49th Anniversary of my PAROLE from Federal prison

by TerryWalstrom 17 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  wozza

  Congratulations Terry ,I personally think you did what you did at the time sincerely and that's what counts. It shows what good qualities you had when young even if the cause was wrong.

  My story was from another angle in those days ,I actually joined the navy at 17 ignoring my fathers request not to. You see he was a bomber in the RAF from 39-45 the whole duration and had taught me the evils of war from a young age. I wanted to see the world and put aside my anti war feelings for that ,joined and soon learned what being at war meant and it was real and I realised my mistake.

  I came forward as concientious objector and the navy gave me hell ,threatened jail but they got rid of me with the optional discharge squad (you could optionally leave the service after a qualifying period)

  Glad I did'nt kill any Vietnamese people and so was my dad and still proud of my stand to this day.

  You stuck to your principles at that time and the motivation from your heart was the thing that mattered.
  
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  Finkelstein

  Your unfortunate experience in prison Terry is what happens when you get pretentiously led in power religious leaders making critical social decisions involving others people's lives.
  
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  OnTheWayOut

  Thanks for sharing. And on this solemn anniversary, your shameless self promotion is acceptable.
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  JaniceA

  Terry, the WT stinks. You have had a colorful and interesting life in part due to your association with it.Prison is such a horrible and dangerous experience that I think the harms you have experienced cannot begin to be mitigated by the end result- clearly you are a creative and thoughtful man with amazing qualities. But after the WT chews us up and spits us out, everything is altered and our life course changes dramatically.

  You have been a great person to know of over the years and I selfishly am glad you are in our band of misfit toys, but. . .

  How many of us wonder how our lives would be had we not had our brains distorted by that association with the WTBTS ? Where would Terry be?
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  zeb

  Australia too faced conscription for the Vietnam war.

  My number came up and I was told to say refusing the draft was... MY... idea.

  As it was I failed the medical and was not inducted into the Australian Army. I wonder if the wts would have paid for the lawyers to fight my case?...................

  Australia lost 521 killed and 3000 wounded in its involvement 3-8-62 to 2-12-72.
  
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  smiddy3

  I was one of the lucky one`s in Australia my birth date exempted me in the ballot box.And that was about a year or 18 months before I became a convert .

  I often wondered what would have happened had my number came up ?
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  Still Totally ADD

  I remember visiting brothers in the federal prison in Springfield MO. I was 15 years old and my parents was preparing me for the same fate. I was scared to death about what my future was going to be. Terry I am so sorry what you went through but it does seem you made lemons into lemonade. I aways felt how unfair it was that those who ran to Canada to avoid the draft was pardon but those who stood up for their beliefs and paid the price was not. By the way I turned 18 in 1972 when I registered for the draft and a few months later the lottery came out and my lottery number was in the 350's. The war was winding down at the time so I went from a 1-A to a 1-H classification. I was never bother again.

  The cult sure but alot of us through hell for their publication business. I Wish you great success on your books. Still Totally ADD
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  TerryWalstrom

  Thanks to all for your comments.
  I just posted some follow-up thoughts on WAR in general.
  No matter which group we find ourselves in, it generally comes down to
  Good Guys VS Bad Guys and listening to leadership and believing what we are told.
  
  In the long run---we discover which side we were on and if the "Truth" we were assured was moral high ground really was so.
  
  The history of the Watchtower religion is fortunately riddled with testable and falsifiable statements of "Truth" from a Divine source.
  The result? LIES.
  Believing and acting on a lie is certainly problematic--isn't it?
  
  Doing the wrong thing while believing you are wholly in the right is one of the
  most troubling states of being.
  
  If only. If only. If only I could point to something actually achieved during my stay in Federal Prison. But no.
  I taught myself to play the piano. Well, Yippee for me.
  I memorized "significant dates" in history. (Total bullshit dreamed up by Fred Franz.)
  I wrote many letters filled with bromides and holy balderdash.
  I made "friends" with 39 "Brothers" who never stayed in touch.
  

  I didn't kill anybody. That doesn't make me moral. It is better than killing and thinking that the orders I followed exempt me from culpability. Yeah.
  
  But! I could have worked in a hospital and done somebody some good.
  Could have but it was remarkably disallowed!
  I hang that on the GB and the Jehovah monster.