Witness Against War

February 12, 2010

On entering the Dane County Jail, the first holding cell that Brian Terrell and I were placed in had only one other person. We previously saw this man outside the cell during our initial booking. He was a man with dark black skin and a full beard. I thought I heard one of the officers say he was from Gambia. When we entered the cell, the man was in mid-ritual in what appeared to be a Muslim’s midday prayer. A young white guard, who had the accent of a Midwesterner, looked disdainfully at the man and then somewhat positively at Brian and me. The guard said, “Just ignore that,” as if the man was insulting or threatening us by his peaceful act of prayer. To which I replied, “It’s fine with me.”

January 13, 2009

Witness Against War-Fort McCoy

Members of Voices for Creative Nonviolence were arrested in August by base police at the main gate of the 67,000-acre military installation during a walk from Chicago to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. The activists said they wanted to “dialogue” with soldiers to tell them their Fort McCoy Training would leave them woefully unprepared for what they would face in Iraq.

Left to right: Kinsman, Melling, Langreck, Drydyk, Enslow and Dixon

Peacemakers:

Youth: Karen Drydyk & Paul Melling

Adult: Cassandra Dixon

Senior: Lillia Langreck

Lifetime Achievement: John Kinsman and Julie Enslow

Joshua Brollier September 4, 2008

Maybe if each of us knew just one Iraqi youth, we would think twice before allowing drone planes to fly bombing missions over the child’s home for the purpose of “liberation” or “fighting terrorism.” Maybe

if each of us knew just one mother from Afghanistan, we would actually move to stop our government from continuing its criminal policies that lead to so much “collateral damage.” Maybe each of our actions combined would form the basis for an actual collective movement.

August 31, 2008
By Jeff Severns Guntzel
Minnesota Independent

When Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin took the stage at the Veterans for Peace rally in front of the State Capitol building today, where hundreds of activists gathered before marching towards the Xcel Energy Center, she started with the string of weekend raids on her mind: “This is not the Midwestern welcome we expected!”

Her audience cheered — among them a vet hoisting a desert-camo anti-war flag:

A cadre of protesters were clad in orange jumpsuits meant to evoke those worn by prisoners at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison. The held black hoods in their hands and stuck signs to their backs — on each sign was printed the name, age and story of a living, breathing Guantanamo detainee:

CONTINUE READING the Story with photos at Minnesota Independent

August 31, 2008

(Noted: Veterans for Peace and CODEPINK organized this march. Dan Pearson and Josh Brollier, both Witness Against War participants, and Steve Clemens, a who traveled to Iraq in 2002 with Voices in the Wilderness, were arrested in this act of nonviolent civil disobedience)

View Fox-9 News Coverage

Nine Protesters Entering Restricted Area Arrested Sunday for Trespassing

A group of anti-war protesters went underneath a security barrier near the Xcel Center as an act of civil disobedience. Nine were arrested for trespassing.

Police in riot gear arrested nine people protesting at the Xcel Center Sunday, after they entered a restricted area secured by a fence. The protesters marched from the capitol to the Xcel Center, protesting the war in Iraq and the treatment of veterans coming home.

We were glad to attend the Vets for Peace Convention and to hear compelling “summons” to help build the peace movement.

Two of our walkers joined a contingent of the march which attempted, nonviolently, to deliver letters to people who are participating in the Republican National Convention.

August 29, 2008

August 29, 2008

Watch Video Report from KARE-11

The road to St. Paul and the Republican National Convention started more than a month ago for one anti-war group. Members have spent July and August walking here from Chicago.

After 49 days and more than 475 miles the Witness Against War marchers are still going strong.

August 28, 2008
Clarksville, TN Online

Witness Against War is a 450-mile walk from Chicago to Saint Paul to challenge and non-violently resist our nation’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The campaign seeks to hold both major political parties, both Democrat and Republican, accountable and responsible for continuing and ending the Iraq war.

The journey began in the City of Chicago, site of the 1968 Democratic Party convention in the midst of the Vietnam War. The walk will conclude on August 31 in St. Paul — in time for the start of the 2008 Republican Party convention in the midst of the Iraq war.

Joshua Brollier joined the walk in Chicago on July 12th and has participated in awareness events and community forums along the route to St. Paul. The walkers will convene there on August 29th to march in step with the Veterans for Peace at the Republican National Convention protests.

CONTINUE READING AT CLARKSVILLE ON-LINE, INCLUDES PHOTOS

By Bill Christofferson
August 22, 2008

Witness Against War, a walk from Chicago to St. Paul to promote non-violence and an end to the war is Iraq, is in its final week.

Dan Pearson, the one who dreamed it up, scouted and planned the route, and coordinates much of the logistics, calls it “a totally worthwhile endeavor.” He and Kathy Kelly are co-coordinators of Voices for Creative Non-Violence, the Chicago-based group that organized and sponsors the walk.

The drive from Milwaukee, where I had last walked with them, to Pepin, WI, on the Mississippi River, to rejoin them, took five hours. It had taken the walkers five weeks.