Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane

The Handful of Salt

is published eleven times a year by the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane. It is named for Mahatma Gandhi’s salt tax protest, a successful, nonviolent grassroots action that created significant social change against overwhelming resource advantages.

Steering Committee
Michelle Guilford, Maurina Ladich, Dennis Medina, Mike Nuess, Avery Rendon, Marianne Torres, Lew Wilson

<>Finances
<>Lowell Brocklehurst<>

<>Staff
<>Carla Brannan, Joni Brown, Nancy Nelson, Rusty Nelson
Volunteers
Brock Baker, Chuck Fisk, Linda Greene, Joel Hobson, Myrta Ladich, Wil Luedders, Jerry Mueller, Marilynne Mueller, Jan Nelson, Rick Trombley, Terry Walline, Marilynne Wilson

Printing
Diamond Press

Editorial

If you live in Spokane County, you probably have strong feelings about Dr. Kim Thorburn, who has been fired as Public Health Officer. If you are angry at the Public Health Board, you may be surprised to learn there are PJALS members who have a different perspective.

I can’t say that I agree with every high-profile decision Dr. Thorburn made as our top public health official, but I’m proud that she is a PJALS member and supporter, and I believe her termination is a bureaucratic catastrophe.

The first mention I ever heard of Kim Thorburn was before she assumed her position in Spokane. Nancy and I were in Walla Walla to meet with the family of a man about to be executed, at his request, by the state. A well-traveled abolitionist who was living in Idaho began to tell us how lucky we were to have Dr. Thorburn coming to Spokane. He described her as one of the most outstanding individuals he had ever encountered, especially praising her athleticism and her activism in human rights and social justice. Perhaps I was intimidated, but I didn’t meet her for several years after that, and we have only met because we have friends in common.

It appears to me that political concerns, and not the public good, are at the heart of Thorburn’s dismissal. That, in itself, does not make it wrong, but politics is about people, and I think the people who should matter have been left completely out of the process.

Whether or not you felt mistreated, offended, ignored or intimidated by Kim Thorburn, she has been a considerable asset to the community. The politicians who have fired her may find it much more difficult to make her disappear.

While the Thorburn controversy cluttered our local newspaper, there were several earth-shaking items that barely rated a few, obscure column inches. For example, the peace agreement in Nepal, signed on November 21.

Imagine coming to an agreement between seven political parties, a federal government, and a popular Maoist group after a 12-year war. It’s complicated and it’s tenuous, but it’s signed, and it’s offering hope for reconciliation and opportunity for an entire nation.

I believe an item of this nature should be a continuing front page story in the United States. We are still being asked to believe that violence is the only solution for disputes in Israel, Colombia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, but perhaps that has something to do with the bellicose investments of corporate interests that have no traction in Nepal.

There’s not much I could tell you about Nepal or Sudan or other distant countries that exist on the margins of a global society. I don’t read enough to be your teacher. But I do know that a bad peace is better than a good war, and that a peace agreement, even on the other side of the world, is something Americans should know about, encourage, support, and celebrate.

We hold our breath as the latest gasp for peace between Israel and Palestinians is threatened. And we pull for the former Israeli soldiers who visited PJALS last month, demonstrating that there exists the will and courage to establish peace. Will Americans encourage tolerance and courage or send more bombs?

Tom Hayden is suggesting that some very positive activities are taking place at high levels in the U.S. government to bring hope for an end to the occupation of Iraq. We have learned to be cynical about the diplomacy of people like Condelezza Rice and James Baker, not to mention President Bush, but we welcome any experimentation they are willing to risk in bringing opposing sides together and inching toward solutions that are not in armored boxes.

Hayden was part of a remarkable tour of the area in the summer. He and such outsiders as Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin met with some very important players in Iraq. I only learned of this delegation in August by attending the Veterans for Peace Convention in Seattle.

If we, the rich and powerful, can suffer just a few days without retaliating, peace will come so easily we’ll wonder why we didn’t try this before.

And it’s not only on the global scene. I dream of unarmed police officers in solidarity with unarmed neighborhoods, attacking the roots of crime, not the people who have become so desperate or un-empowered that they have become criminals. I dream of a population that feels obligated to rescue perpetrators instead of punish them. I dream of the fear and rage that circulates within my core, being expelled into the air through my pores so I can live in freedom from my own violence.

We come together as PJALS to turn our dreams into action. Let’s all work to turn our hopes into results. - RN

Tough On Crime: Sheehan Convicted and Sentenced

Where are members of the Washington National Guard when you need them? Two sergeants showed up to testify in Jim Sheehan’s trespass trial last month, and if they wanted him to go to jail, they might have been happy about the results.

People interested in peace and justice were not happy because the court was able to ignore the role of the National Guard in the moral dilemma that led to the arrest of Jim and four others way back in March.

Four defendants decided to agree to a $200 bond forfeiture, leaving Jim to face trial, and ultimately, punishment of a fine, a day in jail, and probation for a year, for a conviction of 1st degree trespass.

The action of what we called the National Guard 5 was pretty basic nonviolent action that seems to be required under the routinely ignored U.S. law based upon the Nuremburg Principles. That law says citizens are responsible for stopping their governments from committing criminal acts.

PJALS members have, over the years, tried to coax our government away from criminal behavior several times, but never by focusing upon our fellow citizens who are part of the National Guard and should be our natural allies in these very efforts.

Irony abounds in this case, but the real story is made quite significant because of who Jim Sheehan is. This is a man who spent a career as a public defender fighting for rights of marginalized suspects and tilting against a criminal justice system which, if not broken, has serious fractures.

The NG 5 case dragged on for months because this former renegade defender, having come into money and established an alternative law firm, became important to the court establishment, in spite of all he did to distance himself from it. All the municipal judges recused themselves rather than preside over a dubious trespass trial that included the founder of the Center for Justice, and an out-of-town judge had to be found.

The prosecution, too, hoped to avoid this confrontation, but Jim declined the offer accepted by his co-defendants. Having pioneered a new standard for justice in Spokane, he was willing to expose himself to the old paradigm to be in solidarity with the visionaries who never accommodate institutional violence.

Jim might have used his day in court to attack a system that wallows in privilege and avoids serious questions of right and wrong. He might have manipulated jury selection and testimony to make the trespass charge seem silly or lectured the judge on her lack of background for some of the finer points of the case. Instead, he simply made a statement about who he is and why the war is unacceptable to him. He declined any exercise of power or one-upmanship, and defended only his right to be heard.

The sentence might have been worse, but when compared to punishments ordinarily dispensed for actual crimes against people and property, it should be considered harsh. With much of the sentence suspended, Jim is left with a $500 fine, a day in jail, and a year of probation. The people of Washington continue to pay for an extravagant occupation in Iraq and a National Guard that can, at federal whim, be taken away to guard far-flung corporate interests or to be decimated by people who feel they are guarding their own land.

Jim has indicated this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for him. His co-defendants avoided probation, feeling they may be compelled to act in the near future. It is to be hoped that many more people of good will and good community standing will see the value of standing, once or over and over, to proclaim a better way for our country. - RN

Letter to the Judge Who Sentenced My Husband to Federal Prison
for
Protesting Nuclear Weapons

Dear Judge Hovland,

Thank you for arrangements for me to visit Greg after you sentenced him to a year and a day in federal prison. Officials had been unwilling to allow me to visit, so your intervention made the visit possible.

At trial and again at sentencing, I noted your willingness to educate yourself beyond requirement about matters relating to the Weapons of Mass Destruction Here Plowshare action. Your openness is exceptional and I’m sure you will take these thoughts into mind and heart.

I was rather dismayed to hear you berate and chastise Greg for being an irresponsible father and spouse. Your presumptions about what we need from him were not only erroneous, but beligerent and disrepectful. To call his witness a "juvenile act of vandalism" is an insult to every one of the Saints and Heroes who have ever taken a stand to protect the sacredness of life. You had made it abundantly clear that you didn't agree with their methods, an opinion to which you are entitled, but to attack Greg's integrity as you did was disgraceful.
Our daughter Rachel and I love and admire Greg for the stand he has taken to make this world safer. Yes, we are saddened by this lengthy separation, but we are strengthened by bonds that far transcend physical ones. Those bonds are further deepened because we know the good and decent intentions with which Greg acted. If you get an opportunity, take another look at the picture of the banner "Swords into Plowshares.'' Rachel did the artwork. The peace sign, flower, heart and smiley face were the hopes that she entrusted her dad with to make present in the world through this action.

I recently saw a documentary about the scientists, including Oppenheimer, who left their families to create the atomic bomb used to annihilate the people of Japan. Many of our history books refer to them as heroes. After Oppenheimer realized what he did, he felt disgraced as a human being, not only in his own eyes but in the eyes of his blood family and of the human family. When soldiers leave families to go off to war, they are referred to as heroes. Many of them come back feeling disgraced for having left their families to kill other people's families. This is a feeling, I can assure you, Greg will not have to live with or die with.

Finally, I have to say I was quite disappointed in the defeatist attitude you seemed to take regarding the efficacy of this action. You consistently referred to their action as a waste of time because it did not result in the elimination of nuclear weapons. Again, you insult the lives of all who have ever worked for the abolition of sins and crimes such as slavery, military occupation of homelands, government sponsored oppression, etc. I believe you are smart enough and well educated enough to know that it has sometimes taken centuries to abolish such crimes.

Thank God for those who never gave up hope, withstood years of imprisonment, defamation of character, mockery, isolation and death in their struggle to enhance the dignity of all life. Greg, Rachel and I will not let those hopes die in vain. We stand with the sentiments expressed by Fr. Kabat, that this action is not the only way, but it is one way and a way worth living for.
Blessings on your life's journey.

In peace, Michele Naar-Obed

Michele is married to Greg Boertje-Obed, sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison in November for hammering on the concrete lid of a silo housing a Minuteman III nuclear missile. Greg and Michele are the parents of Rachel, 12, and are part of the Loaves and Fishes Catholic Worker Community in Duluth,MN. The letter was slightly edited for space.

A Snapshot of the War Against the Poor of Colombia

We publish occasional reports from Scott Nicholson in Colombia.
If you’d like to see more of his journal, contact PJALS.

"Colonel, I have to protest again that the man over there is with S-2 (military intelligence), and has been filming all of us here," said Representative Wilson Borja. Rep. Borja is a member of the Congressional Peace Commission that was meeting in the Arauca state assembly on November 16. He was directing his remarks to Colonel Gonzalez - commander of the 18th military brigade in Arauca City. The man had been videoing all of us for three hours.

A DAS (security police) agent was waiting for me when I left the assembly building, the same agent who questioned me when I accompanied the march of the displaced in July. This time, he requested to see my foreigner identification card and asked what type of visa I have, how long I'd been in the country, where I was staying, and my cell phone number.

Representatives of the Arauca social organizations gave brief reports about the human rights situation during the Commission meeting. Juan Luis, president of the Arauca Teachers Union, spoke about the murder of German Solano on September 5. Twenty four teachers have now been killed in Arauca since 1993. One hundred fifty teachers have been forced to flee after receiving threats, and another thirty have fled to
other communities within the state.

Fourteen teachers from Arauca have been imprisoned for "rebellion." My friends Raquel Castro and Samuel Morales were convicted by the judge on November 10 and sentenced to six years in prison. They were witnesses to the murder of three Arauca social leaders by the army in 2004 in Caño Seco.

Martin, director of the Permanent Human Rights Commission in Arauca, spoke about the murder of Gregorio Izquierdo in the same place Solano was killed the week before. He was a leader of the Committee and the president of the Arauca Public Employees Union.

Olmos broke into tears as he described how FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrillas killed his spouse, Doris, in front of their five children in Pueblo Seco on November 9. Doris was a member of the
community council and the Departmental Peasant Association.

The insane fight in Arauca between the FARC and the ELN (National Army of Liberation) guerrillas was denounced by all the representatives of the social organizations. That fight has resulted in the murder of many community leaders like Doris and has temporarily shut down the social movement. The government is taking full advantage to continue mass arrests of social leaders and people in general in Arauca on the charge of "rebellion."

Those arrests are based on the paid "testimony" of supposed guerrilla deserters. Human rights activists say that testimony is often prefabricated and not substantiated by evidence. I just learned that a good friend is named in the "investigation" used for the mass arrests here in Saravena on October 27 and 28. She has been active in the Dawn of Women for Arauca and is said to be involved in forming guerrilla cells. The investigation also states that her sister is a member of the guerrillas and her brother was involved in planting a car bomb. Arrest orders have not yet been issued, but that could happen any time.

Luis Carlos is 22 years old and active in the Regional Student and Youth Association since he was 15. "I'm willing to die or be imprisoned for the work that I'm doing," he told me recently. "At least I'll have the satisfaction of knowing I did what I could to create social justice."

In love and solidarity, Scott

Can you support PJALS?

The Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane depends upon gifts and dues from members to continue to work for peace and justice, locally and globally. We welcome anyone who favors free exchange of ideas and nonviolent action to war or to inaction and ignorance. PJALS, 35 W Main, Spokane, WA 99201.

You determine your own level of support and participation. Members also determine issues and projects that get the most attention and effort.

PJALS is a nonprofit, 501©3 nonprofit corporation. Call the PJALS office (838-7870) to discuss the by-the-month and direct deposit options.