Writings by Voices

Letter from Cathy Breen: "How can the walls ever come down?"

Cathy Breen — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:40:45 -0500

Short Information Teaser

An Iraqi friend told me recently that the lack of electricity and jobs continue to fan the fires of anger and resistance. "Violence would decrease 50%" he said "if there were electricity."

Excerpt

Amman, Jordan
Aug 10, 2008

Dear Friends,

“How can the walls ever come down?” was the question I put to three Iraqi friends. Late yesterday afternoon I went next door to ask a neighbor if we could watch Iraqi TV news together. Would he mind translating for me? This young friend often helps me with Arabic, and I had brought my notebook along. We were joined by his brother and another Iraqi friend who will be returning to Baghdad soon. Moslem and Christians, we sat together. The walls I was referring to are the concrete barricades which have been constructed by the coalition forces throughout all of Baghdad. These walls seal off and separate entire communities.

Body

Amman, Jordan
Aug 10, 2008

Dear Friends,

One evening last week, I met with two journalist friends from the U.S. who had just returned from a month-long trip to Iraq. As I listened to them, I was heartened and sickened at the same time. I was amazed at the freedom of movement they described, not only for themselves as foreigners, but for Iraqis. Of course they are seasoned reporters with long-time experience and contacts; they know how to proceed with caution and prudence. While the atmosphere remains tense and explosions continue, they reported, people have begun to feel safer in the last couple of months. They are venturing out more. The economy is a mess with high inflation, but crime is down.

Nevertheless, I was sick at heart to hear that almost all of the neighborhoods in Baghdad have been walled off, each with a single entrance and exit point. In order to enter one must negotiate with the particular militia/entity protecting that neighborhood. The Iraqi army is out in strength and better equipped and trained than they were three years ago. They now have, for example, some armed humvees.

An Iraqi friend told me recently that the lack of electricity and jobs continue to fan the fires of anger and resistance. “Violence would decrease 50%” he said “if there were electricity.”

Just recently I got to see the son of a family from Baghdad, a family whom we’ve known for years. When I lived in Baghdad their twelve year old daughter used to teach me Arabic. She is now seventeen. What a joy it was to meet with him and get an update on each member of the family. As we visited I couldn’t help remembering him as a lanky 18 year old with a lopsided smile going off to fight in Saddam’s army. This was right before the invasion, and he had no choice. Five years later he is working as a bodyguard in Baghdad. He was able to come to Amman because he is accompanying an Iraqi minister here for meetings. He told me that the only work available in Baghdad is as a bodyguard, a soldier or a policeman. His younger brother works as a soldier in the Iraq army. Their dear mother is unwell; no wonder given the worry she must face at the safety of her sons. This son told us of a recent bomb attack against the minister he is paid to protect. Three of his fellow bodyguards were killed. He has survived, so far. He was able to take a handwritten letter from me back to his family, along with a picture I took of us together.

The above mentioned journalist friends said “Everyone is waiting to see how the elections will turn out.” They patiently tried to walk me through the complex myriad of sectarian groupings, parties, militias, army and police. Yet despite their attempts at clarification, I was left feeling confused and overwhelmed. I liken it to a chess game where there are too many players and no rules. Elite Shi’a groups like the Dowa party and the Supreme Islam Council, Moqtada Al Sadr with his Mehdi army, The Awakening or SaHwa, primarily Sunni, the list seems endless. “Everyone at the ground level wants the Americans out,” they said. An uneasy balance of power, it is clear there will be no winners even after the elections in Iraq take place.

And so we sat together yesterday, Moslem and Christian Iraqis. Both from Baghdad, they met here in Amman. No one can deny that the experience of Christian Iraqis is different from that of Moslem Iraqis. The Christians in Iraq have been targeted not only as “infidels” by radical Islamic extremists, but they have been caught in the middle of sectarian violence, a fact born out by our Moslem friend. But they both share in common the unspeakable suffering unleashed by this war. They have both lost family and friends in the killing and violence. Both have lost homes and homeland. Families are separated, and their futures uncertain. As I sat and listened to their heated discussion in Arabic, I was struck by the respectful tone. How can the walls come down? I asked again.

One of the young men responded thoughtfully “It will take time….everything takes time.” Another said smiling “We thought the same of Saddam Hussein’s pictures. They were everywhere, even in the bathrooms!” These men give me hope that maybe some day the walls, like Saddam’s pictures, will come down.

Cathy Breen

VCNV Author

Cathy Breen

13 Arrested at Fort McCoy for Opposing Iraq War

Jeff Leys — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:11:31 -0500

Project

WITNESS AGAINST WAR 2008: From Chicago to St. Paul

Short Information Teaser

Arrests at Fort McCoy Wisconsin on August 10

Excerpt

August 10, 2008

View Photos

August 9 was a day of preparation for Witness Against War. Preparation for the act of nonviolent civil resistance to take place the following day.

We gathered at the Lafayette Town Hall just north of Sparta. Our host’s family goes back 7 generations on this land. His aunt and uncle donated the property on which the town hall now sits.

VCNV Author

Jeff Leys

Voices Author

Jeff Leys

Body

August 10, 2008

View Photos

August 9 was a day of preparation for Witness Against War. Preparation for the act of nonviolent civil resistance to take place the following day.

We gathered at the Lafayette Town Hall just north of Sparta. Our host’s family goes back 7 generations on this land. His aunt and uncle donated the property on which the town hall now sits.

The nonviolence workshop was to begin at 2:00 p.m. At 1:50 p.m. we looked at the clock on the wall and wondered aloud whether anyone would be coming. Only our friend Steve Carlson from Trego, Wisconsin had arrived by that time. The surrounding hills and bluffs prevented our cell phones from receiving signals, so we had no way of knowing whether those we expected to arrive were 30 seconds away or 30 minutes away (or stranded on the side of the road).

Then, as if they were waiting together just down the road and around the curve, all our colleagues began to arrive within minutes of each other. Christian Peacemaker Teams arrived with the 15 people currently training to become team members or reservists for CPT. Brian and Renee arrived from Des Moines. Ceylon and Christine arrived from Memphis. Joy from Madison and John from Eau Claire. The Lafayette Town Hall was transformed from the grouping of Witness Against War walkers to a near overflow gathering of committed social justice advocates.

Planning progressed for the following day’s action at Fort McCoy as we began to put flesh on a fairly skeletal action concept. By the end of the evening plans were in place for the following day.

Sunday, August 10, began with breakfast at the home of Dick and Violet, our hosts. We arrived at Tunnel City, our starting point that day, at 9:30 a.m., in time to meet with Sheriff Pederson to discuss the day’s walk. We explained that we intended to walk on the shoulder of the road facing traffic, as required by state traffic laws. He explained that he’d met with his officers and with officers of the Wisconsin State Highway Patrol that morning. Their intent was to ensure that the walk was able to proceed safely, and not to interfere with the walk’s progress. Indeed State Patrol and County Sheriff patrol cars accompanied the walk as it processed from Tunnel City to the edge of Fort McCoy and onward. One patrol officer turned on his vehicles flashing red and blue lights to slow traffic down along the highway (with a speed limit of 55 miles per hour and a fairly narrow shoulder), keeping a health distance form the front of the walk and backing up on an even pace with the walk.

We began walking at about 9:45 a.m. The first question mark of the day arrived three miles into the walk. At that point Highway 21, on which we were walking, enters Fort McCoy with a yellow sign informing motorists that they are “Entering a Military Area.” We were relatively certain we’d be able to proceed without any difficulty since we’d received a letter from Colonel Daniel Culver of the base advising us that normally the only time the base law enforcement would get involved along Highway 21 is if the operations of the base were being interfered with. Since we were walking on the shoulder, we were relatively certain we’d be fine. Yet, the question mark remained: would there be a change in the base’s position now that the walk had arrived? Would we be met by Fort McCoy security determined to prevent us from crossing the base?

The answer was “No”. Fort McCoy’s command would not block the progress of the walk. We would keep on walking forward, never turning back.

Witness Against War aimed to engage in civil disobedience / civil resistance at the main gate of Fort McCoy. A flashing traffic control sign located along the highway near the entry to Fort McCoy advised incoming traffic that the main gate was closed and directed traffic elsewhere.

Had Fort McCoy decided to wait us out? To allow us to engage in a vigil on the entryway into the base, without allowing us onto the base? Since our intent was to remain in order to gain entry into the base to talk with soldiers about the war, the question began to be raised: How long would we have to wait to gain entry?

Witness Against War arrived at Fort McCoy at 11:45 a.m. We gathered along the shoulder of the highway, across from the main gate. Those of us intending to seek entry into the base-and to risk arrest in doing so-gathered together. We thirteen crossed the highway together when a break in traffic made it safe to do so.

Fort McCoy had placed wooden horses across the driveway entrance to the base. Two officers from the base security were present. As we approached, and began to pass the wooden horses, Fort McCoy’s law enforcement engaged us in conversation. The officer advised us that if we went beyond the horses and continued to walk up the driveway towards the entrance that we would be subject to arrest. He asked if there was any communication which would like to present to him for him to relay to the base commander. We replied that we sought to distribute an open letter regarding the Iraq war to those currently serving on the base and to engage in dialogue with those on the base.

The letter we sought to deliver began:

“”We today come to Fort McCoy to seek an end to the war in and occupation of Iraq by the United States. We come to Fort McCoy because of its key role in training National Guard units deploying to Iraq-a training that should end immediately with the commitment of the U.S. to keep National Guard units home and withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq….”

The letter concluded:

“…the strain upon service men and women and their families continues unabated with repeat deployments to Iraq. The Washington National Guard’s 81st Heavy Brigade Combat Team will deploy to Iraq for the second time this fall. The 32nd Red Arrow Brigade Combat Team of the Wisconsin National Guard will deploy to Iraq in 2009. This will be the largest deployment to combat of the Wisconsin National Guard since World War II when it logged the most days in theater of any U.S. Army unit. We call upon the United States to keep the National Guard at home in the U.S. and to end these repeat deployments abroad.

“We come to Fort McCoy to, in some small way, act in solidarity with members of the military who choose to nonviolently resist this war by refusing to be deployed to Iraq. We encourage members of the active duty military, Reserve and National Guard to consider refusing deployment orders and to be in contact with the GI Rights Hotline regarding their rights within the military at 1-800-394-9544.”

We stated that we intended to move forward to deliver the letter to those on the base and that we understood the potential consequences of doing so. He said he understood what we intended to do and moved aside as we processed up the driveway.

Then a “swarm” of officers from Fort McCoy emerged from the garage at the base entry point. We were walking slowly and deliberately towards them. They were walking slowly and deliberately towards us. It was clear that we would meet somewhere in the middle but that neither felt intimidated by the other nor that either side felt as if it was necessary to try to intimidate the other side.

We thirteen were arrested, processed and released in short order on the offense of trespass to land. We’ll be notified at some later time the date on which we are to appear in court. Those arrested include: Kathy Kelly, 54, Co-Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence ; Jeff Leys, 44, of Watertown, Wisconsin; Joy First, 54, of Madison, WI; John Bachman, 56, Eau Claire, WI; Brian Terrell, 52, of Des Moines, IA; Renee Espeland, 47 of Des Moines, IA; Kryss Chupp, 49, Christian Peacemaker Teams, Chicago; Ceylon Mooney, 33, Memphis, TN; Eileen Hanson, 34, Winona, MN; Joshua Brollier, 25, Clarkesville, TN; Lauren Cannon, 38, seminarian at Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL; Alice Gerard, 51, of Grand Island, NY; and Gene Stoltzfus, 68, of Ontario, Canada.

All but one were released the same day. Kathy Kelly was detained on an outstanding warrant that dates back over ten years to an act of nonviolent civil resistance at Project ELF. ELF was the Navy’s old transmitter system, closed in 2004, that played a key role in the nuclear first strategy of the United States (ELF was the bell ringer to call U.S. nuclear missile subs to the ocean’s surface to receive precise launch orders for a nuclear first strike against another country). It’s expected that she will be transferred to Ashland County to appear before the judge on the warrant. Arrest warrants have also been issued for several others previously arrested and convicted for acts of resistance to Project ELF who refused to pay fines.

Witness Against War continues westward to La Crosse later this week and then begins its northwestward trek along the Mississippi River, aiming to arrive in Saint Paul on August 30, in time for the Republican National Convention. Emphasizing that the issue is not about Democrat or Republican; that it’s not about Left or Right; but rather that it is about what is Right and Wrong-Witness Against War began its trek in Chicago, site of the 1968 Democratic Convention and will end in Saint Paul, site of this year’s Republican Convention. It truly is a matter of challenging the powers-that-be within both political parties and holding both accountable for ending the Iraq and Afghanistan war.

The Big Voice

Kathy Kelly — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:30:55 -0500

Project

WITNESS AGAINST WAR 2008: From Chicago to St. Paul

Short Information Teaser

Our "Witness Against War" walk is in Wisconsin, traversing traditional land of the Ho- Chunk Nation, also known in English translation as "People of the Big Voice."

Excerpt

August 9, 2008

Our “Witness Against War” walk is in Wisconsin, traversing traditional land of the Ho- Chunk Nation, also known in English translation as “People of the Big Voice.” In 1836, U.S. settlers, including farmers and miners, coveted this lush farmland and its rich mining resources and forced the Ho-Chunk to sell it all for a pittance.

VCNV Author

Kathy Kelly

Voices Author

Kathy Kelly

Body

August 9, 2008

About six months ago, Dan Pearson, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, swiveled around in his office chair in our tiny “headquarters” to ask what we thought about organizing a walk from Chicago to St. Paul, arriving just before the Republican National Convention. Our dedicated group of volunteers joined Dan to plan a project, which, to me, is one of the best organized efforts I’ve ever encountered, all aimed at voicing a witness against war, which particularly in Wisconsin, where 3,500 National Guard troops are on alert for a call-up to combat duty, in Iraq, in 2009. Generally, three to five “day walkers” will join our core group of nine walkers. We walk about fifteen miles each day carrying signs that call for an end to the war and for keeping Wisconsin National Guard troops home. The sign I carry on this walk reads “Rebuild Iraq, rebuild the U.S.” Another of our signs, decorated with the obligatory elephant and donkey, reads “We hold both parties responsible.” We began walking on July 12, 2008 and will arrive in St. Paul Minnesota on August 30th.

Our “Witness Against War” walk is in Wisconsin, traversing traditional land of the Ho- Chunk Nation, also known in English translation as “People of the Big Voice.” In 1836, U.S. settlers, including farmers and miners, coveted this lush farmland and its rich mining resources and forced the Ho-Chunk to sell it all for a pittance. The US government imposed repeated roundups and “removals” on them, resettling them from Wisconsin to Iowa, from Iowa to Minnesota, then to South Dakota and onward, in dangerous, and for some deadly forced transports. “In the winter of 1873, many Ho Chunk people were removed to the Nebraska reservation from Wisconsin, traveling in cattle cars on trains,” according to the Nation’s website. “This was a horrific experience for the people, as many elders, women and children suffered and died.” Some of the transports were imposed to remove the Ho-Chunk people from conflicts with other nations - conflicts created by previous forced transports. But after the removals by train, they walked back on foot to Wisconsin, to reclaim their former homes, It’s a tale of immeasurable suffering, but because of these walks back they are still here, as the “Ho-Chunk Nation” in this beautiful Wisconsin land where their ancestors were buried.

And we’re here too, walking on behalf of people in Iraq who’ve been made refugees to escape U.S. violence, and also the sectarian violence made inevitable by the U.S. government’s wholesale dismantling of their country, whether achieved deliberately or through incompetence we can’t know. We’re walking for people who, like the Ho-Chunk people, were told that if they didn’t cooperate with a U.S. project to seize their precious and irreplaceable resources, we would kill them.

The name of the “Ho-Chunk” nation means “People of the Sacred Language,” or “People of the Big Voice.” And when no-one was listening to them, they spoke to each other and chose to return, and strengthened each other for the return here where their action spoke louder than words and they eventually, after eleven removals and five weary returns, were ceded parts of their original land.

I and my companions here think of deliberate nonviolent action as a sacred language. Tomorrow we’re crossing the line into Fort McCoy to protest the cynical use of our young men and women, many of them seeking opportunities denied them in their communities, to kill and dispossess members of the Iraqi nation, to drive them into refuge in Jordan and Syria, to drive them into conflict the one against the other arming first this faction and then that with more and more weapons in the name of establishing “security forces”, so that we will have an excuse to occupy this oil-rich region for ages to come, whatever platitudes our leaders may offer now about eagerness some day to withdraw. Several of us may face several months in jail. Our leaders will continue to use these lands for wrongful purposes and we will keep walking back, until enough of our fellows join us that we are allowed to reclaim these lands, and our resources, to be the refuge and the comfort of all.

The United States is called a democracy. That means “People of the Big Voice.” A sacred language. But we as a nation are not yet ready to use our voices loud enough to be heard, or to use our feet, when our voices are ignored, in the sacred language of nonviolent direct action, in resistance to the greedy powerful few who would limit our choices to choices of war and claim all lands, heedless of the voices of the people living in them, for the purposes of greed. The world looks to us, much of it in genuine pain and anguish, asking when are we going to rescue them from our government, by expressing our wish for peace at long last in the Big Voice we have always claimed as our heritage?

Kathy Kelly () co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

Letter from Cathy Breen

voices — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:01:39 -0500

Short Information Teaser

"Despite the Iraqi government’s current campaign to get Iraqis to return to their country, no Iraqi here that I’ve spoken with is willing to return."

Excerpt

Amman, Jordan
July 30, 2008

Dear Friends,

Yesterday I received the following message from friends in Baghdad.

“Our Prime Minister visited the pope a few days ago and invited him to visit Iraq and persuade Christian Iraqis to return back to Iraq…. though Iraq is still a hotbed of crime and conspiracy. Many Iraqis in Syria and Jordan have returned either because their savings were depleted or they were not lucky enough to be picked by the UNHCR. Until now I cannot understand the criteria they are using to select the refugees. The conditions here are still bad, with no services at all. We even boil the drinking water to make sure it is safe while we heard that in the Green zone they import distilled water from Kuwait to use for washing and showers.”

Body

Amman, Jordan
July 30, 2008

Dear Friends,

Yesterday I received the following message from friends in Baghdad.

Stating that the security situation has improved inside of Iraq, there is a push on the part of the Iraqi government for the return of Iraqi refugees. Monthly financial incentives are being offered to returning Iraqis as well as to people inside of Iraq who have taken up residence, for instance, in other peoples’ homes. On a recent trip to Europe, Prime Minister Nouri Malaki asked Germany to review its position on refugees as Berlin has led a campaign to allow several thousand Iraqi refugees to resettle in the European Union. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the press “I think we should back plans to see the greatest number return home, with necessary encouragements.” (The Jordan Times 7.24.08) The pope himself, distressed at the mass exodus of Iraqi Christians from the region, is encouraging them to return. But is he, or anyone else for that matter, asking Iraqis what they want?

Despite the Iraqi government’s current campaign to get Iraqis to return to their country, no Iraqi here that I’ve spoken with is willing to return. Moreover, the UNHCR is not promoting or encouraging Iraqis to return until they can do so safely and with dignity. As part of an internal study the UNHCR asked Iraqis in Jordan if they would return to Iraq: 90% said not at all, 5% said at some point, and 5% were undecided. The results were similar in Syria.

Beginning in mid-February of this year the Jordan government announced its own three-month campaign to encourage Iraqis to return home. This was in the form of a “waiver of fines” for Iraqi nationalists who had overstayed their visas, while those who wished to stay would have their fines cut in half and then receive a three-month visa. Jordan’s Minister of Interior described the number of Iraqis who benefited from the exemption as disappointing, compared with the total number of Iraqis in the country which stands at half a million. “Only 3,000 Iraqis have left the country while 12,000 stayed and benefited from the exemption decision.” (The Jordan Times, July 20,2008)

The other night I made myself look at the gruesome pictures on the TV news, pictures of bodies ripped apart by explosions in Turkey. Two consecutive suicide bombings were carried out in a crowded shopping area, the second as rescue attempts were going on. Seventeen innocent people dead. In Baghdad and Kirkuk at least 58 people died in suicide bombings the same day.

About 5 months ago an Iraqi couple and their two year old son were allowed to enter Jordan for medical reasons. Their little boy was near death and in need of an emergency operation. The operation was successful, thank God, and the parents will be returning to Iraq soon. This precious child has captured my heart, as well as his mother who is expecting their fourth child. The father shared with me how he saw a mother, beside herself with grief, frantically racing with part of her son to a hospital after such an explosion. Holding only his legs in her arms, she was screaming “Sew him together, sew my son back together! While no one disputes that the number of deaths and attacks have declined since the “surge,” the ongoing violence and carnage continue in alarming proportions compared to other parts of the region. It seems somehow obscene to even think in terms of numbers, doesn’t it? But I fear we have simply become immune to the numbers….and the images are tragically withheld from us.

Cathy Breen

VCNV Author

Cathy Breen

Walk Blog: Visit to Governor Doyle's office (Madison, WI)

Kathy Kelly — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:17:33 -0500

Project

WITNESS AGAINST WAR 2008: From Chicago to St. Paul

Short Information Teaser

delivery of a letter to Governor Doyle

Excerpt

July 30, 2008

In Madison, WI, we delivered a letter to Governor Doyle, urging him to support State assemblyman Spenser Black in his efforts to prevent the National Guard from going to Iraq. Mr.Farland, an aide to the governor, met with about two dozen of us who crowded into the reception area of the governor’s office. The letter reads:

Governor Jim Doyle
Office of the Governor 115 East State Capitol Madison, Wisconsin 53702 Governor Doyle,

The Red Arrow 32nd Brigade Combat Team of the Wisconsin National Guard is currently scheduled to deploy to Iraq in 2009.

We urge you to take all necessary steps to prevent this deployment from happening. This includes, but is not limited to, taking legal action in the form of a lawsuit to prevent future deployments to Iraq.

VCNV Author

Kathy Kelly

Body

July 30, 2008

Governor Jim Doyle
Office of the Governor 115 East State Capitol Madison, Wisconsin 53702 Governor Doyle,

The Red Arrow 32nd Brigade Combat Team of the Wisconsin National Guard is currently scheduled to deploy to Iraq in 2009.

We urge you to take all necessary steps to prevent this deployment from happening. This includes, but is not limited to, taking legal action in the form of a lawsuit to prevent future deployments to Iraq.

We believe that you have the legal authority to prevent the deployment of the Wisconsin National Guard to Iraq. Specifically, the Authorization to Use Military Force against Iraq, passed by Congress in October 2002, achieved its objectives. Congress authorized the use of military force against Iraq for two very specific reasons:

to force Iraq to comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions; and,

because Iraq was considered to be a threat to the national security of the United States.

Each of these two conditions have been achieved. Indeed the U.S. is negotiating a Status of Forces Agreement with the current government of Iraq, indicating that the U.S. considers Iraq to now be an allied nation.

With the achievement of these two conditions, the purpose for the authorization for the use of military force against Iraq has terminated. This authorization provided the basis for the federalization of the National Guard. With the expiration of this authorization, the legal basis for the federalization of the Guard has also lapsed.

We encourage you to challenge the deployment of the National Guard by refusing to permit the deployment of the 32nd Brigade next year. This no doubt will result in legal action involving your office. But it truly is essential that such a constitutional crisis be created in order to challenge continuing deployments of the National Guard to the Iraq war.

Precedent exists for Wisconsin to challenge the federal government’s military decisions. In 1983 Wisconsin filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government seeking to prevent the operation of the Navy’s Project ELF, a transmitter key to the U.S. nuclear first strike strategy.

We look forward to your action to keep the Guard home.

Jim Cusack, a labor organizer and organizer with Voces de la Frontera (an immigrants rights and workers rights organization based in Milwaukee), spoke of displacement and loss caused by the war, recalling the hundreds of thousands of families, in the US and in Iraq, aching for loved ones who will never return.

Dan Pearson explained Representative Spenser Black’s proposal to Mr. Farland and emphasized that funds allocated for military spending should be redircted to ease the humanitarian crisis caused by ongoing war in Iraq. Dan briefly noted that he had lived amongst Iraqi refugees in Damascus, Syria, for five months and then worked with Iraqis resettled in Chicago. He could verify, through personal experience, that many Iraqis he met were unable to provide basic needs for their families.

I wanted the governor’s aide to know that we’re planning to visit Ft. Mc Coy, which is training soldiers from other states to deploy for combat duty in Iraq. I told him that after living under aerial bombardment of Baghdad throughout the Shock and Awe bombing, I felt acutely responsible to help prevent the terror and horror that these attacks cause.

A teacher from Wisconsin told Mr. Farland that the state had abruptly cut funding for a program to teach English as a Second Language to refugee families that have just arrived in the state, many of them families displaced by the Viet Nam war who, for decades, awaited resettlement in the U.S. and who have now finally arrived here. She asked if the war in Iraq would likely create new waves of displaced people whose needs would be unmet while the military demands dominated state and national budgets.

Alice Gerard told Mr. Farland about a crossing guard, in Jefferson, WI, who told Alice that she supported our walk because she had a son who is in Iraq now and this is his fifth deployment. “Mr Farland, there is a hole left in these families,” said Alice, “a hole in their homes and their hearts when their loved ones go off to war.”

“Witness Against War” walkers and supporters presented earnest, well-informed and persuasive testimony to Mr. Farland. We encourage anyone reading our reports to echo the sentiments we presented by writing letters to Governor Doyle.

Pictures From Summer Camp

Kathy Kelly — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:16:07 -0500

Short Information Teaser

Joel Gulledge attacked by Israeli settler while escorting children to summer camp

Excerpt

July 27, 2008

At 6:45 a.m. this morning, our friend, Joel Gulledge, called from At-Tuwani, a village in the West Bank where he and another Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) member were escorting Palestinian children to a local summer daycamp, protecting them from hostile Israeli settlers. A masked settler, carrying a slingshot, was threatening the children. While Jan Benvie, the other CPT team member, raced the children to safety, Joel paused to film what was happening. The masked settler caught up with Joel and attacked him. “He smashed my head again and again,” said Joel, “with my video camera, and punched me in the face, repeatedly, with his other hand.” Joel managed to remain standing. He didn’t fight back, but he screamed for help. The attacker broke Joel’s glasses, and Joel was bleeding from a gash over his eyes. When he called, he was waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

Body

July 27, 2008

Earlier this week, CPT’s website, (www.cpt.org), reported that on Wednesday 23 July, “three Israeli settlers, one masked and wielding a stick, pursued fourteen Palestinian children who were on their way to a summer camp in At-Tuwani. The children from the villages of Tuba and Maghaer Al-Abeed waited thirty minutes for the Israeli military escort that should have accompanied them on the most direct road between the villages of Tuba and At-Tuwani. When the military failed to arrive, the children began walking along a long path through the hills to At-Tuwani. When the children neared the Israeli settlement outpost of Havat Ma’on, three settlers with two dogs came out from the outpost and began walking in the direction of the children.”

“Members of the At-Tuwani team yelled at the children to alert them that settlers were coming at them from behind. The children ran down and across a valley to a location further from the settlers. They continued to At-Tuwani. The settlers remained on a hill top near Havot Ma’on, watching the children as they walked toward the school.”

“The previous day, Tuesday 22 July, the military escort never arrived to escort the children to summer camp. Seven children took a long path to the school. They told the At-Tuwani team that at least eight other children did not attend summer camp because they were too afraid to come to school without an escort. The mayor of At-Tuwani spoke with Israeli military to coordinate the escort for the children. However, several military spokespersons and soldiers on the ground denied receiving orders to escort the children.”

“In 2004, the Israeli Knesset recommended that the Israeli military carry out a daily escort of the children of Tuba and Maghaer Al-Abeed to their school in At-Tuwani because settlers repeatedly attacked them.”

Yesterday’s New York Times carried a front page article, “Dear Parents: Please Relax, It’s Just Camp,” about parents in the U.S. who experience separation anxiety when their children go to sleep-away camps. Summer camps frequently post videos and still photos of the children on their websites, allowing parents to keep in touch with the children’s activities. But now it’s customary for many camps to hire a full-time “parent liason,” because the parents become very involved in their children’s lives at the camp, so much so that some camps are bombarded with phone calls, daily, from anxious parents. Could these parents understand the terror of Palestinian parents whose children are at risk of being beaten and killed as they walk between their village and the local summer camp, each day.

“Nobody goes to school for how to send your child away from you,” said Maria Coleman, a past president of the American Camp Association. “We help the parents become independent. And especially post-9/11 in today’s society, that’s definitely a heightened need.” Clearly greater than American parents’ fear of terrorist attacks, we hear of Israeli parents and their fear that their children will fall prey to terrorism, but human rights groups like Israeli B’Tselem tell us that Palestinian children are far more likely - by a factor of over eight to one in recent years - to die by violence in the conflict, often by weapons provided to Israel, without significant human rights oversight, by the United States. All lives are precious, especially children’s lives, from whatever community they make their way out into the world. How must the parents of Palestine, the parents of Iraq, the parents of Iran, feel knowing that not only they but their children are at the wrong end of American weapons?

I feel such a concern for my friend and co-worker Joel as he and his fellow CPT team members try to protect endangered Palestinians and their children in the West Bank. The example they set, in their dedication to nonviolence and their refusal to carry weapons, can help all of us gain independence from the cycle of threat and violence which the U.S. has driven in its support for and arming of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Kathy Kelly () is a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, www.vcnv.org

VCNV Author

Kathy Kelly

Letter from Cathy Breen

Cathy Breen — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:02:30 -0500

Short Information Teaser

What would you do if your child was kidnapped?

Excerpt

July 27,2008
Amman, Jordan

Dear Friends,

“Think about it for a second. What would you do if your child was kidnapped? If you were in a war-torn country where the police couldn’t help you? To many, if not most parents, the answer of course would be—anything, anything. Including paying ransom to those who were holding their child even if the kidnappers were terrorists. Over the past five years for many Iraqis, that choice has been a very grim reality.” (Dan Rather Reports on ‘The High Price of Ransom,” HDNet TV, July 1, 2008)

Last week in a meeting at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Amman, I was asked if I had seen the above program. I had not, but was later able to get a printout of the text. I have it before me as I write you. Why is it that I am not surprised to read that one in every four Iraqis seeking help from the UNHCR has had a family member kidnapped? And yet seeing this number in print creates a knot in my stomach, and a feeling of nausea. One in four, imagine. One in four.

Body

July 27,2008
Amman, Jordan

Dear Friends,

A day or so after the meeting at the UNHCR—I had gone to get an update on their activities over the last 7 months and to learn of their current position—I was sitting with a Jordanian woman in a public square not far from where I am living. An Iraqi man I know quite well saw us and approached asking if I could meet with a father whose little daughter is ill. What could I say? How could I refuse? The timing was providential as the Jordanian woman agreed to translate for us.

About 1/2 hour later, the father arrived and showed me a medical report of his 4 year old daughter. She has suffered from seizures since birth, and Caritas is no longer able to provide the needed medications. His own savings have run out. They had four children, but a year ago one of their daughters died of cancer. She was just seven.

This family fled to Jordan about two years ago, after their then seven year old boy was kidnapped in Baghdad. The child was held for three weeks. The father explained that the family paid $8,000 of a $10,000 ransom for their son’s release. They sought help with the UNHCR in Amman and, after arduous and lengthy processing, were granted refugee status and qualified for resettlement. Last October they had the one deciding interview with someone from the U.S. Homeland Security team. The officer asked this father “Why did you pay a ransom and support the terrorists?” The father showed me the form letter of rejection with the box “credibility” checked. The letter did not even have a date on it.

As the time drew near to take leave of one another, I remembered that I had an envelope in my bag from friends in the U.S. for just such a family in need. Together with the money was a handwritten message from them, and I am sorry now that I didn’t think to copy it. Just two sentences as I recall, but words that conveyed the deep longing and desire that one day we would live in peace together. The simple words seemed to encircle and embrace us, and it was enough to just sit silently together for some moments.

Cathy Breen

VCNV Author

Cathy Breen

Walk Blog: Dan Pearson, July 21

Dan Pearson — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:02:31 -0500

Project

WITNESS AGAINST WAR 2008: From Chicago to St. Paul

Short Information Teaser

Witness against war: from Oak Creek to Milwaukee

Excerpt

By Dan Pearson
July 21, 2008

VIEW PHOTOS

More than twenty locals from the Milwaukee area joined us yesterday to walk from Oak Creek to Milwaukee, galvanizing the eight of us who’ve been walking since Chicago. Among them were members of Peace Action, Voces de la Frontera, Vets for Peace, Casa Maria Catholic Worker, students from Marquette University and a member of the Oak Creek chapter of Iraq Vets Against War. The Vets for Peace Chapter of Sheboygan, WI greeted us with a generous lunch in Humboldt Park on the south side of Milwaukee. We were then welcomed with an enthusiastic rally by another 20 or so people at our stopping point in downtown Milwaukee at the well known and somewhat contentious sunburst sculpture, jokingly described by some locals as the “big, orange asterisk.”

Body

By Dan Pearson
July 21, 2008

VIEW PHOTOS

Later that evening a crowd of a hundred or so gathered for music and a cookout at the Friends Meeting House followed by an evening Witness Against War presentation. We effectively included all of the main walkers with their various talents and even some others we knew from the audience to be part of an improvised role-play seeking to provoke a better understanding of what motivates different people in Iraq and illustrating how difficult the choices can be in a time of war.

Members of Voces de la Frontera joined us this morning in a pre-walk from Casa Romero across the historic 6th street bridge and into Zeidler Park where we held a joint press conference and began the day’s walk to Brookfield. Today’s guest walkers included local members of Peace Action, Casa Maria Catholic Worker, the Candlelight Coalition, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and others no doubt. Paul Melling and Heléne Hedberg were the featured speakers at tonight’s event at the Unitarian Universalist Church West in Brookfield; both were well received.

On most days our most immediate support vehicle comes in the form of a bicycle and small trailer provided by our resourceful friend, Tim Herlihy. This addition has proved to be most useful as it allows us to have plenty of water, informational leaflets and a first-aid kit close at hand. It proved useful even after the walk yesterday when I was making my way along the Oak Leaf bike path toward the Friends Meeting House where our event that evening was to be held; I happened upon a father and his young son who’d just taken a spill on his bike, suffering a skinned-up knee in the process. The first-aid kit in the trailer was immediately put to use treating the wound, the tears turned to smiles and as we parted ways the father offered words of support and encouragement for this undertaking of walking and challenging the occupation of Iraq.

Walk Blog: Kathy Kelly, July 14

Kathy Kelly — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:12:09 -0500

Project

WITNESS AGAINST WAR 2008: From Chicago to St. Paul

Short Information Teaser

Signs of hope in a collective witness against war

Excerpt

July 14, 2008

On July 12th, supporters of the “Witness Against War” walk from Chicago to St. Paul, MN launched the walk in Chicago’s Federal Building plaza with a program rich in good will and diversity.

Brad Lyttle recalled the courage and determination of peace activists protesting the Viet Nam war during the Democratic National Convention held, in 1968, in Chicago. And, holding aloft a sturdy placard written in Russian, he helped link the walk to the “San Francisco to Moscow Walk,” which crossed the globe campaigning for nuclear disarmament in 1958.

VCNV Author

Kathy Kelly

Body

July 14, 2008

On July 12th, supporters of the “Witness Against War” walk from Chicago to St. Paul, MN launched the walk in Chicago’s Federal Building plaza with a program rich in good will and diversity.

Cynthia Banas sent us clippings from newspapers in upstate New York chronicling a mid-May 2008 project, the New York State Marches for Peace, in which opponents to war set forth from multiple towns for a ten day trek, convening at Fort Drum where to call for an end to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Voices activists asked Karl Meyer for advice and reflections during the final weeks of preparation for the “Witness Against War” launch. From Nashville Greenlands, Karl Meyer, whose rich history of peace activism includes participation in the “San Francisco to Moscow” walk, Karl sent this article.

Further glimpses of the connections across region, continent, and generations of resistance to war, were seen upon the WALK’s launch in Chicago, engendering energy for the gathering walkers.

In the summer of 2007, in Amman, Jordan, an Iraqi family awaiting resettlement had welcomed various Voices activists into their humble home and helped us understand the extremely harsh circumstances they had faced after being forced to flee from their home in Iraq. We never would have imagined, then, that the family’s oldest son would be sitting in the living room at Voices, a year later, conversing with a member of Iraq Veterans Against War and preparing to walk together in hopes of putting an end to war. We carry signs of hope along with immense responsibility to step forward in a collective witness against war.

WITNESS AGAINST WAR – a walk from Chicago to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN - sponsored by Voices for Creative Nonviolence – July 12-August 31, 2008

War and Memory

voices — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:01:38 -0500

Project

WITNESS AGAINST WAR 2008: From Chicago to St. Paul

Short Information Teaser

Karl Meyer answer the question; why go on foot to the Republican National Convention?

Excerpt

By Karl Meyer
July 14, 2008

Why go on foot to the Republican National Convention?

1968 was the year when another Republican candidate for President promised to end a failing war, with “honor”, with “victory”, with “success” for American forces. The war was Vietnam. The candidate was Richard Nixon. He won the election. Then he continued the war at full blast for four more years. He expanded it with bombing campaigns and land incursions into Cambodia and Laos, neighboring countries he accused of harboring enemy forces. He battered North Vietnam, as well as the South, with massive bombing. Part of the cost was hundreds of thousands of Asian lives never adequately counted, plus about 21,000 more U.S. servicemen and women killed, and about 102,000 more wounded. Then shortly before the 1972 election he settled on most of the terms for a face-saving agreement with North Vietnam, that he touted as an honorable withdrawal. That settlement soon turned into total defeat.

Forty years after 1968, another Republican candidate promises to end a national insurgency, in Iraq, with “honor”, with “victory”, with “success” for American forces. He suggests that the Iraqi government and people may ask or allow U.S. military forces to remain in Iraq for a hundred years to anchor and protect U.S. interests and investment in the oil resources of the Middle East.

Body

By Karl Meyer
July 14, 2008

Why go on foot to the Republican National Convention?

Where have this man and his Party been sleeping for the last forty years? Lieutenant Commander John McCain’s bomber plane was shot down over Hanoi in 1967, during his twenty-third mission bombing cities and villages of North Vietnam. He spent the next five and a half years in North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camps and prisons. He presents this as part of a depth of experiences that equip and qualify him to run the military and foreign policy of the United States wisely. Years of experience can be great sources of education and wisdom. But what if you learn the wrong things from your experience?

John McCain never got the message. Millions of determined Vietnamese never appreciated his flights over their country to “bomb them back into the Stone Age”, as General Curtis LeMay proposed in 1965. Vietnamese defenders shot him down for a reason, and similar reasons prevail in Iraq today.

We have no guarantee that Democratic candidates for national office will end the Iraq War more wisely, decisively, or quickly, but John McCain has made it clear that his 2008 plan for ending it bears a tragic similarity to Nixon’s plan in 1968.

Why did John McCain speak of U.S. bases in Iraq for a hundred years? The fundamental challenge for human society in this century is energy. Shortages of oil and gas, and severe atmospheric and climatic consequences from burning the oil and gas we have, seem inevitable. Although McCain and other Republicans may speak of alternative energy sources and energy independence, the linchpin of their current policy is neo-imperial control over foreign sources of oil, supplemented by drilling for all possible reserves in untapped lands and territorial waters of the United States. When they look at the challenges of the 21st Century, their minds and vision are still locked into the strategies of the 19th and 20th Centuries.

Again, we have no guarantees that Democrats would do much better, so the witness of our walk is aimed at all who run for office, and all people who will play a part in our collective destiny.

War and Resistance

Those of us who remember, and those who have learned the lessons of our history, know that in 1968 there was a huge and vigorous movement of protest and resistance against the Vietnam War. It focused on both the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions that summer. The elders among us were part of that movement. We wonder why there is no comparable movement of protest and resistance to the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars this summer. The answer probably hinges on the military draft that confronted all young American men in 1968, with an imminent threat to life and limb, for a cause that they could not believe in. Lost American lives piled up at a rate on the order of ten times the recent loss of lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands of young men, civilians, draftees and enlisted men already in the military avoided or resisted this fate by myriad acts of protest and personal resistance. Girlfriends, sisters, brothers, parents, relatives and friends supported them with their own acts of protest and resistance, including explosive growth of a movement to refuse payment of federal income taxes and the 10% federal tax on telephone service.

Inspired by knowledge of these struggles, we look for a comparable movement of protest and resistance against the current wars, and their disastrous economic consequences for all of us. But, we don’t see it happening today. Though stop-loss extensions of military service and repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan burden and threaten the lives of our brothers and sisters in the National Guard and the Reserves, there is no wave of protest adequate to build momentum for a mass movement of resistance.

We are walking from Chicago to St. Paul this summer to demonstrate a direct way to travel toward our goal of a peaceful society. The core of any contemporary movement to resist war and military empire building must be a radical change in the way each of us and all of us use energy and other limited resources of our common planet:

We must travel less, or in energy efficient ways.
We must build homes and work places differently, so we can light them, heat them or cool them in energy efficient ways.
We must diversify and support local agriculture, to conserve soil and water, and reduce the costs of food preservation and long distance transportation.
We must repair, reuse, or recycle every kind of consumer and industrial product, and reduce our demand for products we do not need.

Through these actions we reduce our demand for oil, gas and other limited world resources. The demand for war is closely related to excess demand for limited resources.

Every dollar, or hour, that we divert to local food production, energy efficient transportation, retrofitting existing houses with super-insulated walls and passive solar energy design, repairing, reusing and recycling the things we use, will reduce our personal demand for the fruits of war and empire.

We walk to persuade our people and their government to divert billions in investment, away from war and the military infrastructure:

Advanced systems of rapid rail freight and passenger lines should parallel every mile of our present interstate highway system.
Government should mandate and subsidize maximum energy efficiency in the design of all new buildings, and retrofitting of existing buildings, so that we can light, heat or cool them for a small fraction of current energy use.
A new national agriculture policy could provide incentives for diversified local food production and distribution, and sustainable conservation of soil and water resources.
We should encourage and mandate manufacture of durable consumer products that can be repaired readily, and can last for a long time.
We should organize systems for efficient recycling of all reusable materials.
We should support research and development of every possible means of energy generation that does not have serious negative effects in our natural environment.

Every dollar diverted from current military spending to initiatives of this nature will increase the economic and political security and well-being of our people, our country, and our world. This is the message of our walk.

WITNESS AGAINST WAR – a walk from Chicago to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN - sponsored by Voices for Creative Nonviolence – July 12-August 31, 2008