Documenting Conscientious Objector Status – Start Now

This article in Mothering Magazine has good information for any parent wishing to document and establish conscientious objector status for their child, and may also help draft-age young people document it for themselves.

(I had to type this in, my apologies for any typos or incorrect transcription.)

Help Your Peace-Loving Child Avoid the Draft:
Don’t wait until he’s 18 to document his opposition to war. Record it now.

By Helen James

The author talks about attending a peace march on the eve of the Gulf War, with her then nine-year-old son.

As I stopped to take a photo of the boys with their handmade peace signs, a tired, frail looking man, covered with war medals and peace buttons, began limping toward me as fast as he could manage. He’d broken ranks with his group, Vietnam Vets Against the War, and had a look on his face I will never forget. He came close and embraced me, then pulled back, stared into my eyes, and said, “If my mother had done that for me, I wouldn’t be like this now.” We shared a moment of silence, then parted with a handshake.

<snip>

Politicians of both parties warn us that this war will last a lifetime. Troops are being commanded to serve more time than they signed up for, and according to some, army recruiting numbers are down. It’s a fact of life – nations reinstate conscription whenever they need soldiers. Most experts agree that opening a second war front means the draft will be back. Women could be forced to serve, and neither Canada nor college will provide refuge as they have in the past.

<snip>

If the draft is reinstated, under existing regulations a young conscript wanting to claim CO status will need to prove that he has a “sincere” objection to all wars. He will have to show what he believes and why, how he came to believe it, and how his actions prove he practices what he believes. His belief, according to the law, must be religious, moral, or ethical, not political or pragmatic. It is unnecessary to prove church attendance, affiliation, or a belief in God.

<snip>

It is, however, necessary for a CO to prove his sincerity, and that’s where documentation comes in. Conscripts may get as few as ten days to put together supporting evidence for a CO claim. Should my son ever want to prove the depth of his convictions, he’ll already have a scrapbook full of documents tracing his beliefs over his entire life.

<snip>

The article goes on to describe what should go into a CO scrapbook or file.

1. A personal history and diary – documentation of peace events attended, books read, the development of the CO’s beliefs about war.

2. Letters of character reference and statements of family values – letters from other people about the CO’s beliefs and/or their own.

3. Documents about religious or spiritual practices (but formal religious practice is not required for CO status)

4. Anything that shows the CO’s concern for life and the unity of nature.

The article also notes that it may be helpful to have significant documents notarized or stapled and mailed to yourself without an envelope so that the postmark is directly on the document.

Additional resources are available at the following link: www.mothering.com/sections/extras/peace.html

Full article text available in the current issue of Mothering Magazine (128 January/February 2005 $5.95) on newsstands now – don’t be scared of the title, it’s a good magazine for fathers, too.

There is also a sidebar to the article that breaks my heart.

Raeanne’s 22-year-old son has just come back from active duty in Afghanistan, but she’s still worried.

<snip>

Jason joined right out of high school, just before 9/11, because he wanted to serve, his mother says. She also suspects that her son’s not having a father made him easy to recruit. “All that older male attention from the recruiters was intoxicating to him. He’s a smart kid with good grades, but he never had a dad.’ The army must have felt, she imagines, like a way to fill a big unmet need in Jason’s life. She thinks the military must have recognized that need in her son. Roseanne is angry about that – very angry.

“My children already had disadvantages. I’m a childcare provider, so we never could afford horseback riding lessons, soccer camp, things like that. We were strictly ‘rice and beans.’ I worked so hard trying to raise decent kids, trying to do the job of two parents. Then here comes the government with their big army vans, free pizza, a climbing wall … I feel preyed upon by the military.”

Raeanne stops talking about her son long enough to tell other parents, “You don’t have to let the high school send your kid’s information to the military. You can write a note and tell them not to. The No Child Left Behind law says they have to do it, but you can stop it for your child.”

<snip>

About no child left behind forcing schools to send info to the military?

Unfortunately, its true. They can get access to your child while they're still a minor, still in high school, and potentially without your permission or knowledge.

I helped my boyfriend write a CO letter even though the draft was not an immediate threat. He wanted to be prepared just in case. We thought it would be more credible if he established CO status before he needed it. He never needed it, but I still think that is true.

I grieve for my only child.

Killed by Bush and the Jesusistas...

I'm so sorry.

"Sorry" seems so small and ineffective, but it is all I can think of.

I am so very sorry for your loss. More sorry that I have words to express.

I wish you any comfort you may find in your grief.

Peace.

The resource page is GREAT.
I would like to share the article and the
resource page with my school parent message board.
My daughter and her peers are all seniors this year.
Thanks-
BHN

mothering.com just has the title of the article on the website here http://www.mothering.com/sections/current_issue/current_issue.html

It will be on newsstands probably through February. If you can't find it locally, the website sells back issues. It's not available yet, but it will be here: http://www.mothering.com/shop/back_issues.html

I can try to type some more quotes, but I think DU has a 4 paragraph rule for copyright reasons.

Best of luck to your daughter and her classmates.

I was not aware of this publication befoe
your post- looks like something I would really enjoy.
BHN

It sometimes gets a little more "crunchy granola" than I am, but it's helping me discover my inner hippie. Even when I don't agree, I learn from the other viewpoints.

It's definitely a nice antidote to all of the parenting magazines that focus on consumerist culture -- "buy these toys for your child to make them smarter, buy these books to learn these fast tips for making you a more perfect supermom and your children more compliant and convenient, buy buy, buy ..." and so on. It still has ads, like any other magazine, but the whole magazine has a deeper view of parenting than any other I've found.

Well, that's enough of a commercial, I guess. ;) Really, I'm not affiliated with them in any way -- I just like the magazine and I hope you like it, too.

:hi:

The current advice for those wishing to register for selective service as a CO is to write "I am a Conscientious Objector to war in any form" in ink across the middle of any registration form and make a copy for your own records before sending it in.

A Conscientious Objector does not have to be a pacifist.

There have been COs who are police officers, hunters, martial arts practitioners, former gang members and boxers (Muhammad Ali, for example).

A CO does not have to oppose the death penalty.

A CO does not have to know what he or she would have done in the past or in the future.

A CO does not have to answer hypothetical questions such as, "What would you have done in WWII?" or "What would you do if your family was attacked?"

"What makes a CO is his deep opposition to war."

Thanks so much for typing it in. I'm sending this to the parents of my nephews.

Kicking too - cause I think more people need to see this!

Please, don't let the SS get their hands on your kids. I should have put my foot down and said NO to those death recruiters. I should have yelled at them, called them liars and pimps for Wall Street, which they are.

Instead, I held my temper in check as they enticed my son with the idea that war is just a video game anymore, and it would be fun to kill all them sand CENSORED ragheads. After all, you were just getting even for 911 and we knew that Sadaam masterminded that, after all that is what RICE A PHONY was saying and the asslicking media was repeatedly telling us!

Now, it is too late for me. My 19 year old boy, my only child, lies in a VA grave and my heart is broken beyond repair. Whatever love I once had for this country is gone forever because America no longer exists. It has been overthrown by Jesusland.