To all,

You're housebound anyway because of the (Charlottesville) snow, but even if you weren't I would strongly recommend that you read all of the columns about Maury Maverick that George just put on his website. You'll learn a lot.

One thing that George doesn't mention I know only because of having had, with Leonard, the privilege of a long lunch with Maury in San Antonio a few years ago.

When discussing our mutual friend George Loper, Maury said something like "damn that boy, if I hadn't gotten there in time to represent him (George was protesting the Vietnam war) he would have gone to jail."

So we all have a personal interest in Maury's good deeds.

Rhoda Dreyfus (electronic mail, February 15, 2003)

Editor's Note: Articles about Maury Maverick, Jr. on my web site include Maury Maverick, Jr., 82, Champion of the Unpopular, and From Sam of Boston to Our Maury - the Last Maverick?, Champion of Underdogs was San Antonio Icon, After Maury, Jr., They Threw Away the Mold, and Though never a Father, Maverick Guided Many 'Children.

A friend and I sent back our draft cards on October 17, 1967 as a protest against the Selective Service system, which we contended represented "a gross denial of personal freedom in our democratic society." We were immediately declared delinquent, applied for new cards, and made our way to the March on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

Subsequently, we refused our college deferments and applied for conscientious objection status. Believing that Methodists could not also be conscientious objectors, the local draft board declared that we were 1-A.

With Maury Maverick, Jr's assistance (along with help from the ACLU, Methodist ministers and bishops and others), we each ended up in court (after going through state and presidential appeals), where we were declared conscientious objectors, much to the chagrin of the local draft board.

The local draft board turned around and declared us 1-A a second time; but we got out on the lottery and were not offered the opportunity to do alternative service by the draft board.

All of this occured in San Antonio, Texas, which was a military town - where many of the individuals drafted had no opportunity for college, much less college deferments.

While he honored our protests, I believe Maury was actually a proponent of a more equitable draft system which allowed for alternative service and included everyone.