My Thoughts About Conscientious Objection

by Anne Barschall
Scarsdale Meeting

I was first inspired to pacifism when my father’s laboratory was bombed by student radicals opposed to the Vietnam War. A student was killed. Another student was seriously injured. The records of 25 years of my father’s research were destroyed. Moreover, bombers essentially missed their target — an Army Math Research Center that was situated above my father’s laboratory.

I was opposed to the Vietnam War as well, but I saw how the violence in search of peace had been very wrong.

I do not feel that I can say, as some early Friends did, that I would never be violent. I have a bad temper. I get afraid. I cannot say for certain how I would react to a high stress, emergency situation.

I believe, though, in what I learned from AVP, namely that if one prepares oneself to respond to an emergency situation with violence, one is more likely to become violent. On the other hand, if one prepares to respond with the transformative power of God’s love, one is more likely to be able to respond that way. I hope that I will find a way to go with the transformative power of God’s love, rather than with violence.

I also believe that the decision of when or whether I am going to become violent is not one that I can delegate to someone else. I certainly cannot delegate that decision to a member of the US government. During my lifetime, every direct action of war that we have undertaken has been outright wrong. Many of the sneaky intelligence interventions that we have undertaken have also been wrong. We have done more harm than good. This has been especially true in Muslim countries, where our interventions have typically resulted in violent anarchy—which enables the rise of terrorist organizations.

This business of not delegating is a bit like marriage. Most people would not delegate the responsibility for having sex with their spouse to someone else. For me, the decision of whether or not I will become violent is not to be delegated.