The Rev. Martin Woulfe grew up in a military
family. His father was an officer in the Marines, and young Martin
prepared for a military career.
At 17, he received an appointment to the U.S.
Naval Academy, but, after much soul-searching, he turned it down.
“It had been my goal, coming of age, to
serve God, serve country,” Woulfe says. “Growing up, I
was surrounded by veterans, and it was an anguished process to
realize I could not follow them.”
Today Woulfe, 44, is the minister of
Springfield’s Abraham Lincoln Universalist Unitarian
Congregation. He and other local peace activists recently joined
forces to form Conscientious Objections/Selective Service
Alternatives, an educational group to provide information on
alternatives to military service in case the military draft is
reinstated. Organizers want to ensure that students, parents, and
educators have access to information on how to become a
conscientious objector.
An additional goal is to educate students on
other ways of paying for college so that they don’t feel
compelled to join the military to be able to afford college. CO/SSA
will be creating brochures to give to high-school guidance
counselors, to distribute at college fairs, and to provide
alternatives to military recruiters in schools.
Woulfe wants young people to understand their
options. “I was oblivious to those as a young person,”
he says. “I find war a very poor remedy for the ills that
affect this world today.”
Currently all young men ages 18-25 are
required to register with the Selective Service. If the draft is
reinstated, a person may object to serving in the armed forces or
to bearing arms because of moral or religious reasons.
But Woulfe notes that one must show
documentation of such views over time by creating a paper trail.
According to the Selective Service, “The man’s
lifestyle prior to making his claim must reflect his current
claims.”
A conscientious objector must be opposed to war in any form, but objector status does not
provide an exemption from national service. A person granted
conscientious-objector status will be assigned to a noncombatant role
in the military or to alternative service. Anyone wishing to document
his case may write Woulfe at minister@aluuc.org or call 217-585-9550.
As the mother of an 18-year-old son, CO/SSA
member Jamie Burns says she has been worried about a possible draft
for the past 18 years.
“Fear of the draft has been keeping me
up at night,” Burns says. “It scares me to
death.” Having researched alternatives to military service
for years, Burns wants to share information with other parents.
“If you’re a CO, it doesn’t
mean you won’t serve your country,” Burns says, citing
the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps as alternatives. She also fears that
reductions in federal student-loan money for college are tied to
the military’s programs that pay for college: “We want
to educate people to alternatives for college funding and also how
to handle potential harassment from military recruiters in schools
and elsewhere.”
The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires
public schools to provide military recruiters with students’
names, addresses, and home phone numbers — or risk the loss
of federal funds.
For more information, CO/SSA suggests the Web
sites of the Central Committee on Conscientious Objectors
(www.objector.org), the War Resisters League
(www.warresisters.org), the American Friends Service Committee
(www.afsc.org), and Voices in the Wilderness (vitw.org).
This article appears in Mar 17-23, 2005.
