Silliman's Blog: 1/1/12

Saturday, January 07, 2012

Friday, January 06, 2012

It was literally 40 years ago that I & the Selective Service came to an agreement that I should perform my alternative service obligation working – sans pay – for the Committee for Prisoner Humanity & Justice (CPHJ) in San Rafael. The Service had already turned down two of my previous suggestions – teaching at an alternative high school in Orinda, California, and working as a housing investigator for an urban housing non-profit, going to large realtors with the same credentials as a second investigator who differed from me only in being black & seeing who would be willing to rent to both us, and who would not. The Service’s rationale was that neither of the positions I suggested would require me to move from my home in North Oakland, and dislocation was one of the tests the Service threw at Conscientious Objectors since army inductees were obviously being dislocated in being shipped to Viet Nam.

The Service had also suggested a few ideas of its own: working in a nursing home in Gilroy, garlic capitol of America, and a hospital in Cleveland. I had agreed to both of those assignments, only to have the assignment lists overturned by court decisions because of other irregularities that were screwing with other Objectors. When I contacted CPHJ, they were wary but open to exploring the idea. They had already had at least one prior CO volunteer, and that person had not lasted long. Over the phone, I asked the executive director, Evelyn Schaaf, who they were – years in the anti-war movement had taught me that most political non-profits had an agenda, a frame of analysis, often what they would have characterized as a line to which they adhered. I wasn’t prepared for Evelyn’s response: “Two fat ladies,” she said, roaring with laughter at her own joke.

Labels: Personal