Vestry elections were a few months away. The anti-Jane members of the congregation recruited a slate of candidates to "save the church." The pro-Jane members supported the incumbents and other candidates who wanted to keep their priest. The congregation seemed to be about equally divided, so both groups became seized with evangelical fervor and began recruiting new members. Many people associated with Exit Free attended the church already (Jane has a spiritual presence about her that inspires people), but now almost all of us found the Lord and showed up in the pews, some in military uniform. I joined myself -- even though I'm really Jewish.
We won the election hands down. Seeing that there were actually more of us than of them was one of the great moments of my life. It filled me with hope. We can change this country.
Since then the general hasn't been to church.
Soldiers whose CO applications get turned down have three options, all of them terrible. They can try to get a psycho discharge, but it's very hard to act convincingly crazy when they've never felt more sane in their lives. Plus the military can lock them in its own mental hospitals and fill them full of drugs, so if they weren't crazy beforehand, they will be afterwards.
They can refuse to obey orders. If so, they'll be jailed for months, court martialed, then sent to military prison for a year or so, and at the end of the sentence they're given a less-than-honorable discharge.
For people with great inner strength, that can be the right path. They are taking a clear moral stand. But the price they have to pay for that can be crushing. Prisons are terrible places that destroy human beings. It's very easy to get in trouble there and get your sentence extended. Some people never get out. Others emerge broken and embittered.
They can desert. If they're caught, they'll usually get a longer prison sentence than a refuser would. They can reduce the risk of arrest if they leave the country and don't return for many years. At some point after a war, congress usually passes an amnesty allowing deserters to return. But that can be a long wait, separated from their family and cultural roots. It's also difficult to find a country that will grant asylum to a deserter. Traditionally Canada and Sweden have sheltered US deserters, but lately Canada has become less willing to displease Washington. They sometimes send people back to be arrested. Sweden is a long ways away, a strange language, a difficult climate.
Fortunately a new possibility has opened up. We've been able to get several Spanish-speaking deserters into Venezuela. The government there isn't afraid to defy Washington. They're showing great courage in standing up to a massive, multi-level attack by the USA and the old Venezuelan elite who want their power back.
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