Monday, January 17, 2005

On MLK Day, conscientious objectors have history on their side

It should come as little surprise that the situation in Iraq is spawning war resisters and conscientious objectors. In American society, we’re trained to view such men and women as insubordinate cowards...but the record speaks for itself. The U.S. government regularly sends non-ruling class men and women into hellish situations and offers them little or no support upon their return.

You and I are made out to be treasonous ingrates if we don’t join in the “support the troops” mantra...but where is the official support? Long before the cries of “support the troops” became commonplace during every nefarious U.S. military intervention, the powers-that-be made it clear (right from the start) how much they intended to follow their own advice. One need look no further than the story of Shay’s Rebellion.



“When Massachusetts passed a state constitution in 1780, it found few friends among the poor and middle class, many of them veterans from the Continental Army still waiting for promised bonuses,” explains historian Kenneth C. Davis. To add to this, excessive property taxes were combined with polling taxes designed to prevent the poor from voting. “No one could hold state office without being quite wealthy,” Howard Zinn says. “Furthermore, the legislature was refusing to issue paper money, as had been done in some other states, like Rhode Island, to make it easier for debt-ridden farmers to pay off their creditors.”

Perhaps heading the advice of Thomas Jefferson that “a little rebellion” is necessary, Massachusetts farmers fought back when their property was seized due to lack of debt repayment. Armed and organized, their ranks grew into the hundreds. Local sheriffs called out the militia...but the militia sided with the farmers. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts indicted eleven members of the rebellion. Indeed, those who had so recently fomented revolt were no longer tolerant of such insurrection.



Enter Daniel Shays: Massachusetts farmer and former Army captain. He chose not to stand by idly as battle lines were being drawn and friends of his faced imprisonment. In September 1786, Shays led an army of some 700 farmers, workers, and veterans into Springfield. “Onetime radical Sam Adams, now part of the Boston Establishment, drew up a Riot Act,” says Davis, “allowing he authorities to jail anyone without a trial.” Shays’ army swelled to more than 1000 men.

Writing from Paris, Jefferson offered tacit approval for, at least, the concept of rebellion. Closer to home, the American aristocracy was less than pleased. Sam Adams again: “In monarchy, the crime of treason may admit of being pardoned or lightly punished, but the man who dares rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death.”

In a classic shape-of-things-to-come scenario, Boston merchants pooled money to raise an army to be led by General Benjamin Lincoln, one of George Washington’s war commanders. Clashes were fierce but the outnumbered rebels were on the run by winter. Most were killed or captured. Some were hanged while others, including Shays, were eventually pardoned in 1787.

Shays died in poverty and obscurity within a year but the rebellion he helped lead not only served as an example of radical patriotism, it resulted in some concrete reforms including, as Davis states, “the end of direct taxation, lowered court costs, and the exemption of workmen’s tools and household necessities from the debt process.”

For further evidence on how little the U.S. supports its troops, one could also point to the Bonus Army, Gulf War Syndrome, and the reality that one our of every three homeless men in America is a veteran.


“Support the troops” really means “support the policy that put the troops in harm’s way.” It has little to do with the men and women on the ground (or the freedoms they are allegedly defending)...and absolutely nothing to do with the people those men and women are killing.

The troops I’d like to support would be a modern-day Shay’s Rebellion of war resisters and conscientious objectors.

Happy MLK Day…


(This post is presented in solidarity with the Progressive Blogger Union. For more information, please visit: http://www.pbu.blogspot.com.)

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Posted on 01/17 at 07:28 AM
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