Down In My Heart by William Stafford is a book about a man from Kansas who spend the years of World War II in a pacifist camp because he did not want to fight in the war. It is yet another camp during the World War II years. I don’t know about you all, but I never thought about the men who refused to fight in the war. A lot of them ended up in prison or jail. But apparently some of them were able to go to camps where they worked on Civilian Public Service projects and firefighting.
He spend 4 years in these camps. From 1942-1946, William worked without pay. He was given an allowance of $2.50/month by a church donation. Can you imagine working for 4 years without pay? I can. This revolution has been me working without pay and it has cost me everything I had worked for my whole life. Perhaps, this is why I gravitate towards these stories. I am also sure it has something to do with the fact that my family created World War II. And they continue to war on me just like they continue to war on the world.
There had to be a bit of privilege that went into being able to say no to joining the war. I do not believe that most people even knew this was an option. Did you know about these camps? Because I did not. I bet the average solider during World War II did not know this was an option either. I know in my life there was never an option to opt out of the war my family wrecks on the world, on me, and on you. Have you ever been able to opt out?
I do not think these work camps were actually opting out of the war, now that I think about it. I think it was just a different kind of war. A different kind of battle. My battle is different than the average soldiers. But it is still a very valid battle. I think William’s battle was too a very valid battle. Just because he was not on the battlefield with a gun killing “the enemy” does not mean he was not at war. We all are at war in our own ways. My war does not invalidate your war. Your war does not invalidate my war. And no war is without gruesome cost.
I did not seek out a books about war camps from World War II. I just search for books that are smaller and easier to carry without looking at what they are about much. And this is the second book with a war camp story from World War II. The first being David Suzuki’s autobiography with the account of being in a Japanese-Canadian camp during WWII in Canada.
I think we need to remember these stories and these experiences. Because I think they will reflect to us the wars we live. WW II never really ended, it just became a covert war that we all have to fight in our daily lives. There are still genocides taking place everyday, but they are covert and not talked about. If we continue to take part in covert genocide we are condoning it. But we also are committing to living at war for the rest of our lives. If we want to escape the war, if we want to stop the war, we have to stop trying to kill groups and races of people. We need to stop poisoning and killing each other. We need to stop trying to tell other people their place. We need to stop making other people into our slaves.
You know mixed Polish people were the first slaves, even before the Africans. They were called “slavs”. We have these subconscious beliefs in our brains. They are downloaded during the third trimester of pregnancy, through your Mother’s blood, when your brain comes online. No one was born to be your slave. And you were not born to be a slave. We will all continue to have to live in fear of someone trying to turn us into a slave, if we continue to try to turn others into our slaves.
Do you want to be a slave owner who lives in fear of becoming a slave himself? Or do you want to be free?