Lives are spent as ours are now, and as our children will spend their lives, trying to recover the devastating violence placed in their hearts and minds, as well as recovery of their devastated environment. Impossible! The heart and mind will never intersect. Wars only produce wars!
At this moment I became at peace with being a military industrial complex conscientious objector!
I became enough of a disturbance in the office and in our community that I was relieved of duty and returned to the United States on March 1, 1991. Upon returning to the country, I took a short vacation and then went back to work with no promise of a future position in the company. I was laid off on May 15, 1991, after being offered and turning down a job in Central America in support of more violence.
What have I learned through this experience? I am thankful I have been able to catch a glimpse of the peace we all strive for by not supporting violence. I found that we, as Americans, have been inured to violence. We have become the violence we fight by focusing our limited resources on militarism. We have been duped by the military industrial complex. Its promises of peace are hollow; it only produces insecurity and violence in the name of security.
With all of us well indoctrinated in maintaining a military power and a military industrial complex as a way of life, we pay a high price and will continue to do so. We have sold ourselves short as human beings, as brothers and sisters, as husbands and wives, as neighbors around the world and as those who follow a spiritual life with God of whatever great religion or tradition we belong.
Because of the terror that is looming in our hearts from nuclear weapons, it is a journey with the God of nonviolence that affords us the opportunity to reconcile with ourselves, our children, grandchildren, and with our neighbors throughout the world. Nuclear weapons are like the walls around the cities of Europe. As the author Noah benShea expressed, "Fear put them up and fear maintains them."
It is we, the employees, ex-employees and supporters of the military industrial complex who hold the knowledge and skills we need to free ourselves from this toxic and threatening death that looms. It is imperative that we turn our careers as physicists, mathematicians, engineers, technicians and support personnel from manufacturers of terror to fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers working for real peace in lieu of this pseudo/false peace we try to accept as the best it can be. All of us are needed to dismantle this environmental disaster. It is our knowledge and work that can get us out of this never-ending buildup looming to take life from us all.
We must go to that sacred space where our heart and mind intersect and listen. We will find that there is only one truth and that is the truth of nonviolence. I encourage all of us to start that journey now! Conscientious objection is acceptance of conscience! If we are to leave a livable future for our young we must stop all development and manufacture of nuclear weapons. We must stop calling war "honorable." We must stop accepting the robbery of our resources by the military industrial complex. Our work, our knowledge, our gift to the world is much greater than this. They are squandering our financial resource, our hours on earth and our talents.
We must demand an end to war. We must demand leadership that leads and is not bought out by lobbyist and corporate interests. We must demand that our government work for us and our children.
For years I was blind to the cost of my personal perceived success. From the first great movies of WWII to the youthful enthusiasm while listening to my uncle's war experiences, it was easy to become enthralled in the falsely acclaimed "honor" and excitement of militarism. Don't continue the myth of trying to protect our children from violence while building weapons of mass destruction. Someday our children will be asking why we lied.
We can gather together and form safe communities where we can discuss and dialogue about our concerns and approaches to this challenge of truth. We are some of the brightest and I know that with the corporate knowledge that we have used to develop these weapons we have the knowledge and capability and power to reverse this process.
It may require a work stoppage. It may require a strike. It may require quitting and looking for work elsewhere that is not part of the military industrial complex. That is what I had to do to free myself from the guilt and anxiety I felt being complicit in these activities of destruction. The cost has been high. It was not simple to turn my back on a six figure income, perfect medical insurance, life insurance and retirement.
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