The Bush-Cheney administration seem casually intent to launch a horrific military strike upon Iran. Nuclear weapons are clearly “on the table” as if they are a simple tool in the U.S. empire’s deadly militaristic arsenal, according to White House officials. People the world over—especially in the United States, including Mid-Missouri-- need  to stand up and speak out forcefully, nonviolently to let U.S. elected officials residing in seats of power in our democracy, hear our collective call: “Wage No War Upon Iran!”

More than 100,000 Iraqis and at least 2300 U.S. military personnel have been killed so far in the U.S.-led attack upon Iraq. White House officials have remarked that the occupation and war there could go on for several more years.  In recent weeks, President Bush and other officials have boldly hinted, like a schoolyard bully, our government’s military could strike out at any time.  Now, is the time for committed people in this nation to stand nonviolently against the continuation of this violence in the name of empire. In 1945, U.S. warplanes dropped nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than 200,000 people; more continue to die to this day as a direct result of the radioactive fallout. For decades, U.S. peace activists have said “Hiroshima/Nagasaki Never Again!” We must be willing to take greater risks for peace for the benefit of peoples the world over, in Iran, Iraq and including those in this land. We must redirect U.S. resources to help meet real human needs here and globally, instead of stuffing the gluttonous national war machine.

In solidarity, peace and hope in nonviolent people power,

Jeff Stack

Mid-MO Fellowship of Reconciliation, coordinator

 

 

Toward that end, the Mid-MO FOR encourages you to participate in the following:

1) Join Anti-War Games   Monday 8 May  12 Noon

At one of three Congressional offices in mid-Missouri (contact one of the numbers below to get specifics by April's end). A legal demonstration including a “rehearsal” of civil disobedience for a future date-- should the Bush-Cheney administration launch an invasion or attack (a nuclear or other missile attack) upon Iran.

You're welcome to attend:

Thursday 4 May,

6:00 pm. Planning meeting for May 8 event

7:00-9:00 pm. Nonviolence training (anyone participating in a possible future civil disobedient action will be required to have completed such training).

A & S (Arts & Sciences) Bldg. Room 113   UMC Campus

Call Jeff at 573-449-4585 or Steve at 573-875-4913/875-7878 for more information.  

--Following the next announcement, you’ll find more local ways to work for peace and just international relations (and under point #6 you’ll find other concrete actions/means to resist a possible war on Iran)…

 

2) “Africa Conference: Crossing Borders, Connecting People,” Saturday, 29 April  10 am- 3:30 pm   Rock Bridge High School, 4303 S. Providence Rd., Columbia. The conference will feature speakers, music, showing of the documentary “God Sleeps in Rwanda” and food. Free and open to the public, best to RSVP at globalissuesclub@yahoo.com.  Coordinated by the school’s Global Issues Club.  Their brochure notes, “Africa is 6000 miles away. Let’s bring it closer to Columbia;”

3) Attend the next monthly meeting of the Columbia Peace Coalition  Monday, 1 May  6:00 pm, in the Peace Nook,  804C E. Broadway, downtown Columbia. We need you to join in local efforts to resist the help prevent a war upon Iran and to end the occupation of Iraq;   

4) Attend any of the several regularly-scheduled peace vigils taking place in Mid-Missouri….

 Columbia

Saturdays, 10:00-11:00 am., Columbia Post Office

Tuesdays, 12 Noon-1:00 pm. at MU's Speakers' Circle

Wednesdays, 4:15- 5:45 pm., Broadway & Providence

Jefferson City

Wednesdays, 12 Noon-1:00 Post Office on High St.

Fulton

Tuesdays 4:30-5:30, market & 5^th St., Callaway County courthouse;

 

5) Attend the next monthly “Prayer for Peace for All People”

next time at the Unitarian Universalist Church 2615 Shepard Blvd.,  Saturday, May 13 , 9:00-9:45 a.m.

 

6) ACTION ALERT:  ACT NOW TO PREVENT A U.S. ATTACK ON IRAN:

-- Thanks to our friend Mark and Mid-MO Peaceworks for forwarding these action suggestions….  

 

We'd like to ask you to do the following:

 

A)  Make four phone calls today. Call the offices of Rep. Kenny Hulshof (or your rep if you live in a different district) 449-5111 or 202-225-2956, Sen. Kit Bond 202-224-5721, Sen. Jim Talent 202-224-6154 and the White House comment line 202-456-1111. We urge you to share whatever your sentiments are on this critical issue.

 

Our message includes: 1) Attacking Iran would be illegal and immoral. It would also be profoundly counter to our national security interests; 2) A nuclear attack, which apparently is being contemplated, would legitimate the use of these hellish weapons and would lead inexorably to their wider use, ultimately reducing dramatically our prospects for survival as a species; 3) Even a conventional attack is both completely unjustified and would do horrific harm all the way around; and 4) The only way we will ever be successful in dealing with nuclear proliferation is to transcend the hypocrisy that has us telling other countries to "do as I say, not as I do." If we want to eliminate the threat of nukes in the hands of so-called "evil" countries, we need to recognize that others see us as "evil." Only through guaranteed, mutual, verifiable and universal nuclear disarmament will we have any chance to eliminate this threat to our survival

 

B)  Write a letter to the editor and send it to each of the local papers with a "No War on Iran" message. Send them to:  Columbia Tribune:  editor@tribmail.com;  Columbia Missourian:  editor@digmo.com;  Maneater:   forum@themaneater.com;  Post-Dispatch:   letters@post-dispatch.com;  K.C. Star:   letters@kcstar.com   and as many others as you can. 

 

C)  Stop by the Peace Nook to pick up "Attack Iran? NO!" bumperstickers (no charge, donations welcome). Display this, share them with friends, make the message visible.

 

D)  Become well informed and talk this issue up with friends, family and associates. In addition to the links we posted last week (contact us if you don't have these and would like us to re-send them), we would suggest checking out:

 

Sy Hersh on Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/12/1359254

 

"The Human Costs of Bombing Iran"--Matthew Rothschild:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0411-27.htm

 

"If You Liked the Iraq War, You'll Love the Iran War"--Cenk Uygur

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0414-31.htm

 

"Playacting Diplomacy Again on Road to War"--Norman Solomon

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0418-23.htm

 

 

 

In peace and in solidarity for social change,

Jeff Stack

Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation coordinator

 

1) To begin with, for those of you in mid-Missouri, you are welcome to join us for the next mid-state meeting of the

Missouri Campaign for a Moratorium on Executions

7:45-8:45 p.m. (please note later starting time)

Tuesday, 25 April

Columbia Public Library Conference Room A

We?ll be talking about progress with the local moratorium campaign?about 70 area entities (businesses, houses of worship and groups) have now endorsed a call for a death penalty study with a moratorium, other strategies to advance the cause plus your ideas and visions.

Please join us for what time you can. Convened by the Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation. Call Jeff at 573-449-4585 for more info.

Additionally, there is included below in this posting:

2) Media report and comments on the 18 April hearing regarding the ?constitutionality? of Missouri?s lethal injection system;

3) Amnesty International?s new worldwide death penalty report. It finds the United States remains among the top executing countries on the planet, ?Out of Step with Global Trend toward Abolition?As in previous years, the vast majority of executions worldwide were carried out in a tiny handful of countries. In 2005, 94 per cent of all known executions took place in four countries: China, Iran, the Saudi Arabia and the USA.?

 

4) Reflections on the recent murder of Sr. Karen Klimczak apparently by one of the former prisoners she was working to help in the halfway house she ran, Hope House in Buffalo NY. Among other noteworthy aspects of her giving life, Sr. Klimczak was instrumental in bringing together Bud Welch-- whose daughter, Julie, was among 167 people murdered in the horrific Oklahoma City federal-building bombing 11 years ago this week?and Bill McVeigh, father of Timothy who was executed for the crimes. That healing work which she helped facilitate is the prime focus of the posting here.

 

 

2) Media report and comments on the 18 April hearing regarding the ?constitutionality? of Missouri?s lethal injection system.

 

On Tuesday, oral arguments took place over the constitutionality of Missouri?s lethal injection?with Michael Taylor?s life in the balance. The hearing occurred in St. Louis before the 8^th Circuit Court of Appeals federal court. From the perspective of the Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation and Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty (our FOR chapter is an affiliate of MADP), the issue of whether the method and execution passes constitutional mustard is kind of bizarre. We believe no matter how state officials would snuff a human life, the death penalty is immoral and unacceptable. Nonetheless, we are grateful for the efforts of Michael?s attorneys to keep him alive and to challenge the legal issues. He had been scheduled to be executed Feb. 1 for the 1989 kidnapping, rape and murder of 15-year-old Ann Harrison of Kansas City?- reprehensible crimes to be sure. We extend condolences to her family and other loved ones, who continue to grieve. We further realize that killing Michael will not ?fix? things, it would only bring into the fold of suffering, another family, another set of parents and other loved ones.  

 

Mary Mifflin, president of MADP?s eastern Missouri chapter, helped coordinate a few dozen spectators to attend the Tuesday hearing. She intuited that the three-judge panel seemed inclined to grant a full hearing on the issue.  They spoke of a "30-30" option, she notes, granting 30 days for discovery and 30 to prepare for a future hearing before the full court. We will pass along details of their decision as it becomes public. There is good news continuing: there will likely be no execution dates set by Missouri?s Supreme Court at least not until this matter is settled. Below is the AP story on the hearing?.

 

Defense: medical deposition critical to lethal injection argument

 

 

Lawyers for a death row inmate said Tuesday they want to depose a doctor and nurse involved in Missouri executions so they can argue their case that a drug combination used to kill condemned prisoners is unconstitutionally cruel punishment.

 

But the state has blocked it - in part over concerns medical personnel would be harassed. The defense said it has agreed to shield their identity.

 

The defense team is not seeking a reprieve of the death penalty for convicted killer Michael Taylor of Kansas City. Attorney Donald Verrilli, Jr., of Washington, told a federal appeals court panel in St. Louis that the three-drug cocktail used in Missouri and around the country could result in a "horrible, excruciating death" if the anesthesia doesn't take effect or wears off.

 

Similar arguments are being made in death penalty cases around the country.

 

But the defense in this case offered an alternative: a single high dose of barbiturate, said to be constitutionally permissible and attain the same result.

 

Verrilli asked the three-judge panel to send the case back to U.S.

District Court in Kansas City to be heard by the original judge assigned to the case.

 

In January, a hearing to weigh the cruel punishment argument was transferred from Judge Scott O. Wright to Judge Fernando Gaitan because Gaitan's schedule could accommodate it more quickly. At the close of the hastily convened, two-day hearing, Gaitan ruled that Missouri's execution protocol is constitutionally permissible.

 

Taylor's defense team said it needs the testimony of the doctor and nurse involved in state executions to argue the case. The defense also wants to present a witness who couldn't make Gaitan's hearing.

 

The defense said that Sri Melethil, an expert in the science of how drugs act in the body over time, would rebut the state's witness, Dr. Mark Dershwitz.

 

Dershwitz has testified that more than enough of the first drug - the sedative sodium pentothal - is given to a condemned prisoner before the second is administered. He has said that it would be "horrible" to administer the 2nd and 3rd drugs to an awake person.

 

Taylor had been scheduled to be executed Feb. 1 in the 1989 kidnapping, rape and murder of 15-year-old Ann Harrison of Kansas City. An appeals court panel denied Taylor's stay of execution, but the full appeals court stayed it. The U.S. Supreme Court, including Justice Samuel Alito on his first day on the high court, refused to lift it.

 

Solicitor Jim Layton of the Missouri Attorney General's office argued that allowing the defense to depose the nurse and doctor involved in executions would "open the door to this exception in every case." He said the state wants to settle the lethal injection protocol question "so we don't have to litigate these questions every time."

 

Layton said the state doesn't believe any additional testimony is needed.

 

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next week in a case brought by Florida death row inmate Clarence Hill about the procedure for lethal injection challenges to be filed in federal court.

 

But the justices refused in February to directly consider whether the drug combination used in executions across the country amounts to unconstitutionally cruel punishment.

 

The execution method is used by the federal government and every state that has capital punishment, except for Nebraska. Interest in lethal injection has escalated in recent months.

 

The parents of both Michael Taylor and Ann Harrison attended Tuesday's hearing. Janel and Bob Harrison said afterward the hearing did not illuminate a case that has dragged on. "There won't ever be closure,"

Janel Harrison said.

 

George and Linda Taylor and their family sat across the aisle. Afterward, the Taylors said they pray everyday for the Harrisons' healing and for their son's life to be spared.

 

"Why do we kill people to show that killing people is wrong?" Linda Taylor asked.

 

Attorneys for 4 other condemned prisoners were expected to file suit Wednesday in federal court in St. Louis challenging Missouri's lethal injection method.

 

(source: Associated Press)

 

 

 

3) Amnesty International?s new worldwide death penalty report finds United States still among top executing countries:

Nation out of step with global trend toward abolition. AI?s news release on the report??

 

 (Washington,  DC) ? During 2005, at least 2,148 people were executed in 22  countries  and  at  least  5,186  people  were  sentenced  to  death in 53  countries,  Amnesty  International disclosed today in its annual report on  the  death penalty worldwide. Across the world 20,000 people are scheduled  to be killed by their own governments.

 

 With  60  executions carried out in 2005, the United States remains one of  the  top  executing  countries,  along  with China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

 Together the four nations accounted for 94 percent of all known executions  worldwide.

 

 Despite  these  shocking figures, the global trend toward abolition of the  death  penalty  continues  to  grow:  the number of countries carrying out  executions  halved  in  the  last  20 years and has dropped for the fourth  consecutive year in a row. In 2005, Mexico and Liberia became the two most  recent examples of countries that have abolished the death penalty.

 

 ?Around    the    world,    public    officials    are    realizing   that

 government-sponsored  punitive  killing  is  unjust and ineffective at its  very  core:  it  is  a  cruel  and unusual form of retribution that has no  deterrent  effect,?  said  Dr.  William  F.  Schulz, Executive Director of  Amnesty  International  USA  (AIUSA).  ?Meanwhile, as one of the four most  active  death  penalty  countries,  the  United  States  remains a glaring  exception  to  this  growing global consensus. AIUSA members are doing all  they can to help put the United States back on the right side of history.?

 

 The  Amnesty  International report uncovers chilling facts about the other  three  top executing countries. In China, a person can be put to death for  as  many as 68 crimes, including non-violent infringements like tax fraud,  embezzlement,  and  drug  offenses.  Lucrative  deals  are made in selling  organs  extracted  from  those who have been executed. China also accounts  for  almost  80  percent of all executions, with data available to Amnesty  International  indicating  some  1,770 individuals put to death last year.

 Undoubtedly  the real figure is much higher, with one Chinese legal expert  recently estimating the true figure at around 8,000.

 

 Iran  executed at least 94 people last year and was the only country known  to have executed juvenile offenders during that period. It put to death at  least  eight  individuals  for  crimes committed while they were children,  including two who were still under age 18 at the time of their execution.

 

 In  Saudi  Arabia,  people  have  been  taken  from their prison cells and  executed  without  knowing  that  a death sentence had been passed against  them.  Others  have  been  tried and sentenced to death in a language they  neither spoke nor read. Saudi Arabia executed at least 86 people in 2005.

 

As in previous years, the vast majority of executions worldwide were carried out in a tiny handful of countries. In 2005, 94 per cent of all known executions took place in four countries: China, Iran, the Saudi Arabia and the USA.

 

 

 For a copy of Amnesty International?s Death Penalty Statistics 2005,  please see:

 ·   World Developments:

 http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-developments2005-eng

 ·   Facts and Figures: http://amnestyusa.org/abolish/figures

 ·   Death Sentences and Executions:

 http://amnestyusa.org/abolish/sentences

    Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries:

    http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-countries-eng

 

 For more on AIUSA?s Program to Abolish the Death Penalty, please see:

 http://amnestyusa.org/abolish.

 

 For more information on the death penalty worldwide, go to  http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-stats2005-eng.

 

 

                                    ###

Kristin Houlé

Program Associate

Program to Abolish the Death Penalty

Amnesty International USA

600 Pennsylvania Ave. SE

Washington, DC 20003

202-544-0200 ext.496

 

 

4) Reflections on the recent murder of Sr. Karen Klimczak.

 Here are some thoughts Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins posted on Tuesday (Jennifer?s sister Nancy Bishop Langert was shot to death along with her husband, Richard Langert, and their unborn child in suburban Chicago in 1990. Jennifer is a board member of  Murder Victims Families for Human Rights)?.

 

?Some of you may have, as I did today on CNN, see the news that Sr. Karen Klimczak was found murdered in Buffalo New York, by one of the ex-cons that she was working to help in the halfway house she ran, Hope House.

 

What I did not know until Bud Welch called us this evening is that this wonderful woman was an ardent abolitionist, and was the woman responsible for announcing to the world that Bud had met with Bill McVeigh, and she helped him work through his agony over that meeting, and helped him to bring his story to the rest of us in the abolition world, a story that has obviously changed the entire national conversation about the death penalty.

 

Bud wanted to make sure that everyone in the national abolition movement knew about Sr. Karen's murder, he told us in so many ways about the amazing work she did, and the important role she played in his personal journey and the dedication she had to helping prisoners out, and opposing the death penalty.

 

 Please help spread the word about this tragic death to your abolition communities.

 

 Below is a clip from Bud's personal story off the MVFHR website (http://www.murdervictimsfamilies.org) that refers to her.

 

Tim McVeigh's guilt or innocence never came up (in the conversation with his father). That was not my purpose in going there. I didn't have to have Bill McVeigh look me in the eye and say, "I'm sorry my son killed your daughter." I didn't have to hear that. But I was able to tell him that I truly understood the pain that he was going through, and that he -- as I -- was a victim of what happened in Oklahoma City. We talked about how many generations of McVeigh's had been in western New York. They were Irish Catholic, I'm Irish Catholic, and I told him that I was a third generation of Welch's in Central Oklahoma. So that was more common ground for us. But after our hour and a half long visit, I got up from the kitchen table and Jennifer came from the other end of the table, and gave me a hug, and we cried, and we sobbed, and I was able to hold her face in my hands -- I'll never forget it -- I was able to hold her face in my hands and tell her, "Honey, the three of us are in this for the rest of our lives. And we can make the most of it if we choose. I don't want your brother to die. And I will do everything in my power to prevent it." And she hugged me again, and I left -- they had left a rental car for me outside of this house so I could drive back into Buffalo, its about 20 miles back into town, and I wanted to get back to Hope House, which is a halfway house for released prisoners, that I had spent about 5 days in and out of. I got to know Sister Karen who runs Hope House, and I knew Sister Rosalyn would be there as well. And I'm driving back to Buffalo, I couldn't see through my glasses because I was still sobbing, I'm driving practically 80, 85 miles per hour -- probably another short time of temporary insanity again, I've thought about it since, I think it was. When I got back to Hope House I sat in the living room and sobbed, and sobbed, and made a total ass out of myself for an hour. I honestly did. But after I got through that period of time, I had all of a sudden -- I don't know what it is to be a born again Christian. I've heard that term all my life. I occasionally become suspicious when someone tells me they're a born again Christian; I don't know why I do that, but I do. But I have never felt closer to God in my life than I did at that moment, once I was through that sobbing, because I felt like there was this load taken completely off my shoulders. I wish I could explain it to you; I wish I could make you understand the way it felt to me.?

 

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.