Selective Service expands alternatives for conscientious objectors

[The Straight Story]

Selective Service expands alternatives for conscientious objectors

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Back in the 1960s and 1970s, compulsory military service - "the draft" - was much more in the forefront of public consciousness. Vietnam War protestors used tactics such as draft card burning, deserting to Canada or even violent civil unrest to get their points across.

While the Selective Service System has been around since 1917 and a draft has been activated and deactivated several times since then, it's been almost 40 years since the last time it was necessary to conscript men between the ages of 18 and 35 into involuntary military service.

And as long as there's been Americans fighting in wars, there have been those who do not object to the idea of serving their country, but do object to the idea of directly killing another human being or being involved in that act. These conscientious objectors are not cowards, said Selective Service Director Lawrence G. Romo, but are simply opposed to the idea of taking another person's life.

Romo, a San Antonio native, was in town April 20 to sign the agency's first Alternative Service Employer Network agreement in 25 years, expanding options for conscientious objectors should a military draft ever be reinstated. The agreement is between the Selective Service System and the Mennonite Voluntary Service, an agency of the Mennonite Church USA.

...

According to the Selective Service website (http://www.sss.gov), beliefs which qualify a registrant for conscientious objector status may be religious in nature, but don't have to be. Beliefs may be moral or ethical; however, a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war must not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest. In general, the man's lifestyle prior to making his claim must reflect his current claims.


http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/04/22/37811-selective-service-expands-alternatives-for-conscientious-objectors/?ref=news-home-title1

[Oregone]

1. "there have been those who do not object to the idea of serving their country"

I object period, whether you are firing bullets, feeding the people firing the bullets, tending their injuries, or just planting pretty trees. I don't give a damn.