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Writing on April 3, my first inclination is to use the space to excuse the tardiness of our newsletter. On the other hand, perhaps I shouldn’t mention that but wait and see if anyone notices. It could be a way to get more people to read the Handful of Salt.
One reason this issue is so late is that Nancy and I seized an opportunity to take a road trip with our daughter to New Mexico. I had intended to do some writing on the trip, and although that didn’t happen, I did get some insights on some significant issues. For example, there is no bigger national issue, at the moment in New Mexico, than immigration.
Immigration, of course, is an important social justice issue for everyone in the U.S. Unfortunately, perspectives on the issue are often based upon economic status, fear, greed, prejudice, or a combination of those elements. My heart is with those who are gathering in great numbers in places like Yakima, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. to demand a better immigration policy, but most Americans don’t really know what they want.
Policy should be based upon justice. It’s easy to begin there, but justice must take the entire country into account, not just undocumented aliens, those who make fortunes from their labors, or Americans with border paranoia. Consideration must also be given to privileged immigrants, people who have money and are considered desirable because they come from places like Finland and Australia.
Could it be that President Bush is on the right side, here? His guestworker plan comes directly from Vicente Fox, apparently, and gives a nod to American businesses who desire cheap labor and to the growing millionaire class in Mexico. I’m afraid it could become a system of virtual slavery like Kuwait employs to insure none of its citizens has to do menial labor.
Our choices have somehow come down to the guestworker program or an even more punitive system designed to banish justice from any dialogue about immigration. This is a disservice to the part of our population that thinks and cares. Exchanging one oppressive system for another should never be called reform.
I was discouraged to hear an NPR interviewer expressing shock at the idea that NAFTA could be bad for Mexicans who seek better lives and opportunities. It is NAFTA and other globalization schemes that have pushed the peasant class off subsistence agriculture and into barrios and maquila factories. It is the very monster that chases desperate workers into the U.S.
The only way NAFTA could ever benefit Mexican workers is to have the human rights, labor, and environmental pieces for which we fought 12 years ago. This is also the only way for NAFTA to benefit our country, but it was not created to serve human needs. It is exists only to extend the power, wealth and influence of large corporations.
I just heard some Congressman bluster that, “Without borders, you can’t have a country.” That seems a good-fences-make-good-neighbors statement, and I don’t think he, or many other Americans, is concerned about what kind of neighbor the U.S. is. Surely we would do well to return to Robert Frost and see that it is good neighbors that make good fences.
I’m not calling for an end to borders, but I will always oppose fences, walls, vigilantes or minefields at the extremities of my country. My freedom is limited by the limits of freedom of a poor person to come to this land. It should be as easy for a poor person to enter this country as it is for a corporation or a rich person.
If you feel like I would turn the country over to terrorists, my answer is that the easier it is for a person to get into the country, the harder it will be for that person to resent Americans, much less kill and terrorize us. By the same token, if being a good American citizen means I have to be a bad neighbor, I need to be something else. Perhaps being a mediocre world citizen would suit me better and offer a richer legacy.
It appears that the above statements put me at odds with mainstream Washington voters, so I’ll go ahead and announce right now that I will not be a candidate for Maria Cantwell’s U.S. Senate seat, this year.
- RN
Following “Three Too Many” and our die-in at Franklin Park for the 3rd anniversary of the Iraq invasion, several individuals wanted to take another step in demanding an end to perpetual war, the occupation, and global massacres that pass for U.S. foreign policy. The March 18th event was significant in scope and attendance, but it fell short of a public spotlight on the stupidity that underlies the Bush wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The following Monday, five of us went into the National Guard recruiting office on North Division. Accompanied by several other peacemakers, we began a conversation with a sergeant in the office. We all had statements to read about our dis-satisfaction with the use of the Guard overseas in wars of aggression and managed to get a little dialogue until a master sergeant returned. We had asked that the governor, or at least the adjudant general, be called to respond to our requests to stop using Washington Guard personnel for cannon fodder.
With the return of the 1st Sgt., it didn’t take long for police to arrive. Mark Hamlin, Jim Sheehan, Jay Sullivan, and Nancy and Rusty Nelson refused to leave without attention to our demands to be heard by top officials whom we had contacted on this issue. We were taken to the jail and cited for trespass. Four were released on our own recognizance. Jay was prepared to stay in jail until a hearing before a judge, but was sent home late in the day. No room in the inn. We have hearings this month.
After our arrests we found an email response from the governor’s office. Coming from staff and showing little interest in our demands for the proper use of guard personnel, it seemed to validate our concern and actions.
Jim
Sheehan
This
is the reflection of Jim Sheehan at the National Guard recruiting
office shortly before he was removed in handcuffs.
At what one moment do we become complicit?
When does what is legal become immoral? At what point must we no
longer accept the dictates of authority? At what point is
authority no longer a valid arbiter of conduct? When are we
required to make a statement that the conduct of government is no
longer morally valid and must be disputed, rejected? These
questions could go on and on, and they are all interrelated. The
answers are hard to come by. Disagreement with the policy of the
government is not sufficient reason to say no. Even illegal
activity may not be enough. So I must take a look at what I see
as reasons that require action.There have been philosophical disputes since the beginning of thought as to whether there is such a thing as a “just war.” I am not going to engage in that discussion. What is obvious to any thoughtful observer is that what we, I.e., the government, are doing in Iraq is well beyond any possible justification. The invasion was based on lies, manipulation, and corruption. Truth, integrity, compassion, and justice had no place in the planned invasion. All of this is argued ad nauseum in the press. Any minor amount of independent research clearly shows that out government has lied to us and the world. These are not points that I will argue. Truth is what is, and no amount of poturing, PR firms, echo rooms, propaganda, etc., can change what that truth is. There are some who might say this is the way of the world, power and politics just doing what is has always done. And I could accept that except for one thing.
People are dying. They are being destroyed by bombs, by small arms, by tanks, by airplanes. Arms are blown off, legs of healthy children are being crippled, sight is extinguished and hearing turned off. Dreams are turned into nightmares. Blood flows involuntarily, flesh is ripped, organs crushed, bones scattered. This is being done in a way that I can’t possibly put into words. And it is being done to people who are not political, don’t care about anything except what they would be doing that day. They are no more terrorists than you or I. They just want to live their lives, which are hard enough. The people of Iraq are the same as we are. In fact, the reality is that they are us. We are all connected, and when we blind a child with a cluster bomb, we blind our own child, we blind ourselves. All of that death and destruction is rained down on us just as much as the people of Iraq. As they bleed and suffer, we bleed and suffer. It will only be when we wake up and realize that we are all in this together, that we are all the same, that peace and justice come from within.
All this injustice is particularly exacerbated because it is based on lies. Lies told to us in a very manipulated, planned and premeditated way. If I am told to do something by an authority figure that I know is immoral, probably illegal, and clearly unjust, and I go ahead and do it, am I as responsible as the authority figure for the injustice? Do you suppose I could say in self-defense that I was told to do it by lawful authority? That was rejected at the Nuremburg Trials.
I would be complicit if I did not say that the actions in Iraq are illegal, immoral, and unjust. And yes, I do have the right to say that, in fact, I have the duty.
Ask yourself, “Is it better to suffer an injustice than to perpetrate one?”
Bob Zeller has prepared a very nice CD
slide show of his photographs from this unofficial activity of March
20. -ed.
Some of us have been following the important and courageous work of Christian Peacemaker Teams since
Mennonite,
Bretheren and Quakers put the program together in 1984. We didn’t need
the grisly death of Tom Fox to bring it to our attention, and Tom was
not a part of CPT to draw attention to himself.Rev. Carol Rose, co-director of CPT will speak on human rights and terrorism on Thursday, April 6, as part of Whitworth College’s Great Decisions Series. Entitled “Getting in the Way: Nonviolent Action in the Face of War and Terror,” will be at 7:30 pm in the Robinson Teaching Theatre in Weyerhauser Hall.
A 1981 graduate of Whitworth, Carol got exposure to Mennonites and Christian nonviolent action as Nancy and I were being introduced to what has been our worship community for 25 years. Now, in addition to seminary and other church and peacemaking experience, she has more than a decade invested in projects in Latin America, Asia and North America.
CPT has projects in the U.S., Canada, Hebron, Colombia, and Iraq where three team members were recently released shortly after Fox’s tortured body was found. Getting in the way takes guts and the nonviolence of Gandhi and King that PJALS tries to teach.
Later in the month, Spokane will get another close look at CPT as Jerry and Sis Levin come to Bethany Presbyterian Church. Their presentation is called The Piece Process Continues! The Struggle Against Myths, Propaganda and Annexation in Palestine and Israel. It’s on Friday, April 28, at 7 pm. Bethany is at 301 S. Freya, on the south side of I-90.
Jerry Levin is a former CNN Middle East Bureau Chief and was taken hostage in Lebanon in 1984. He is now a full-time volunteer with CPT in Hebron. He is the author of the recently-published West Bank Diary, which will be offered for sale at their talk.
Sis is founding director of Bethlehem-based The Children of Abraham Interfaith Education for Peace Project which teaches Palestinian teachers how to infuse the principles of peace and nonviolent practices into classrooms.
Bethany is joined in support of the presentation by Knox and First Presbyterian Churches and the Presbytery Peace Network.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation grieves with the family, friends, and colleagues of Tom Fox, Quaker peace
activist, who was
killed by his captors in Iraq. But we will not turn our grief
into hate.Tom’s death was not an easy one, as he had apparently been tortured by those who kidnapped him, along with three CPT colleagues.
Tom is one of thousands of casualties of the tragic and violent fiasco in Iraq. His life was neither more nor less important than any other single life needlessly lost. Indeed, it was Tom’s commitment to humanize the dehumanized, to stand with the invisible and voiceless.
We knew Tom. He was dear to us. That brings him to the foreground now. But, as Tom himself taught us, so very many whom we did not know have also died in this conflict. The human mind cannot quite grasp the reality of so many individuals: the scope of our hearts is therefore often small. But Tom cared about the depersonalized and discarded, and for their cause, he has sacrificed his life.
Tom was deeply affected by the madness and futility of the war in which he had willingly immersed himself. In August, dispirited by a sectarian bombing, he posted to his blog, “ Is there something in life that will fill this vacuum and prevent his sad wearing away of the heart?” But by the end of the entry, he had reaffirmed the profound conviction that had brought him into danger in the first place. “The only something in my life I can hold onto is to do what little I can to bring about the creation of the Peaceable Realm of God.” - FOR
It’s been an exciting month for the Inland Northwest Equality coalition. We are working on a restructuring of our coalition, looking both toward a more established involvement in the political process and opening the door to individuals interested in more direct action. The INWE meeting April 4, will be devoted to addressing, clarifying and opening the activities of INWE – if you've been interested in supporting us, but haven't had a chance to weigh in on decisions, this would be a fantastic meeting to attend.
There is also a lot of development with Washington Won't Discriminate, a coalition formed out of Seattle to counter Tim Eyman's attempts to repeal House Bill 2661, and a Spokane group working with them. At this point, Eyman has filed Referendum 65, which asks voters whether our state's law that protects people from discrimination based on sexual orientation should be approved or rejected. Referendum 65 supporters are gathering signatures at this point and will need to gather 112,400 valid signatures from Washington voters by June 7, 2006. If these signatures are collected, then the referendum will go on the November ballot.
If Referendum 65 is on the ballot, a vote to APPROVE is a vote to keep our state's anti-discrimination laws and protect our friends, families, and neighbors from discrimination. A vote to reject Referendum 65 will mean that this law is repealed and it will be legal to discriminate against Washington residents on the basis of sexual orientation.
Many proponents of repeal claim that would protect residents from quotas in the workplace and protect marriage. An important thing to remember is that House Bill 2661 does NOT affect marriage laws, nor does it effect quotas in employment. Instead, the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in our state’s anti-discrimination laws only extends fairness and equal treatment to citizens of our state. Spokane has had sexual orientation as a protected class in discrimination for years – this law merely extends the rights and protections that those in Spokane enjoy.
What can we do, then? Start by talking to people. Neighbors, family members, co-workers – there are many people in Washington who have been misled by the rhetoric of those standing against fairness in Washington state. Ask these people whether they think anyone should be discriminated against, fired or denied housing, for their sexual orientation. Encourage friends and neighbors to speak against misleading and harmful explanations of the anti-discrimination law.
If you would like to help more, contact INWE at inwe@pjals.net or 509-838-7870 and join local efforts to help protect the rights of all people of Washington state to live free of discrimination and bias. You can also join us at our next INWE meeting on April 4 at the Rainbow Regional Community Center at 508 W 2nd at 5:30 pm.
At a March hearing on the proposed
Maryland Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, Professor
Jamie Raskin, of law the American University School of Law, testified.
At the end of his testimony, GOP Sen. Nancy Jacobs said: "Mr. Raskin, my Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?"
Raskin replied: "Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."
The room erupted into applause.
At the end of his testimony, GOP Sen. Nancy Jacobs said: "Mr. Raskin, my Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?"
Raskin replied: "Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."
The room erupted into applause.
This is an important time to get calls to the House of Representatives about legislation to end the terrorist haven at Ft. Benning that we call the SOA. Please call or email Cathy McMorris to support HR 1217, which is expected to be up for a vote no later than May.
HR 1217 now has 127 bi-partisan co-sponsors. It calls for suspension and investigation of the School of the Americas/Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
PJALS will be glad to give you further information about this institution that is now linked to torture at Abu Graib, as well as continuing atrocities in Latin America. You can also get current information and sample phone conversations and sample letters from SOA Watch at www.soaw.org.
PJALS also can supply speakers, videos and literature on this issue.
SOA Watch’s Lobby Days are this month, April 23-25, in Washington, D.C.
bell hooks will be speaking on Wednesday, April 19th, 7 p.m., at the Met in downtown Spokane. In case you don't know bell hooks, she is a leading public intellectual who has written more than 35 books on topics including feminism, black intellectualism, race and class in media, teaching, masculinity, and racism.
She's written a trilogy about love, and she will be speaking on "Love and Liberation: Moving Past Blame." The event will include an audience Q&A and a book signing. Tickets through TicketsWest are $15/$10/$8 (subject to service chrages). This event is part of Eastern Washington University Press's annual Get Lit! literary festival. Festival details are available at www.ewu.edu/getlit or by phoning 623-4262.
Kathy Hill, a PJALS member and Get Lit! Project Administrator, points out that bell hooks doesn’t do many speaking engagements and should be a big draw for peace and justice folks in this area.
I was in the city of Hebron in the West Bank in late November, part of a 10-person delegation sponsored by Christian Peacemaker Teams, when the chilling word came that four CPT members -- Tom Fox, James Loney, Harmeet Singh Sooden and Norman Kember -- had been abducted in Baghdad by a previously unknown group, the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. The world now knows that Fox was executed by his captors.
Cal Thomas decided to write about Fox's tragic death and offer his assessment of Christian Peacemaker Teams in his syndicated column published [in the Spokesman Review]. The people and motivations Thomas described were alien to what I know of CPT and those who serve with the organization.
Allow me, at this moment of grief, to set the record straight.
Thomas wrote, "That the 'peace activists' believed their brand of Christianity would trump the fanatical Muslims who regarded them as infidels and worthy of death ..."
CPT has functioned in Iraq since 2002, beginning several months prior to the U.S.-led invasion. Its work and motives have been closely watched by its Iraqi neighbors.
Seeing in CPT's approach a hope for the future of Iraqi society, in January 2005 a group of Iraqi Muslims asked if CPT would be willing to meet with them and train them for similar work. This was the beginning of the Muslim Peacemaker Team (MPT), which is seeking by nonviolent means to heal the wounds and mistrust between Sunni, Shia and Kurdish Iraqis.
CPT members and MPT members work together on a number of joint projects, including rebuilding in the devastated city of Fallujah.
Thomas wrote, "It is also tragic because the likelihood that the presence of Fox and his colleagues would change the attitude or behavior of their captors was zero to none."
CPT members are not blind idealists. They have peered more deeply and honestly into the abyss of evil and understand the cycle of violence better than most. They understand the risks in entering a place of violent conflict.
When Margaret Hassan, head of Care International in Iraq for 12 years, was kidnapped and later killed, Fox wrote a statement of conviction that included these words: "If I am ever called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice in love of enemy, I trust that God will give me the grace to do so."
Team members did not go to Iraq to be kidnapped, but to help create, by nonviolent means, conditions of trust and hope to thwart the cycle of violence and retribution. CPT's motto, "Reducing Violence by Getting in the Way," has a twofold meaning -- team members "get in the way" to follow the example of Christ, who followed a path of nonviolent confrontation with evil; they "get in the way" by placing themselves between those caught in the spiral of violence.
In Iraq and elsewhere, they have had an impact far beyond their ridiculously small numbers. They have on numerous occasions been protected by Iraqi neighbors and friends for whom they have been a source of hope.
Thomas wrote, "Peace happens when evil is vanquished."
Many Christian Peacemaker Team members might agree with this statement on the surface. They categorically reject, however, the means Thomas would employ to this end.
Evil is not vanquished by violence. The vision and mission of CPT is grounded in the life and teachings of Jesus. He taught that evil is not overcome with evil, but with good. Those who would follow him in the world are called upon to "love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them." These were not abstractions but a clear, embodied example.
Roots of today's conflict can be traced, in part, to a Christian church that, in the Middle Ages, explained away the clear instructions of its Lord, embraced the sword, and embarked on a lethal campaign of crusades.
Thomas wrote, "The theology of CPT is as wrong as its politics."
If, for Thomas, commitment to obedience to the life and teachings of Jesus, to the point of laying down one's life for another, is bad theology, he judges the first 300 years of Christianity as the persistent practice of "wrong theology." It was not until gaining legal status in the Roman empire that the Christian church en masse abandoned the way of nonviolence.
Thomas appears to espouse a theology that reduces the Sermon on the Mount to nothing more than a foil to lead us to grace, one that explains away Jesus' clear instructions to take up the cross and follow him in the way of self-giving love, and one that reduces the love of enemy to a disembodied abstraction.
Thomas: "(E)vil cannot be accommodated. Evil must be defeated if peace on Earth is to exist. That Fox and his colleagues could not, or would not see this, is most tragic of all."
Here, he serves as a propagandist for the logic of holy war. In Thomas' world view, "the other" is not someone who may carry out evil actions, but the embodiment of evil itself.
Groups (nations) that adhere to such a theology or political philosophy safeguard themselves against the "messiness" of self-criticism and easily project on their "enemy" their own motives and violence. From such a position, they justify whatever means they deem necessary to overcome their enemy.
Such a view corrupts the individual or nation who holds it, for it leads to the easy minimizing of such things as collateral damage, destroying a city in order to save it, and systematic torture and abuse of prisoners as the fault of a few bad apples.
The rule of law ( e.g. the Geneva Conventions) is set aside as untenable, because the current conflict is unique. The result is a willful blindness and escalation of violence.
The question that founded CPT and continues to compel those who serve is: What would happen if Christians devoted the discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war? It is a question that takes them to the source, not abstract religion, but a way to be risked and followed.
-by Rev. David B. Miller, a Mennonite pastor who in Nov. 2005, traveled
to Israel and the West Bank w/ Christian Peacemaker Teams.
PJALS is one of 12 Washington State organizations requesting information from the U.S. government about possible surveillance of our activities since 2001. The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington forwarded the request, made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the FBI in March.
Representing itself and eleven other agencies, the ACLU explained the request is motivated in part by recent revelations that the Coast Guard and/or the FBI were conducting intelligence activities and surveillance of Seattle area peace groups. Some of the requesters were mentioned in surveillance documents described in a February article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and others have working relationships with groups mentioned in those documents. “Hence,” the ACLU says, “all Requesters wish to see what records are being kept about them by your agencies.”
At PJALS, we have had several particular reasons and several general reasons to believe that we might be under some kind of official and covert scrutiny over the past 20 years. Staff and steering committees have continued to follow policies of openness in accordance with nonviolent principles, without worrying about what kind of intelligence activities might be focused in our direction. That is not to say that we disregard concerns about privacy, freedom of expression and association, or intimidation.
And we are curious about any motivation a federal agency might have for spying on us or on PJALS members.
The Requesters, besides the ACLU of Washington and PJALS, are: American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) a Quaker service and peace group; People for Peace, Justice and Healing, a Tacoma group that opposes the war in Iraq through rallies and education; Pierce County Truth in Recruiting, which addresses aggressive military recruitment in Tacoma area schools; Seattle Raging Grannies which has performed at events against war and globalization in the Puget Sound area;
Seattle Peace Chorus which promotes peace and social and economic equality through international travel and performance; Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War (SNOW), which promotes human rights and opposes war and other Bush Administration policies; United for Peace of Pierce County, which nonviolently opposes reliance on unilateral military actions and advocates for cooperative diplomacy;
Vancouver For Peace, an ad-hoc group that promotes nonviolent community organization and activism through website technology; Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation (WWFOR), an interfaith organization promoting nonviolence, peace and justice through public education, coalition building, and acts of compassion; and The Yakima Valley Peace Advocates Network (YVPAN), a vocal critic of the war in Iraq, the USA PATRIOT Act and other Bush policies.
Requesters seek disclosure of records on any information collected about the organizations or their activities; orders to collect any such information, how or why an organization was targeted for inclusion in a file; how records about any Requesters or their activities have been, are being, will be or might be used, shared with another agency, or disseminated; and the destruction of any records that might have been kept.
Peace activists have joked for years about their FBI files, but with the shape our civil liberties are in, this kind of surveillance is no longer a laughing matter.
PJALS’ primary interest in pursuing this request is to send a message to our government that it’s time to stop this foolishness and use the energy to rebuild trust and community across our country. -RN
Yaneth Pérez, president of the Dawn of Women for Arauca, will speak on “Women and War in Colombia” on Monday, April 24, 7 pm at Gonzaga University, Jepson 108.
“U.S. military aid to Colombia is like throwing gasoline on a fire,” says Yaneth. “We don’t need any more guns, bombs, or rockets in Arauca – there’s already more than enough to kill all of us. If the U.S. government wants to spend your tax dollars in our country, the women of Arauca ask for that money to be invested in building schools, health clinics, and decent housing; and in providing the peasants with viable alternatives so they don’t feel forced to grow coca.”
Dawn of Women for Arauca works to defend women’s rights and to prevent domestic violence in one of the most war-torn regions of Colombia. Occidental Petroleum has a huge oilfield there and the Colombian and U.S. military are protecting Oxy's oilfield and pipeline.
There's also a thriving social movement in Arauca and the heart of that movement is in Yaneth's community of Saravena. The inspiring community projects in Saravena include the Saravena Community Water Company (owned and managed by the people of the community), agrarian high school, adult vocational high school, cooperative stores, and transportation cooperatives (taxi, bus, and cargo). Unfortunately, the Colombian government views these community efforts as guerrilla projects and is severely repressing the social organizations in Saravena - mass arrests, forced displacement, and murder.
Yaneth is a single mother of three children and has been a leader of the peasant movement in Arauca for 20 years. She risks her life to create peace with justice in Colombia.
Since 2000, the U.S. government has given $3.8 billion to the Colombian military and police - which maintain close relations with the right-wing paramilitaries. The paramilitaries and the government security forces are responsible for 75 to 80 percent of human rights abuses committed in the country, and the left-wing guerrillas are responsible for the other 20 to 25 percent.
Yaneth’s presentation is sponsored by PJALS and the Montana Human Rights Network. It is part of a tour of the Northwest facilitated by Latin America activist Scott Nicholson, a longtime friend of PJALS who will accompany Yaneth. A former Spokane resident, Scott has been living in Missoula when he’s not in Colombia or Central America. He plans to return to Arauca in June for a year to provide accompaniment for the social organizations there.
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