My younger self, facing the Selective Service System (the draft) in 1969 would be amazed at the evolution of conscientious objection to this point in time. When this country has triggered yet another war.
And how I have been led on this journey to understand the conditions that require an evolution of our (Quaker) Peace Testimony and how to respond today, in the face of the attack on Iran. Today, I understand that the people in this country face a unified set of interlocking systems of injustice, i.e. capitalist violence that is rooted in ongoing colonialism. Those systems have created a new draft, i.e. an economic draft, that forces many of us to be constrained and conscripted into jobs and an economy often don’t reflect our values. Conscripted by fears of losing jobs or healthcare insurance from our jobs. Being conscripted into high paying jobs in order to be able to pay student debt. Or young people continuing to be conscripted into the armed forces for lack of alternatives.
This is all rooted in the European colonization of this land. Thus, our Peace Testimony must be rooted in decolonization. That is why, for example, I plan to return to the Great Plains Action Society’s Urban Resilience Hub in Iowa City tomorrow. This decolonial work is my peace testimony today.
