The Conscientious Objector

Last week I had a some words of admiration for the soldiers who defend us from enemies who want to destroy us.

Now, I would like to do an about-face, or speak out of the other side of my mouth and say something nice about the conscientious objector.

These men who refuse to fight because they are morally against it, to me, are, I think, saying to the leaders: “You got us in this mess, now, you grab a gun and get us out.”

Or “Why should I give my life to an ideology about freedom and human rights that you are very vague about in country?”

Or

“I don’t believe in killing for any reason.”

That probably simplifies it all too much.

But those who refuse to fight are sacrificing more than some people realize. They are not cowards – when they decided not to fight they are giving up many friendships and family trust and face harassment.

Where the men who put on their uniforms and went to war, if they live, will come home as heroes and in many cases in a parade waving at a crowd thanking them for their service. Which they deserved, it is about all they are going to get.

I don’t think many people would want to offend their peers and relatives. But isn’t it only right that a person stand by his/her convictions, regardless of the popular opinion?

Back in the ‘70s when Viet Nam was tearing the country apart, some young men moved to Canada to get away from the U.S. Draft. The leaders could not put in understandable terms why we were fighting in Vietnam. Then they wanted young men to give their life for a vague Domino theory?

At that time in history, the late 60s and early 70s we were friends with another married couple who married six months before we did. Lets call them Linda and Joe.

Joe was something of a mathematical genius. He was on a full scholarship at Emory University. Linda was something of a pseudo cool person.

Linda always wanted to make a statement with her furniture and art objects around. She was not a hippy but sought to be in hippy surroundings. Which is OK, but she seemed to think she was one of them – she wasn’t. She was still part of her family’s wealth and sponged rather nicely.

Any folk singer that would come to town we always went to their concert with Linda and Joe, which I enjoyed. We saw Pete Seegar, Buffie Saint Marie, Bernice Reagan, and a bunch others I don’t remember.

We almost went to Odetta’s concert. We were in the audience when an announcer came out on the stage and apologized for Odetta not appearing that night, ticket prices would be refunded, the reason, “Dr. Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis.”

Linda and Joe decided to move to Canada. That was where all the conscientious objectors were going. Linda wanted to be in the “in” crowd. Joe, just like me, had already spent his time in the Navy. So, there were nothing to object but they moved anyway. They moved to Toronto.

I was left the job of checking on their mail every other day or so, and pay the bills with the checkbook they left behind and bundle magazines and things up and mail them all packaged up.

After about six months we drove up to see them.

We first stopped a couple days in Niagara Falls. We saw the U.S. side and the Canadian side.

Then on to Toronto. Linda and Joe was surprised we found their apartment. It was their Thanksgiving which was our Labor Day.

They lived on the 14th floor of an apartment building overlooking a park.

We got to see a good part of Toronto and the parks, where all the young ex-Americans hung out. Probably some of them pretended to have skipped the draft also.

They lived on the 14th floor of an apartment building overlooking a park.

We went to some kind of Expositon by the lake, sort of like a shot at being a World's Fair. They demonstrated laser light, it's peircing thin red bright line was able to bend as directed and also melt a hole in a steel beam.... I bet at the moment greedy world leaders were rubbing their hands together crackling, and could hardly wait until all the testing was in to know what all a laser could do.

We went to something like an Eye-Max theater at the Exposition. You sat in your seat, and looked at the huge screen which gave you the feeling you were part of the action. I think we could feel the sensation of riding in a roller coaster, flying a glider plane, and other action thrills. But, I wasn't paying too much attention, I had something else on my mind... when we sat down there were four of us. Our row of seating: Joe, Linda, Anna, and Me. Linda and Anna have been friends longer, so they would have more to talk about or share, or whatever. So, I was on the far leftside of our group. Next to me was a girl about 22 or 23 by herself. She had shorts on and I couldn't help but notice her shapely legs. I had a brief conversation with her.... she said she was really crazy about this, it was "far out man!". When we were riding down the drop off track of the roller coaster or getting so close to trees you had the natural fear of knocking a few tree tops, the girl to my left would grab my left let to brace herself. I had on shorts. Sometimes she grabbed my kneee area and sometimes higher up on my thigh. I was on a ride of my own, loving every moment of it.

We had a meal in a Chinese Restaurant in China Town and they were having some kind of holiday too. We saw a Chinese parade with dragons and firecrackers.

I remember one day they had to work and we went out on our own. We went to see the movie “Last Tango in Paris” with Marlon Brandon which was suppose to be too hot of a movie for U.S. audiences. I am not sure but we may have seen “I Am Curiously Yellow” in Toronto also.

After our planned stay we said our goodbyes and got on the road. On the way down, driving someplace in Pennsylvania with farm lands all around us, I remember hearing on the radio that Republican Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned because of a money grabbing scandal.

That was the last time we saw or heard from Linda and Joe.