Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Movement and Me
- 2 Among Friends in Philly
- 3 Mississippi Summer: A Quaker Vacation
- 4 Professing at Smith and Selma
- 5 Return to Mississippi (Goddam)
- 6 The Draft: From Protest to Resistance?
- 7 Visions of Freedom School in DC (For Bob Silvers)
- 8 Resisting
- 9 A New University?
- 10 A Working-Class Movement of GIs
- 11 A Man in the Women’s Movement
- 12 Where We Went and What We Did (and Did Not) Learn There
- 13 Authority and Our Discontents
- Appendix A A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority
- Appendix B Syllabus for a Course on the Sixties
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
6 - The Draft: From Protest to Resistance?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Movement and Me
- 2 Among Friends in Philly
- 3 Mississippi Summer: A Quaker Vacation
- 4 Professing at Smith and Selma
- 5 Return to Mississippi (Goddam)
- 6 The Draft: From Protest to Resistance?
- 7 Visions of Freedom School in DC (For Bob Silvers)
- 8 Resisting
- 9 A New University?
- 10 A Working-Class Movement of GIs
- 11 A Man in the Women’s Movement
- 12 Where We Went and What We Did (and Did Not) Learn There
- 13 Authority and Our Discontents
- Appendix A A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority
- Appendix B Syllabus for a Course on the Sixties
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The young man has been wandering around the reception room, nervously scanning the pamphlets and flyers on conscientious objection. Now he comes back into the office—can we talk about whether he should apply for C.O.? “You see,” he apologizes, “I probably don’t qualify.”
“We usually let the draft board or the courts decide about that,” I say. “Why should a guy rule himself out?” I try not to let the question sound routine. “Why do you think you don’t qualify?”
“Well, I’m against this war . . . but I’m not a Quaker or anything—you know, that kind of pacifist.”
“You don’t have to be a Quaker to qualify. Why are you against the war?”
“Well, that’s it. I’m against it on political grounds, and that doesn’t seem to make it.”
“What do you mean by political grounds?”
“I mean, I’m against American policy in Vietnam.”
“Yeah, but why?”
“You know, like we say we’re for free elections, only we didn’t let them have elections in 1956.”
“So?”
“What do you mean, ‘so?’”
“I mean, why are free elections important?”
“Well, because people should be able to make up their own minds about their government.”
“Why should they?”
“Isn’t that right?”
“Sure, I think so, but I want to know why you do. Why should people be free to make up their own minds about their government?”
He sits there working it out for himself. Nineteen, perhaps twenty. A sophomore or junior maybe, “safe” from the draft board for two years anyway, but not “safe” inside himself from what’s happening in Vietnam.
“I guess,” he says finally, “it has to do with human dignity . . . you know, that men have certain rights, like liberty . . . and life. And you can’t take those away from them.”
“Is that what you mean by ‘political objection’?”
The young man concerned about conscience and conscription has overcome enormous anxiety in order to come to our office. But he’s full of doubt. He worries—is it unpatriotic, an act of cowardice to question the draft?
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- Information
- Our SixtiesAn Activist's History, pp. 90 - 115Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2020