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In Support of Peace and Consistency – And Our Friend “Bal”

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

          Why is it that a large portion of the so-called doves, who vehemently oppose the use of force against Iraqis, at the same time vehemently promote the use of force against Americans?  They don’t want to see American guns pointed at a tyrant who has murdered thousands of innocents, but they find it perfectly acceptable to point the guns of the IRS, ATF, EPA, police, and others at people who have harmed nobody and who are simply working and minding their own business.  In fact, they think we are not using enough force against American innocents and should use more.  They promote more extraction of the income Americans earn, more regulation of Americans’ personal habits, more restriction of Americans’ freedom of association, economic freedom, and even freedom of speech and press – all by creating more laws enforceable at gunpoint against Americans.  Doves, indeed!

          So many people appear to feel that they are superior to the rest of the world, because they want peace, while at the same time being the most shrill and disrespectful folks of all.  They refer to our President in very derogatory terms and refer to his administration as “Bushies”.  Is it not possible for these self-ordained superior, peace-loving people to disagree respectfully?  Regardless of how much they may dislike the President and disagree with his policies, can they not have respect for the office and for the awesome responsibilities of that office?  Taking responsibility for sending people to kill and to be killed cannot be easy for any person of conscience.  One would think that such clearly superior people would have sympathy for anyone in that very difficult position.  But, of course, they have serious problems of their own that, in their eyes must seem much more awesome – for example, whether to pick up an espresso or a double latte on their way to the protest march!

          When I was a child, living in a largely Italian area in my mother’s home town of Glastonbury, Connecticut, our family had a friend named Mario, who was older than my mother.  When he was in high school, he was given the nickname Balboa after the Italian explorer, because he was very interested in learning.  In particular, he was fascinated with chemistry and loved to make explosives.  Over the years, when the farmers came across a large boulder in their field, they would hire “Bal” to blow it up.   My mother used to tell me about World War II and about many good people she knew who went away to war and never returned.  I understood that the old-timers remembered and frowned upon the few people who had pulled strings to avoid the draft, but at the same time they had great respect for Bal, who had refused to go to war when he was drafted. 

          The draft board folks had asked Bal whether he was a conscientious objector, being opposed to all forms of violence.  Bal had answered truthfully that he was not opposed to all forms of violence.  He told them that he refused to go to Europe and kill innocent people who had done him no harm, but, if someone came to his home to harm him or his family, he would gladly shoot them dead in their tracks.  Bal felt that violence had its place, and it should be used in self-defense or for constructive purposes like removing boulders.  For his refusal to be drafted, Bal was sentenced to, and served, five years in federal prison. 

          We all had great respect for Bal’s strength of character and for his willingness to spend five years in prison when he easily could have gotten off the hook by lying.  I have similar respect for those who oppose our current war out of a similar clear moral philosophy and consistent, strong conviction.  But I have little use for the large numbers of war protesters who consider themselves to be superior to others, who are disrespectful of others, and who are very inconsistent in their views or have not even thought or studied enough about what is a “just war” to have developed a clear moral philosophy. 

          By the way, while Bal was in federal prison, he worked in the kitchen, where they used nitrates to preserve the meats.  Bal made extensive use of the nitrates and produced enough explosives to blow up the whole facility.  I have no doubt that, if anyone had dared to attack the federal prison, Bal would have done a fine job of defending it!

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