Paul's Perambulations a personal blog

November 3, 2009

Conscientious Objectors, Truman, and true bravery.

Filed under: Peace,Politics — admin @ 1:17 am

May 17, 1948
“I’ll admit that it is rather difficult for me to look upon a conscientious objector with patience…While your four sons and my three nephews were risking their lives to save our government, and the things for which we stand, these people were virtually shooting them in the back.   I ran across one conscientious objector (Desmond Doss) that I really believe is all man…I decorated him with a Congressional Medal of Honor….the majority with whom I came in contact were just plain cowards and shirkers.”

(from   Eleanor and Harry, The Correspondence. 2002)

This letter was addressed to Eleanor Roosevelt in response to her request that he reconsider pardons for COs. Letter was saved but not sent, and he later mailed Eleanor a copy of the Attorney General’s statement regarding the report in question, including a personal note that there would be no review because the report was complete and he approved it

Doss was generally reviled during most of his military service as a medic because of his religious conscientious objection to killing. Even though there is absolutely no evidence that he ever failed to pursue his duties, he was generally considered cowardly simply on the basis of his anti-war beliefs. When he happened to be assigned a position of great danger and responded bravely, he became the public “exception.”   Had his assignments kept him shipboard, he would surely have remained one of Truman’s assumed cowards.

It could be said that to  hold to your principles when the world is against you is what requires the greatest bravery.

October 6, 2009

My response to The R.O.T.C. Dilemma (New York Times 10/26/09)

Filed under: Peace,Politics — admin @ 7:24 pm

The following is a copy of my post on the Times website in response to R.O.T.C. Dilemma:

This article is heavily biased and in some cases badly misinformed. Please go back to some original sources of the period (not other newspaper articles). Most significantly, R.O.T.C. was never “banned” on most campuses in the 60’s. The requirement was that if R.O.T.C. was to give grades and academic credit, it must function under the academic regulations that applied to all the other academic programs of the University. Their alternative was to continue as they had been doing, but not for academic credit. This the military adamantly refused. They are a law unto themselves in higher education, and this is what we must question. My heartfelt concern is insuring educational integrity. Note that one cadet says “I have no personal opinion,” in response to a question about R.O.T.C., and the article’s author confirms that cadets are not free to express an opinion. Do we believe that this accords with the true purpose of a University education and is something we should encourage?

p.s. In my experience the folks I knew well in R.O.T.C. were fine individuals and had “chosen” to enter R.O.T.C. because they needed the scholarship money. Is this a good basis for a volunteer army? And what does it say about the value we place on education in this country?

September 17, 2009

A lifetime illicit drug free — it does happen.

Filed under: General,Politics,Recreation — admin @ 2:38 pm

Amazingly, almost unbelievably, I’ve never used illicit drugs and don’t feel I’ve missed anything on that account. I think much of this stems from a 1962 term paper I wrote on LSD (make that “about LSD”) while a student at Tufts. What about the elephant killed in a 1962 LSD experiment funded by the CIA and published in Science? Then there were Harvard’s Alpert and Leary, looking for participants at Tufts (LSD was legal until 1966) when their subjects had already founded a church/meditation center for the drug’s use and were known to be wacky losers. I was a serious runner then, and the athletic scene was totally different from today. Athletics were a prime motivator AWAY FROM drug use.  The athlete’s diet was protein based, with carbo-loading just before a race. Performance enhancing drugs were not in the picture, and cigarettes and alcohol (the drugs of choice at the time) were known performance diminishers. There were two views regarding the relationship between drugs and sex.  It helped; it didn’t help but folks were so stoned they didn’t know the difference. Without experimentation, I sided with the latter (besides, who needed the help?).

Incidentally, Alpert was a Tuft’s graduate, and I heard Leary speak at Princeton and spoke with him briefly there. So have some yogurt and chanterelles, in memory of Tusko the 7000 pound bull elephant (RIP).

p.s. Fran and I are amateur mycologists, but we avoid the psychedelic ones.

August 15, 2009

Homesteading musings

Filed under: Family,General,Peace,Politics — admin @ 8:32 pm

I was looking at my dog-eared copies of Living the Good Life (Helen and Scott Nearing) and The Complete Homesteading Book. And thinking “what ifs.”  I was doing this as a musing only, because we get one life to live and not multiples and we can’t go back anyhow.  But nonetheless, “what if” Fran and I had met earlier, say in the early 70’s when we were each dissatisfied with current relationships? It’s an interesting mind game for us – who needs Sim City? (more…)

July 7, 2009

Robert McNamara is dead. What have we learned?

Filed under: Peace,Politics — admin @ 7:55 pm

I once thought that Secretary of Defense McNamara was simply amoral, but after hearing him speak in the 90’s at Swarthmore, I know it’s something far worse. He claims to recognize the Vietnam War as a moral issue and “feels” for people’s loss and is “sorry” for what happened, but offers no apology for sending thousands to their death for what he knew was a lost and mistaken cause. See material below from the NYTimes obituary of July 7, 2009 and “The Fog of War” interviews of 2003. (more…)

February 28, 2009

History of the early Nazi period — personal and general.

Filed under: Family,Peace,Politics — admin @ 2:30 pm

 My father had a keen sense of history, and when my parents were in Germany in the early 1930s (he had a graduate travel fellowship at the University of Berlin), he was aware of (and peripherally involved in…another story) history in the making.  He also was something of a perfectionist, and carried not only his 16-mm Kodak but also a tripod and light meter all over Europe and the Middle East.  I am the repository for his 1930s films, all on highly flammable nitro-based celluloid.  When my parents returned to the states, he used these films and other historical material (some interesting items) for public lectures.  By the time I came along, I would occasionally set up the projector so that I could show my friends our home movies of Stalin in Red Square on May Day and Hitler in his open Mercedes. I burned up much of the Hitler sequence by stopping the projector to see things better, and then Hitler would curl up before our eyes in wisps of acrid smoke.  My father intended to get the “Big Three” on film, but Mussolini was out of the country when my parents were in Italy, and so we have a very nice sequence of the Italian square and balcony from which Mussolini used to deliver his harangues to the people (apparently the best possible shot available under the circumstances).

(more…)

January 28, 2009

Thoughts, Ideas, and Principles

Filed under: Love,Peace,Politics,Religion — admin @ 9:16 pm

In response to a query on my Facebook page, I posted twenty-five “Thoughts, ideas, and principles” recently. Since this material might not be readily accesible by some, I have added it as a comment below for those who don’t have Facebook accounts.

January 10, 2009

Another side of the “good” war.

Filed under: Peace,Politics — admin @ 9:12 pm
  

The following is a story that I recall from my psychology classes at Tufts. This is all that I remember of that course.

 

During WWII, when fighter planes in North Africa took off for enemy territory, it was customary to check the guns by firing a few rounds shortly after take-off.  Typically a pilot would choose a target on the ground such as any sheep, goats, or cattle in range, as a test of sights and accuracy. Shepherds would regularly appear at the airbase with stories of animals killed in this way and be reimbursed by the U.S. government for loss of property.  The going rate was $10, $20, and $100, for a goat, sheep, or cow, respectively.  Unfortunately this custom resulted in occasional collateral damage in the form of the death of the attending shepherd. The government was unwilling to set a price tag on the value of a life, but the military psychologist in charge of winning hearts and minds of the populace (apparently my college instructor) was authorized to pay a burial expense to the nearest relative of the deceased, in the sum of $50.  The incompatibility was obvious. After some discussion (should a cow be worth $40?), it was decided to pay the cost of a more elaborate funeral and give the nearest relative $150 toward this final expense.

 

July 6, 2008

July 4, 2008 — Peace is Patriotic

Filed under: Love,Politics — admin @ 5:48 pm

It’s 4th of July, and I have my peace flag flying as usual.  My most recent peace activities have focused on the Relgious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill and the 12th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Funds. Here also are some comments about my lovely and fascinating wife.

1. In late May I carried a Minute from Chester Quarterly Meeting to Interim Meeting of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting requesting that Philadelphia Yearly Meeting send a letter to all members of Congress asking for their support of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill (currently H.R. 1921).  For those not familiar with Quaker lingo, the preceding sentence describes a process by which a large group of Quakers (more than 10,000 in PYM) reach unity on a decision (we don’t vote and don’t have representatives).  After some discussion at the Interim Meeting, PYM approved sending out such a letter in their name.  The Relgious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill would enable those conscientiously opposed to participation in war to pay their full taxes into a government fund that did not go to war-related purposes.  For many pacifists, paying for a gun for someone else is just as wrong as doing the killing yourself.  This puts such pacifists (myself included) in the quandry of either paying taxes for war or being civil disobedient by refusing to pay. The refused tax money is not retained but given away to charitable institutions. More information and links are available at my website www.peacefulways.com/   To read an informative draft of this letter, click Comment #1.

2. During May and June I have been working with regional Quakers (including PYM) to get their support for my attendance at the 12th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Funds, to be held in Manchester UK in early September.  I have attended these biennial conferences twice before and found them informative and practical.  Philadelphia Yearly Meeting agreed to Minute their support of my attendance at this conference and to pay my expenses.  For more information and to see my Minute, click on Comment #2.

3. This 4th of July weekend Fran and I went foraging in a nearby park along Darby Creek (there is also a prior post on this topic).  We had our milkweed peas last night (excellent) and spice bush tea and various other wild edibles.  We are getting more skilled at this (particularly Fran), and pictures are on line at sheldontimes. com.  Now when we go backpacking she is prepared to make fresh bread on the spot and cook it (something like pancakes) on a flat rock over a small flre, along with our foraged foods.  She never ceases to amaze me with her ideas and innovations.

4. About a month ago we attended a Memorial Service for the last relative of Fran’s mother’s generation.  The extended family was gathered, and I saw a chance (re my last comment in #3) to discover if Fran has always been as interesting and lively as she is now.  She always describes herself as being very shy and quiet most all of her life, and only starting to come out of her shell quite recently. This struck me as unlikedly, so I asked a number of her cousins about what she was like when younger.  They said “least shy of all…bubbly…striking… redhead…glamorous…just like she is now” and everything OPPOSITE of how she describes herself then.  I was not in the least surprised to hear this, but Fran was absolutely astonished.  Isn’t it interesting how others can know us and think about us in a way so different from how we know and think about ourselves?

June 18, 2008

We got our economic stimulus check — sort of — well, some of it.

Filed under: Peace,Politics,Religion — admin @ 12:38 am

We recently recieved a check in the mail from the U.S. government.  Only it wasn’t for the amount that an earlier postcard had indicated.  Well, there was some small print that said it might be minus any amount that we owed the government.  As readers of this blog already know, we are pacifists and war tax resisters because we cannot in good conscience pay for training and arming others to kill in our name (search my blog for more on this).  So our check came up a few hundred dollars short of what was first promised. But this was no big surprise (sometimes they get the money, sometimes they don’t), and we follow our conscience in this not with certainty of the results (that is God’s will, not ours), but  certain that we can not willingly cooperate with something that we believe supports such an evil. Note that we have nothing against taxes per se and would gladly pay our full amount if we could be assured that none of it would go for war. You can be certain that we will continue to be war tax resisters.  We follow our conscience, not the calculations of the liklihood that government will or won’t get the money.

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