"Leadership matters." That was Congressman Chris Shays' campaign slogan. And I agree with him: leadership does matter. So it is important for voters to understand how Chris Shays, one of the most ardent supporters of sending young American men and women to fight in Iraq, could himself refuse service in the military when he was called. Chris Shays was twenty four years old when the lottery was reinstated on December 1, 1969 at the height of the Vietnam War. According to Selective Service records, Shays, whose birthday was October 18, drew the very low number 5. All men who drew the number 195 or lower that month were inducted into military service. Somehow, however, Shays was able to avoid induction. At the time Shays was serving in the Peace Corps in Fiji. Yet Peace Corps has confirmed that Peace Corps service was not considered a basis for a draft deferment.
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| Later in 1972 Shays applied for conscientious objector status, apparently in response to being subject to the draft again. Shays was granted CO status by a 3:2 vote of his draft board. He was quoted in 2002 as stating that had he not been granted CO status, he would nevertheless have refused to serve in the armed forces. Curiously, Mr. Shays was not required to perform any alternative service, as were most other CO's during the Vietnam War. In a 2005 interview with the New York Times magazine, Shays reiterated his pacifism, stating "I just know I can't go kill people."
Now that the Iraq War that Shays pushed so hard for America to enter has claimed the lives of more than 4,000 young American men and women, wounded more than 29,000 others, inflicted PTSD on hundreds of thousands, and wasted more than half a trillion dollars, it makes sense to ask Congressman Shays to explain his personal belief that it is immoral to take up arms in defense of the United States. Leadership matters, and a man who states that he "just knows he can't go kill people" needs to explain the morality of sending other people's children to kill and be killed. He needs to tell the parents, children, and spouses of Americans fighting in Iraq how it was that he avoided military service in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam War, how he was able to claim to be a conscientious objector in 1972, and how he was able to avoid having to perform the alternative service that was required of most CO's during that war. Chris Shays has refused to explain his pacifist beliefs, or to explain how he squares his slogan "leadership matters" with his own refusal to do what he is now requiring hundreds of thousands of young Americans to do in Iraq. It's time for him to explain himself and make his draft record public. Because leadership matters.
Sources:
Peace Corps Online. February 14, 2002
New York Times Magazine, May 8, 2005
Selective Service website: www.sss.gov/lotter1.htm
Wikipedia- Chris Shays biography
The information regarding the vote of Shays' daft board came from Shays himself, who revealed that to the author in response to my question at a candidate appearance at Sacred Heart University in fall 2004. |
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