Comments: Moving to Canada is 'Courageous'?
Have you gotten a lot of "Boy, it must be cold up there!" since you've been in Texas? Don't bother trying to explain the notion of four seasons to Americans; we don't want to hear it.
Posted by Dave K. at September 23, 2004 02:40 PM
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a dodger apologist, but if you think of this guy's point of view, it is indeed courageous. He obviously thinks Vietnam was an unjust war and that it was the duty of conscripts to avoid service. Makes sense to me...
Posted by Stern at September 23, 2004 03:28 PM
If you believed that the war was unjust, and that refusal to serve was morally justified - and required - the courageous response would be to suffer the consequences of draft refusal in the United States.
That's my basic problem with contemporary proponents of 'civil disobedience' - most of them are perfectly unwilling to suffer the consequences of their supposedly-firmly-held positions. Dr. King properly recognized that civil disobedience required one to submit to the prescribed punishment; he recognized that going to jail for sitting at a lunch counter highlighted the injustice of segregation.
Draft dodgers truly committed to their moral objections would have shown some sort of courage by going to jail rather than serving. Fleeing to Canada to escape responsibility is cowardice by anyone's standard.
Posted by David Mader at September 23, 2004 04:36 PM
Can't waid for Kerry's take on this one. Was draft dodging as honorable has his sojourn in 'Nam? If yes, then why not the National Guard? Oh the nuance!
Meanwhile, here's a gem from Howell Raines, fired Executive Editor of the NYT (in the May Atlantic Monthly). Of the Times newsroom he writes, "Great value is placed on the act of 'speaking truth to power', with little regard for the substance or factuality of what is spoken". Liberal media anyone? Mr. Rather?
Posted by Len at September 23, 2004 09:01 PM
I agree with Dave on this, if you can't suffer the consequences of your actions there is nothing heroic about it. That is the problem with too many so called "activists" today. How many celebrities do you see today who proclaim that the US is the source of all evil yet continue to live and work in that same country? They rake in millions of dollars from the same system they apparently hate, Michael Moore for instance. Being from Canada, I'm deeply ashamed of how my country has been acting the last decade. We harp on and on with some kind of holier than though attitude, yet what exactly have we done lately to make the world a better place?
Posted by willbur at September 23, 2004 09:49 PM
Well to put it bluntly, 75% of the draft dodgers that came to Canada were just spineless jellyfish, it had nothing to do with the war being unjust and if this monument even gets build, somebody should visit it everday and smear it with fresh chicken sh*t.
Posted by Bob at September 23, 2004 11:53 PM
Having been on both sides of the 'Nam debate, this monument doesn't bother me.
If I ever pass that way I'll remember Cambodia, I'll remember the boat people.
Then I'll think: a monument to stupidity.
Having been stupid once, I'm not offended by the reminder.
Posted by M. Simon at September 24, 2004 06:49 PM
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