Jeremy Hinzman Leads Way For U.S. War Resisters in Canada

[chlamor]

JEREMY HINZMAN LEADS WAY FOR U.S. WAR RESISTERS IN CANADA
By Gerry Condon
Apr 20, 2005, 19:32

Initial Denial of Refugee Status Only a Bump in the Road

by Gerry Condon

Five days a week, Jeremy Hinzman, a native of South Dakota, doggedly rides his bicycle through the snow-laden streets of Toronto (now thawing). Since receiving his Canadian work permit, he has been employed as a bicycle messenger, a job he had "been wanting to try for eons." Jeremy is 26 and in excellent shape. He is a long distance runner and has run a couple of marathons since he arrived in Canada in January 2004. Nonetheless, he admits to being exhausted when he arrives home from work. "It’s a good thing I started this job at the most difficult time of year," he says. "It can only get easier from here." This philosophical attitude and the stamina of a long distance runner have served Jeremy well ever since August 2, 2002, when, as a soldier in the U.S. Army, he asked to be classified as a Conscientious Objector and reassigned to a non-combat job.

It takes a lot of fortitude for a soldier to declare himself a Conscientious Objector. Although military law makes provisions for soldiers who decide they are pacifists, many soldiers are not informed of this option. Pursuing Conscientious Objector status is frowned upon, especially in a gung-ho unit like Jeremy’s – the 82nd Airborne. "C.O." applicants are called coward and traitors. Some have even been physically and sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers.

But Jeremy had the right stuff. He had a profound commitment to seek spiritual direction in his life. And he had the courage to follow his conscience, wherever it led him. He had converted to Catholicism in high school. Even while in Army training, he was reading about the Buddhist philosophy of living. On Sundays, Jeremy and his wife attended the Quaker meeting in Fayetteville, North Carolina, next to Fort Bragg, the "Home of the Airborne." They enjoyed the weekly group meditations and were inspired by the pacifist message of the Quakers. Jeremy, an active duty airborne troop in a time of war, came to realize that he could not in good conscience carry a weapon or kill another human being.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_16959.shtml