Did any of you go to prison either in the vietnam era, or earlier?
I was in severel prisons:
Mount Lemon, Tucson
La Tuna, Texas
El Reno, Oklahoma
MCFP, Springfield, MO
Did 2 years for draft evasion. Didn't really evade. Just didn't step forward.
u
by uninformed 46 Replies latest forum suggestions
Did any of you go to prison either in the vietnam era, or earlier?
I was in severel prisons:
Mount Lemon, Tucson
La Tuna, Texas
El Reno, Oklahoma
MCFP, Springfield, MO
Did 2 years for draft evasion. Didn't really evade. Just didn't step forward.
u
uninformed, my dad was in prison in MO and then was moved to west virginia to fight fires in the early/mid 50s as a cons. observer. he spent 4 years incarcerated.
i dont know what city in MO he was in though.
Looking back now that you know what a bunch of Liars the WTBTS are would you still do that time in gaol or would you have gone to Vietnam?
Dr. Jekyll,
I have given a lot of thought to your question.
To be truthful, I am not really sure, let me explain.
I was a good student in HS and was given several scholarships, and I had a Senatorial appointment to both the Merchant Marine and Coast Guard Academies.
My father had been a career Navy man and even though he was a witness, he asked me not to embaress him by going to prison.
Anyway, I guess that I wish I would have taken the Coast Guard Academy. But I am not sure.
I have visited the "WALL" in D.C. and have cried there for all the young men that were lost, and all the lives that were damaged. I say the movie, "The Killing Fields" and have felt so sad for the Vietnamese too, and their plight when the Americans left.
I feel a little like a coward for not going, though I have never been cowardly in any other way. I don't think I am a coward, I thought I was brave and honorable.
Prison was all in all a good experience for me. I studied the Bible really hard, reading it a couple of times, but also deeply indoctrinating myself in the WT viewpoint. Probably why it took me until 2005 to leave the org.
Short answer, I did what I thought was right and I think a person should live that way.
I do regret not being there on the battlefield if I could have helped someone live, but we all make choices. I hate war and killing, but I am all in favor of the destruction of Terrorism. I have a real hard line attitude toward Muslims, although I am sure there must be a few that love their fellow man. The rest should be destroyed. See what I mean?
I am almost 60 and stupider than ever.
u
Candidlynuts,
The federal penitentiary at Springfield Missouri is the only federal pen in MO that I know of.
In the prison camp, we had a locker that was passed down from one set of inmates to the next there in Springfield, and JW's from the 40's put literature in it and it was followed by later brothers until it came to us in the mid to late 60's. I was the librarian of the locker when I was there and would look through and see the names and numbers of my predecessors.
Your dad may have been one of them.
u
thats neat!
he would never talk about the prison years..although he did say once that even if he wasnt a JW he'd not have gone to war. he's a very gentle man and he said it was just not in him to be in a position to have to kill other people.
Candidlynuts,
since your are already 92 years old your dad must be really old.
Is he still around?
enjoyed your post.
u
What about you doc? Will you be grabbing a tin hat and a gun when amnesia invades?
uncle old guard
___________________________
Tao Te Ching 45
Great straightness seems twisted,
Great intelligence seems stupid,
Great eloquence seems awkward.
Movement overcomes cold Stillness overcomes heat,
Stillness and tranquillity set things in order in the universe.
Lao Tsu 600BC
yeah i'm spry for such an old bird..
my dad is in his late 70s..i'm much younger than he is LOL
uninformed,
I am almost 60 and stupider than ever.
I once read somewhere that an old(er) man with an open mind is not of much value. By the time you hit sixty, it is expected that you would have formed opinions and preferences. There is nothing to be ashamed of there.
And I know someone who went to prison in Georgia for not going in. Anyone remember an L.G. Kitchen?