Conscientious Objection
Praise to those who refuse conscription.
Praise to ‘draft dodgers’ and objectors to war.
May the only thing they are ever induced to burn
be their draft cards. Let them stand against
the vast sways of their deluded societies
which crave and justify war as if it’s the answer
to their crisis, crises, situations, conditions.
Praise to the ones who stand against the claims
of ‘no alternative’, ‘responsibility to your country’,
and other epithets of manipulation and destruction.
Praise to the conscience that understands killing
leads to more killing and that military ‘camaraderie’
is the ultimate ganging up, bullying behaviour.
Praise to those who know cowardice is operating
in armies is facilitating starvation and the deaths
of children. To refuse conscription, to refuse to fight,
is not cowardice, and ‘bravery’ is not even a word
with an adequate range or an adequate history
to apply to such resolution, inner strength, morality.
John Kinsella
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