In protest of the continuing U.S. war and occupation of Iraq, four Catholic Workers were arrested this morning, Monday, 3 April for occupying the Columbia MO Military Recruiting Center. Below see the group’s news release following the action and their public statement which was passed out on the funeral protest march and at the center. The Columbia Daily Tribune also printed a story on the front page of their Monday paper. Here’s the url to check it out….

 

 

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Apr/20060403News003.asp

 

 

NEWS RELEASE

 

April 3, 2006

 

 

Four Catholic Worker anti-war activists entered an armed forces recruiting station in Columbia, Missouri and offered a rose to each military branch recruiter along with a short note explaining that since recruiters were prohibited as military personel from engaging in political activity it was activists job to do it for them especially since their commander-in-chief started an illegal war and authorized torture as one of the means to prosecute the war. Steve Jacobs, a Catholic Worker from Columbia, MO told one Navy recruiter, "We love you guys and we don't want you to go to Iraq and get killed or have to kill anyone else in our name". In an ensuing dialogue between the activists and the recruiters, Jacobs noted the recent Zogby poll of military personel in Iraq which found that more than 70% of those stationed in Iraq felt that the U.S. should not be there and Jacobs told the naval recruiter that "We're doing this for you and for Americans in Iraq. It's our job as citizens to use our Constitutional freedoms to protest when corrupt leaders do unethical things that get you guys killed in an immoral war." 

         The activists taped photos of torture victims from Abu Ghraib and bloodied Iraqi children whose parents were killed by U.S. troops at a checkpoint on the recruiting station walls and the office doors of recruiters along with another sign that read, "Who Would Jesus Bomb?" and "Christians cannot love their enemies and kill them, too".

         The four arrested were part of a gathering of nearly 60 Catholic Workers from 7 states who held a retreat over the weekend at Our Lady of Sorrows Shrine in Starkenberg. They caravaned to Columbia this morning for the civil disobedience action. After arriving in Columbia they started a funeral procession through the downtown area carrying coffins draped in an American flag and an Iraqi flag respectively and held photos of war crimes victims commited in the ongoing Iraqi war. 

         Brian Terrell, a Catholic Worker from Des Moines, Iowa urged on the civil disobedience as a way of following in Jesus's footsteps and being a truth teller and a Peacemaker. "Some people consider civil disobedience an extreme measure for extreme times. If these aren't extreme times, I don't know what are" said Terrell.

         Catholic Worker activists cited numerous war crimes by the Bush administration as reasons for their opposition to the wars. "I don't feel I'd be much a Christian if my only response to U.S. torture, and pre-emptive war is to pray quietly for it in church on Sunday.  Jesus urged us to be peacemakers; not to be torturers or killers of innocent civilians at checkpoints and inside Muslim mosques.  So, we came here to ask people of faith, 'Who would Jesus bomb?' "  said  Steve Jacobs.

          Those arrested were: 1)    Eddie Bloomer age 56 from Des

                                                           Moines, Iowa Catholic Worker

                                                    2)   Chrissy Kirchhoefer, age 25 from St.

                                                           Louis, MO Catholic Worker community

                                                    3)   Joseph Black from the St. Louis, MO 

                                                          Catholic Worker community 

                                                    4)   Steve Jacobs, age 51, of the St. Francis

                                                          Catholic Worker in Columbia, MO

 

   After blockading the doorway of the army recruiters they were booked by Columbia police and issued summons to appear in court May 4 and charged with first degree trespass and released without bond. For more info contact Lana or Steve Jacobs at 573-875-7878 or 875-4913.

 

 

Why We Must Nonviolently Act Against the War

Public statement of war resistance at the Columbia Military Recruiting Center-- 4/3/06

 

Forgive us friends for disrupting your daily routine, but the times are extraordinary in their capacity for violence and death. As Christians and Catholic Workers, we are compelled to choose between the nonviolence that Jesus taught versus the violence of our leaders who wage an unjust war with unjust mean. Jesus taught us to love our enemies and to return good for evil: but the U.S. government demands violence every bit as vulgar and brutish as those who our government claims to oppose. The White House and its warring partners have authorized interrogation techniques so vicious and degrading that any claim to moral superiority evaporates in a cloud of self-righteousness. Torture dehumanizes us all. The Bush-Cheney administration's clear disdain for international     and national laws banning pre-emptive attacks, torture and the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians in close proximity to other targets, not only fuels    the hatred of Muslims toward our nation, but degrades the soldiers participating in it. Killing other human beings causes cancer of the soul and has rippling effect on the social cohesiveness of our country.

As Christians, we have to ask ourselves, “Who would Jesus bomb?” Furthermore, “How can we, as people of conscience , love our emeries as ourselves and  kill them at the same time?” and “If we're all made in the image and likeness of God, then isn't destroying others, an insult to their Maker?” What good can come from using unholy and criminal means to achieve goals? To who do we give our allegiance? Jesus, who rejected violence even to save our own life, OR    a criminal commander-in-chief, who has caused over 25,000 Americans be maimed for life or killed, whose actions have led to the killing of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in this illegal war?

The priorities of our nation are askew. Most of our federal tax monies go toward waging war and paying for past ones, while: the Gulf Coast remains in a state of disaster; the majority of U.S. citizens have inadequate health care; and tens of millions of our citizens are homeless, unemployed, underemployed and/or impoverished. As military recruiters, should you not ask yourselves, ”Is it right to fill the fighting ranks primarily with sons and daughters of the poor and working class? Is it ethical to have them fight the battles of the wealthy leaders who will never have to pay such a steep price in blood nor treasure?”

We've decided to act nonviolently against this criminal war and against trespass laws, hopefully to add to the efforts of others to stop the war and prevent greater crimes from continuing. And because our leaders act criminally, the innocent must choose to become criminals in order to oppose their crimes. In the words of Daniel Berrigan, “When authority has betrayed us, the patriot must bear the stigma of 'traitor.' I choose to be a criminal precisely because I will have no part in my country's crimes. I choose to become a traitor to a land which day by day betrays the best hopes of [humanity].” As Christians, our allegiance is   to Jesus's teachings and as ethical people, to the Truth. To whom or what do you give your allegiance?

 

--Mid-MO FOR’s coordinator Jeff Stack had the privilege of working with others in being present as a support person and a media liaison for the nonviolent action.