Allen Johnson

Rt. 1, Box 119-B

Dunmore, West Virginia 24934

August 15, 1994

Mr. Jay Rockefeller

The United States Senate

109 Hart Building

Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Rockefeller:

Enclosed is a copy of a letter my oldest son sent in with a mandated registration card with Selective Service. He never received a reply, probably because Selective Service continues to ignore statements of conscience in the registration process.

I find it very sad that this country, for all its high talk of the rights of individual conscience, still makes it difficult and objectionable for an individual with conscience and conviction who holds to principles of non-violence. As you know, the penalties for non-compliance to registration can be quite severe (high fines, imprisonment, and bans in government employment and student loans).

I urge you to do the right thing, and work toward the abolishment of the Selective Service System:

It is not strategically necessary for military functions. It wastes money.

It is an assault on basic human freedom, for a military draft is compulsory servitude.

It is age and sex discriminatory.

Registration allows no statement for conscience.

It is clearly a sop to certain pseudo-patriots who want to force young men to pinch incense to

Caesar.

Furthermore it is a maintaining of a "tribal" tradition as a "passage into manhood."

This is a time for a new beginning, which believes in a future of peace, which challenges our youth to be reconcilers and peacemakers through truth and justice and not at the end of a gun barrel, that encourages our young women and men to give their lives in peaceful service to humankind and creation. Such would be true greatness for our nation.

Respectfully,

Allen Johnson