Objecting Conscientiously ,or, How Many People Can I Get Under the Constitution?

Mostly like Band of Brothers

So if the truth is going to be told, dear readers, I have always thought about entering the armed forces. For a long time, that just meant that I liked the idea of being in the military. Never thought much about what the job would actually require. And I may or may not have thought that I would be doing something similar to what I had seen in the World War II movies. Which is of course far removed from what military service is now.

I can’t be the only one who had those kinds of misconceptions.


When I got into high school, I was thinking very seriously about applying to the Reserved Officer Training Corp. And then my senior year happened, a lot of funny ideas got into my head, and I think I’m just lucky that I made it out of that year having decided I wanted to be a high school teacher (for a while there was this Bohemian Playwright image in my head… as if that isn’t about the farthest thing from ROTC). 

Anyway, the point that I want to make is that I have always liked the idea of the armed forces and serving the country and me being a part of that organization, but I never really thought much about the nature of armed conflict. Mainly that it is armed. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the guns themselves. I’ve used rifles and shotguns since I was big enough to do so. I’ve always been a bad shot (I still am, I still blame my bad eyesight and my glasses). It was always the idea of using firearms for killing. Not killing animals, I don’t have moral objections to hunting (well, no moral objections when you plan to eat what you’ve killed), but killing other people.

For a long time I thought of myself as a conscientious objector.

It was an odd coincidence that I had already enlisted when Hacksaw Ridge hit theaters. I had not finished my Army training, so I was watching that movie about a medic (I’m a medic!) who refused to shoot the enemy. I liked that. I thought there was something noble about that. 

However, I realized that it was just the idea that I liked. I hadn’t actually done anything about it when I was enlisting. If you actually want to be a conscientious objector in today’s military, you need to declare it and document it before you sign on the dotted line. I had not done that. And additionally, I think you need to get special dispensation to be a conscientious objector. Which (don’t quote me on this) could possibly be a dispensation only available to someone being drafted, which I was not. I volunteered for it.

So long story short, I’m not a conscientious objector. 

In fact, the Army has trained me to be very skilled at violence, as well as trained me to save the lives of victims of violence, whether it's US combatants, non combatants, or enemy combatants (yes, the Geneva Convention does require me to render aid to enemy combatants... maybe I'll do a whole separate post on my feelings about that). It's a very strange sort of duality but this is me, dear readers.  What other kind of situation do you think I would have got myself into?

So where does all of this leave me?

When I took the Oath of Enlistment, I swore that I would support and defend the Constitution of the United States. And I'm actually enthusiastic about that. Back when I thought the whole military was like the WWII movies, I also knew that the point of the military was this Constitutional defense. And I am happy to be someone who serves his neighbors by doing that. It's actually part of my decision to enlist in the Army National Guard; to interact with my neighbors day to day and be part of the community that I am defending. But I also want more neighbors under the Constitution that I can defend. 

(Hold on, because this is the narrative turn)

I want more neighbors under the Constitution so that I can defend them. I want those neighbors to be from all walks of life, including lives that originate somewhere other than the good ol’ US of A.

I haven't been able to determine it for certain, but I do believe that I am in the minority of soldiers who want more people in the US who come from other countries, and who want to be citizens under the Constitution. Regardless of whether or not it's the minority opinion in the military, I don't talk about it much and neither does anyone else. However, the opposing viewpoint is very vocal. And what I'm guilty of is that those vocal opponents of immigrants and refugees look like me.

Because of who I am, what I look like (white, straight, male, heterosexual, able bodied, CIS presentation, etc), if I say nothing, people assume that I'm a lot more conservative that I am. People who look like me assume that I think like them if I don’t disagree with them or say nothing.

Using the term loosely, I've been a conscientious objector for too long. I've been holding my own beliefs in, taking solace that no, I don't want to keep out immigrants and refugees; I don't want to limit the rights and freedoms of LGBT+ citizens, citizens of color, female citizens. But I haven't said a lot about it when it matters. That is, I haven't said these things when people who look like me speak against them.

So once again I am coming to a place in my life when I realize that I can't have it both ways; I can't stay silent so that I'm part if the in-group, and just be satisfied that I believe in the rights and freedoms and justice for these underrepresented groups. I've got to pick my people and stick with them.

And I have to choose people. Always and every time, I will choose people over policy.

So armed conflict is not the only topic on which I now find I cannot be a conscientious objector.

I wrote a while ago about being an Advocate. I framed that post kinda like I was coming out of the closet and admitting what I thought about other people’s sexuality. I guess I’m coming out of the closet on more social issues now, too.

I don't think I've done too well as an Advocate over the past four years since that last post. Or at least I want to do more. I want to use my social privilege to do more for my neighbors. All my neighbors. And the people who are not yet my neighbors.

Source: Giphy