Many ways to be peaceful and at peace

For those yearning for a false hope and nebulous change, this is from an older post of mine expressing surprise that today's college students need to sign a pledge--not for peace--but to support their own values (or someone else's) of social justice.

Didn't people always do this without signing a pledge card? Would someone who registered as a Conscientious Objector for the draft 40 years ago have gone to work in the armaments industry? In the 80s I refused to apply for a women's studies position at the OSU library because I knew I'd have to buy books that supported abortion; I refuse to buy stock in companies that make their profits creating alcohol or tobacco products, which in turn creates death; I don't want viaticals in my retirement portfolio; I won't buy tickets to movies or plays or buy or read books that demean and ridicule women; I write to advertisers of shows that ridicule and criticize Christians; I regularly write my congresswoman who is a Republican in name only and remind her of conservative principles; I let my pastors know when the message is weak and not gospel centered, offering false hope; I recommend books to my public library, even when I know I'm ignored; I don't laugh at jokes or watch TV programs that belittle women or Christians or the elderly or the not-so-bright; I tithe my income and I'm pretty careful to whom it goes; I am an advocate for the Mexican people's government shaping up and creating opportunity in their own country; and I would have never needed a pledge made at college graduation to know that racist language had no place in a training manual, but I'd have to be pretty desperate for a cause to turn down work because of gender parity in athletics or anything else.