boards may not be familiar with the law themselves. We had a draft board member come to some of our sessions, to learn the law, since he had a son applying for CO status, and he wanted to make sure that his son’s draft board did the right thing by him. He learned a lot!
The draft boards often ask, questions like, for example, What would you do if your grandmother was attacked? Well, that’s not war!
You don’t have to be a pacifist. Most people at age 18 don’t know whether they are or are not a pacifist, and have only begun to think about these things. This is a process of crystallizing your conscience. I think that everybody has a seed of conscience objecting to war within themselves, but the dominant media tries to socialize you into feeling that you have to kill to be a first-rate citizen. I want to help you crystallize that bit of conscience that says, No! This is not human! This is not right! I don’t think humans were born to kill one another! So, I am hoping that this will help you find that seed within yourself and get the support that you need, so that you can stand up, and say, No, I am not going to kill – there are other ways to solve our problems. And so that you can say to the draft board when they ask you about your grandmother, That’s not war! And my grandmother is able to take care of herself!
Of course, you will protect people, but you don’t have to kill somebody who is trying to bother somebody else. You can use other methods to solve the problems.
I hope you can have good discussions in your groups and will find this a rewarding adventure to move on with your lives.
----------------------------- Question and Answer Session -----------------------------------
A. If you have registered but did not write on your card that you are a CO, you can still send a letter to the Selective Service saying so. If there is a draft, under the current law you will have only 30 days to get your claim together, and that is not time enough. It really takes a while to think it through. That’s why I urge you to keep a log or a diary to build up your file; if you belong to a religious or spiritual group that can keep a file on your behalf of things that you have written or done in support of your claim, that is valuable. The War Resister’s League will keep a file for you, the Center for Conscience and War will help you build your file, and you can register with them as a CO, you can send them material and they will keep it for you. It is so important to keep things in your file. My grandson went to a demonstration and urged photographers to take his picture, so he could put the photo in his file. Perhaps you can take part in an anti-war play.
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A. Your objection should be to wars facing you. You don’t have to know what you would have done in World War 2, or the Vietnam war, in fact you can’t know.
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A. Some people come to pacifism after becoming a CO. Becoming a CO is often a first step leading a person to becoming a pacifist, but to call yourself a pacifist as a first step often throws people off. For myself, I don’t see how I could be a CO and approve of any killing.
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