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DAILY NEWS In America: Listen to the Whisper By Miryam Wiley Saturday, March 19, 2005 My father's weekly newspaper stated simply on its masthead: "Para nao mudar, basta nao pensar." With apologies to the double negative, this short source of inspiration of my earlier years can be roughly translated as: "To not change, all you need is to not think." This week, this adage came back to me as I had the opportunity to talk to Camilo Mejia, the most recent recipient of the Courage of Conscience Award at the Peace Abbey in Sherborn. As the first veteran of the war in Iraq to become a conscientious objector, Camilo, in his unpretentious style, was a sudden reminder to me that we must all be vigilant of what makes us human. A devoted squad leader who describes his fellow soldiers as "closer than brothers and sisters," Camilo made the difficult choice not to return to the war he was fighting. After agonizing over this decision because he knew in his heart he was helping to perpetuate something he knew was terribly wrong, he simply didn't board the plane to go back. With fingers pointing at him, he has served eight months in prison for this crime. But he has no regrets and among pacifists, many people applaud him. Camilo's decision not to go back was a sign of his serious thinking. Not only did he disagree with the war because of its basic false premise, since there were no weapons of mass destruction, but he said he also became aware that all the basic training given to soldiers was being ignored. "We were being used as bait," said Camilo. "We were conducting missions without any regard for our lives. "For instance, in our training, we use the element of surprise," he said. "You don't leave the compound using the same route, you establish a contingency plan. But instead of using this knowledge, we broke all the rules, we followed the same routes. They wanted the enemy to shoot at you." As strange as this may sound, Camilo said that higher rank officers need casualties to advance their careers. Camilo said he also saw other outrageous abuses of power. In one situation, they were setting up a roadblock on a very dark road near the Euphrates River. In their usual manner, according to training, they would have used chemical lights and signs in Arabic in order to stop those going through the road, which, by the way, lead to a hospital. The orders from superiors were to shoot at anyone going through the roadblocks. As a squad leader, Camilo said he told his soldiers, "I'm not going to tell anyone to disobey a colonel, but I'm not going to open fire unless I see a weapon. "I felt it could be a father and two children going to the hospital." I asked Camilo if he believed his fellow soldiers think of him as a coward, and he said he knows they don't because they know how hard a decision it is to call it quits. "It's so terrifying to even say: 'I'm against this war,'" he said. "Deep inside they wouldn't think I'm a coward because I was in combat, I did my job as a squad leader, and I did all the things that an infantryman is supposed to do in combat." Still, he could not leave his conscience and go on following a war he knew was wrong, he said. "I don't think that with this war we are helping the United States or the freedom in Iraq. If anything, we are giving terrorism a new life. Think of the anger and resentment we're creating for being there! I think we're fighting for corporate interest and oil is probably the biggest of all As I listened to Camilo, I thought of how we must be aware of our need to think and not just follow orders. My father, whose heroes included Henry David Thoreau and Paul Robeson, would smile at anyone's challenge to the old saying he printed on his paper. As Camilo saw up close, there comes a time when one must indeed decide to think thoroughly. "If only the 18 men who crashed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had a moment when they questioned the order given to them by their superior?" stated Lewis Randa, the director of the Peace Abbey. "They probably had their moments when they questioned it but their conscience wasn't evolved enough to disobey the order. Camilo's conscience was. "We don't have to agree with what Camilo did to find room in our hearts to celebrate the workings of conscience. Isn't what he did what we hope people will do all over the world? The only rule of thumb God has given us is the whispering voice of conscience that tells us what's right and what's wrong." As we pass the second anniversary of the war in Iraq, let's hope the whispering will inspire more minds. To not change, all you need is to not think. METROWEST DAILY NEWS Army Deserter Receives Award From Abbey By Jennifer Kavanaugh / Daily News Staff Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Mejia returned to Sherborn yesterday on the one-year anniversary of that visit to accept the Peace Abbey's Courage of Conscience Award. In the past year, a military court found him guilty of desertion, and he spent more than eight months in a military jail until his release last month. Despite the punishment he received, and the fact that he will be appealing his case through the military court system for the foreseeable future, Mejia, 29, said he believes he did the right thing. "If anything, as far as my principles, my thinking, my feelings, they've only gotten stronger," Mejia said before the awards ceremony. "I continue to disagree with the war. I continue to be a conscientious objector." Over the last year, the soft-spoken Mejia has drawn a mix of reactions -- from those who view him as a hero for defending his beliefs, to those who see him as a deserter and worse. He understands that some people strongly disagree with him, he said, and someday, he would like the chance to speak with the soldiers he left behind. "It was a very painful decision -- these are people I love very much," Mejia said of the soldiers in his unit. "Not being there, and the fact that they were back there, it was very difficult." A Nicaraguan immigrant who grew up in Miami, Mejia spent several years in the Army and then the National Guard before being sent to Iraq as a staff sergeant with a Florida National Guard infantry unit. After seven months in Iraq, Mejia came home on a 14-day leave in October 2003 and decided not to return. Mejia spent five months in hiding, and during that time he came in contact with the Peace Abbey. The Peace Abbey counseled him about conscientious objection, and when he appeared there a year ago he signed a request to be treated as a conscientious objector. That same day, Mejia turned himself in at Hanscom Air Force Base
to face desertion charges. The Peace Abbey has given this courage award to more than 100 other people who stood up for their beliefs. Past recipients include Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and Peter, Paul and Mary. "I consider the Peace Abbey to be my spiritual home," Mejia said. Mejia said the changes that have taken place in Iraq over the past year, most notably the recent elections, have not made him more likely to support the effort. "How free an election can it be when you have insurgency and an occupying force -- personally, I'm not buying it," Mejia said. Some of Mejia's family members joined him last night at the Peace Abbey, including his mother, Maritza Castillo of Miami, and his aunt Norma Castillo, who lives in New York. "We're very proud of him, and we've supported him from the moment he decided not to go back," Norma Castillo said. "We, as well as he, feel the war is criminal, immoral and illegal." Mejia has not been discharged from the military, but is on leave now as he appeals his case. Louis Font, Mejia's civilian attorney from Brookline, said that process could take several months or even longer. Mejia said he plans to remain an active part of the anti-war movement, but he doesn't yet know how that involvement will take shape. He also plans to spend more time with his daughter, Samantha, 4 1/2, whom he has not seen often in the last couple of years. When asked how he would advise similarly conflicted soldiers, Mejia said no two people experience war the same way, and that he cannot advocate one specific solution. "I would tell them to follow their hearts," Mejia said. "I don't think anybody could go wrong if they follow their hearts." |
SHERBORN
-- One year ago, Camilo Mejia came to the Peace Abbey to explain
why he refused to fight in Iraq with his National Guard unit, and
why he was not going to support what he considered a war for oil
and money.