What were you doing at age 18 ?

[rug]

16. Yes, on my 18th birthday I went to the draft board in Times Square and registered.

I had written to General Hershey a few months before asking why I should and got a letter back from a Major which was pretty respectful. But in the end it simply said because Congress said so.

So I went to the Quaker group, the American friends Service Committee on Rutherford Place, and got a lot of information, including conscientious objection.

So, when I registered I asked for a C.O. form but not the student deferment form even though I was in college.

The form then was about 36 questions long asking things like, "What have you done to demonstrate your beliefs?" I was 18. I didn't think stopping masturbating counted. I couldn't fill out the form.

At college, each semester I got a letter from the registrar asking why I didn't fill out the student deferment forms. I wrote back that I wasn't deferring, I was objecting.

Fortunately some group sued about the form and it was simplified to six questions.

By then there was the lottery and I got a high number. At that point I said fuck it and the great moral struggle of my life evaporated.