30 Years Ago ...

Remembering and Resisting for 30 Years by Steve Clemens. August 8, 2013

It was 30 years ago; the U.S. Army School of the Americas was still in the Panama Canal Zone but military troops from the repressive government of El Salvador were training at Ft. Benning, GA. A small cadre of peacemakers, primarily from Koinonia Farm and Habitat For Humanity, came to the main entrance to the sprawling military base for the weekly Quaker-style candlelight vigil. The vigil had begun 4 months prior and usually consisted of 8-20 people who gathered in a circle to prayer, reflect, and protest U.S. policy in Central America.

It was the assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero while saying mass in the capital city in March of 1980 that had awoken many of us to the suffering of the Salvadoran people and the U.S. complicity in the harsh repression of the people; campesinos struggling for land and justice from the couple of dozen families of elites that controlled the land and the government. Romero had written to then-President Jimmy Carter just months before his assassination asking him to stop the flow of military aid and weapons to his nation. He never received a reply from the President before the bullet ended his life as he held the chalice of wine over his head during the mass.

Three years later activists discovered that Salvadoran troops were being trained by U.S. Military instructors at the large infantry base on the outskirts of Columbus, GA and a protest march and rally was scheduled around the third anniversary of El Salvador’s increasingly famous martyr. Unfortunately (from my perspective), the tone and tenor of that protest was strident and caustic and I felt that while I agreed with the political aim of ending the military training and changing the foreign policy of the Reagan Administration towards Central America, we would be better served by a reflective, contemplative and confessional presence outside that military base than the bombastic chanting and finger-pointing of the larger demonstration.

A week later, our Thursday evening hour-long candlelight vigil outside the base began. Some friends from across the Chattahoochee River in neighboring Alabama joined us as did a couple of others from nearby Buena Vista, GA. Someone would often read a short reflection, a poem, or a prayer, we’d sing a song or two, but mostly held signs with our candles and reflected and prayed. Occasionally someone driving out of the base would shout something (frequently it wasn’t PG-rated even though children were often present); less frequently someone would stop and talk to us.

In August 1983, Father Roy Bourgeois and Father Larry Rosebaugh drove over to Koinonia Farm (where our family lived) to share with our intentional community their plans for nonviolent resistance to the continued training of the Salvadoran troops. It was my first encounter with “Father Roy” but the Louisiana drawl in his voice and his gentle demeanor made me feel energized and included. I had known “Father Larry” a lot better since our 1981 nonviolent witness together in Amarillo, TX led to our sharing the same jail cell for a week after our arrest for praying at Pantex, the final assembly plant for all U.S. nuclear weapons. After he was transferred to a different jail, we saw each other at arraignment, trial, and sentencing before we headed off to different federal prisons to serve the rest of our time.

Larry had told the 5 of us with him in the holding cell outside the FBI office in Amarillo about his travels through Central and South America, especially his time in Recife, Brazil where he was arrested, jailed, and tortured for his work with the poor. I came to love and trust Larry during our jail-time together so when he arrived with Roy, I suspected here was another “radical priest” God had placed in my life to challenge me to further action. (I should have seen a pattern after “Father Tom” from the Maryknoll seminary in Glen Ellyn, IL “schooled” me during my Wheaton college years and then former-priest Phil Berrigan continued that “education” during the year I lived in Washington, DC.) Father Larry, and now, Father Roy: all wanted to challenge me to live out my values in a way that nonviolently confronted those in power.

Roy and Larry told us that they were fasting and planning to nonviolently confront the Salvadoran troops. They didn’t share the details with us (they seemed to just evolve from one action to the next for them), but we did invite them to join our next weekly candlelight vigil and told them some of us would possibly like to join them in their direct action. We talked about “continuing” the candlelight vigil on to the base after our usual hour presence by the entrance, knowing that we would likely be arrested by base security if we did so.

As Thursday arrived, most of us had no idea that Roy and Larry, joined by a local Catholic activist, Linda Ventimiglia, had already stirred up a hornets nest with 3 or 4 other acts of witness including the dramatic scaling of a tree outside the Salvador barracks and playing Oscar Romero’s final radio address where he asked, plead, ordered Salvadoran troops “in the name of God” to “put down their guns” and “end the repression.” The three of them had been arrested and thrown off the base several times that week before our Thursday evening vigil.

I don’t remember now if we walked or drove to the Base Commander’s house but at least 4 of us went with Roy, Larry, and Linda. Someone rang the doorbell while others planted a cross (not burning!, I must add, given the context of Georgia) on the front lawn. A teenage girl came to the door and we asked if the Base Commander was home. We were told he’d be home shortly so we told her we would vigil quietly on the sidewalk with our candles. It was only a few minutes before base security arrived, we were arrested, and hauled off to what we assumed was base headquarters.

In the six hours we were held under arrest, I distinctly remember overhearing various military officers saying very vicious and demeaning comments about “Catholics”, especially since they had become familiar with Roy and Larry’s vocation as priests. About 3 AM, each of us was handed a letter stating that we were “banned and barred” from that military base. We had the right to appeal this order if we wished but otherwise it was in effect with no end date listed. (Years later I was to receive “Ban and Bar” letters lasting 1 year or 5 years; this one was presumably for life.) They then drove us off base in groups of 2-3 dropping us off miles from the city center meaning we would have to walk to get to our cars. Fortunately, they did drop Judy Cumbee off back at the main entrance since her leg was in a cast from a previous accident.

Less than one year after these nonviolent direct actions, it was announced that the “School of the Americas” was moving to Ft. Benning as part of the Treaty to return the Panama Canal Zone to Panama agreed to by President Carter several years earlier. Our weekly vigils continued for several years before becoming a monthly vigil. I moved to Minnesota in 1990 and just months after our arrival, we heard word that Father Roy was going back to fast, pray, and protest at the gates of Ft. Benning. And thus began what has become The School of the Americas Watch, a nonviolent movement to embody the call of the martyred Archbishop: “put down the guns and stop the repression” – now throughout the Americas, not just El Salvador. One by one, nations have begun to pull their troops out of this notorious school now renamed “The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC)” in an attempt to “re-brand” it from a “school of assassins” to an institution which promotes “human rights” (albeit at the barrel of a gun!)

More than 300 nonviolent activists have gone to prison to protest this school in those 30 years. Late last week 40 members of Congress (including Rep. Keith Ellison from Minneapolis) introduced a bill to suspend operations at SOA/WHINSEC and begin an investigation of the connection between US military training and human rights abuses in Latin America. In November, I will return to the gates of that notorious institution to once again say “Close the SOA!”

Why is the Army So Afraid of Dissent?

Why is the Army So Afraid of Dissent? – Making It Difficult to Get Arrested at the SOA by Steve Clemens. November 2008

When the annual “Close the School of the Americas” vigil first began in 1990, there were only 13 people fasting by the main gate to Fort Benning in Columbus, GA. Over the past 18 years, the annual vigil has grown exponentially. The past three years have seen about 20,000 people attend and the crowd has grown increasingly younger. However, something has significantly changed over the years.

In the early ‘90s, the School of Americas Watch saw civil disobedience as a way to grow the movement. Individuals symbolically entered the army base by “crossing the line” – a line painted across the highway leading into the army base- thus demarking a “trespassing” charge for those who refused to leave after being ordered to do so by the Army. From previous experience, the SOAW movement recognized that the local Federal Judge, Robert Elliot, a hard-core racist who held that position for more than 30 years, would likely send “trespassers” to prison. Those civil disobedients, in turn, would use their incarceration to raise the profile of their cause in a way similar to Dr. King’s powerful “Letter From the Birmingham Jail” – speaking from jail/prison has a profound moral credibility and would cause friends and relatives to consider joining the struggle to close the School.

In 1996, 60 people were arrested for “crossing the line” and most were sent to federal prison for 1-6 months, depending on whether they had crossed before and received a “ban and bar letter” from Ft. Benning. Those who had already been barred from the base usually received the maximum 6 month sentence the federal law allowed for criminal trespass. Close to 650 persons crossed the line the next year and were surprised when the base commander fed them all a meal before they were released. The government picked a smaller number of those arrested to prosecute (since it would have been prohibitive to prosecute so many) and they went to prison while the others received ban and bar letters.

In 1998, emboldened by the fact that with increasing numbers of “line crossers” many would not be prosecuted, more than 2,000 committed the act of civil disobedience and, once again, only a handful were prosecuted and shipped off to prison. The fact that 2,319 people were willing to risk 6 months in prison for an act of conscience to close the SOA must have been a sobering wake-up call to the military officers and their civilian Columbus city supporters. The overall crowd gathering for the annual vigil had also swelled to more than 5,000. 1999 saw the crowd approaching 10,000 for the vigil and 4,408 “line-crossers”. 65 of those were “booked” after arrest and 23 prosecuted but the overwhelming majority were told they were under arrest, placed on school busses and driven off base and released!

The movement was indeed growing along with the number of people who decided to take that extra step of civil disobedience. In 2000 it appeared that more than ½ of the 12,000+ attendees were ready to take that risk and when more than 6,000 crossed the line, it took so long to process those arrested that about 2,000 walked back off the base leaving about 4,300 of us to be booked, photographed, finger-printed before being issued a 5-year ban and bar letter. Prior to this, most of the ban and bar letters were for only the period of one year. Clearly the Army was concerned about the growing numbers – thus the massive booking procedure that year. Again, however, the reality of jailing and trying so many people led the decision-makers in the army or the government to try only 22 of the 6,000+. Hopefully, the threat of 6 months in prison might keep at least some from crossing that line!

The terrorist attacks of 2001 changed the nature of the annual vigil dramatically. The School of Americas Watch had to go to court to even gain permission to gather outside the main entrance at Ft. Benning. Many of us were planning on gathering there anyway, risking arrest without even entering the base. But the fear and hysteria surrounding 9/11 was clearly felt on the military base as well. No longer could we merely walk on to the base to commit our civil disobedience- there was now a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire installed across the entrance! With this new wrinkle, 31 people were arrested for sitting in the street. But our protest wasn’t against the City of Columbus but rather the training of foreign troops to oppress their own people. So in 2002, 96 protesters went over or under the fence, were arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned.

In 2003, a second chain-link fence was installed along with a brightly painted line on the road just on the Columbus city side of the new fence. Thousands of people stepped over that line to place their crosses, flowers, and other symbols on the new fence. For 29 others, this wasn’t sufficient and they climbed over or under the fence and were arrested. They were prosecuted and went off to federal prison. By now over 170 persons had gone to prison as part of their witness for nonviolence and against the SOA. They were joined by 15 more in 2004, and I was one of the 37 prosecuted and jailed in 2005. By then a third fence was in place for this weekend of protest (but all were removed for the rest of the year) and we crawled under the fence in order to have the “privilege” of going to jail for justice. The fence was stretched tighter in 2006 so the 16 who chose to commit civil disobedience cut a hole in the outside fence in order to enter on to the military property. Almost all who went over or under the fence since 9/11/2001 got prison time for their efforts with only a few getting sentenced to a fine and probation.


Even with the (almost) certain knowledge that one would get a prison sentence for entering the base, the Army was flummoxed about how to keep these principled activists out. Whether it was a decision by the Columbus government or the military, in 2007 and 2008, new chain-link fences were installed along the sides of the road leading to the base entrance –thus preventing potential civil disobedients from walking along the perimeter a ways before trying to climb up and over or scamper under it. It seems the Army and the city government is scared to death of massive civil disobedience making it almost impossible to get arrested the weekend of the protest. In 2007 only 11 were able to get on to the base (and thus to prison) and this year the 6 who decided to cross had to drive to a different entrance –away from the protest- to enter. It seems one has to go to get effort to get arrested!

Why is the Army so afraid? It appears that prison sentences have been effective not in keeping people away but rather has had the effect of growing the movement. The more than 280 who have gone to prison for reasons of conscience related to the School of the Americas has resulted in more than 20,000 people gathering for the annual protest each of the past three years. If prison hasn’t served as an effective deterrent, maybe one of the few options left is for them to hide behind all their fences –hoping we will get distracted and go away. That, or maybe they can question why are so many of their fellow citizens outraged about what is going on behind those fences. Does the Army have as much courage to look at itself as those who are protesting against the notorious School of the Americas? Maybe a new President and a new Congress will finally close down this relic of the Cold War and our present obsession with empire. May it be so!

From Courtroom to Prison:
The School of the Americas Witness Continues by Steve Clemens

Trial and Sentencing.
I expected to receive the maximum sentence of six months in a Federal Prison (for nonviolent direct action at the School of the Americas facility in November). My sentence of half that amount makes me feel like I got off easy. The government prosecutors did not certify the prior arrest/conviction records of defendants, and thus could not include them for consideration at sentencing. Therefore, my life of “crime” was not in evidence, other than my “Ban and Bar Letters” for prior trips “crossing the line” at Ft. Benning, GA.

It seemed at times that Judge G. Mallon Faircloth had the Biblical disease of “a hardened heart.” For six years he has heard testimony from principled resisters about the nature of the School and about their witness acting on behalf of the victims of torture. Hearing defendants of all ages (our group ranged from 19 to 81 years old) speak from the heart about their commitment to nonviolence, only to continue to send nuns, priests, students, and others to prison must take a toll on the one’s soul.

The Idolatry of the Law.
The focus of the prosecutors was always “Did you cross the line?” rather than “Why did you cross the line?” The Government was only interested in documenting illegal presence on the base, not whether something illegal is being taught there. The Judge made a pre-trial ruling prohibiting defendants from using an International Law and/or Necessity as a defense, despite a well-reasoned thirty page brief from defendant lawyers. What would he have said if Martin Luther King or Susan B. Anthony or members of the Boston Tea Party had stood before him?

The courtroom discourse of deterrence seems to go hand-in-glove with our present national preoccupation with the efficacy of terror and torture. Our empire threatens others with nuclear weapons or economic destabilization or torture, hoping they will conform to our policy demands. Yet this fails to work against those who value freedom and conscience over intimidation and bluster. So Fr. Jerry Zawada, a Franciscan priest, was sentenced to six months in prison, and yet returned not once but twice more. The defendants were not acting on a whim; they had counted the cost carefully before deciding it was their turn to speak for those who have no voice in the policies of the empire.

One defendant recalled the defensiveness of her German cousins who lived there during the Third Reich. The guilt and shame of their silence could not be mitigated by the refrain “But we didn’t know what was really going on.” Yet there was Judge Faircloth doing his Pontius Pilate imitation, insisting that it is the Legislative and the Executive Branches of government that sets policy about the SOA. I reminded him in my statement at sentencing that “German judges were also prosecuted at the Nuremberg Tribunals for their complicity in War Crimes.” When will any branch of our government stand up and say “no torture, no rape, no disappearing, no murder” by agents of our government?

When told that one of our fellow defendants was put in the “hole” for two weeks upon arriving at federal prison because the necessary paperwork was not done at the courthouse after sentencing, and that he had to remain on his bed for seven consecutive days because his basement segregation cell was flooded, the judge replied, “I don’t tell the Bureau of Prisons how to run their prisons and they don’t tell me how to run my courtroom.” Instead of being a check and balance to the misdeeds of government, our courts are more likely to practice cowardice, silent when torture is trumpeted by the present Administration in Washington, and deaf to the Sixth Article of the U.S. Constitution which requires judges to honor International Treaties signed by our government.

Our prison sentences come less than a week after a military jury in Colorado found a U.S. Army interrogator guilty of negligent homicide in the torture and killing of a detainee in Iraq, yet decided not to jail him. Two years after Christian Peacemaking Team members reported on the torture and mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other Iraqi detention centers, only a handful of low-level soldiers have be prosecuted, while the architects of those policies (Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, John Ashcroft, and the President) are off the hook. I pray that our actions and willingness to go to prison sends a strong message to Iraqi citizens that there are some Americans who denounce the practice of torture and murder.

Focusing on Empire through the School of the Americas.
Our witness is profoundly connected to the occupation of Iraq. Meanwhile, out of the media spotlight, peace activists, union leaders, and others continue to be gunned down in Columbia, the nation that has the largest number of troops presently being trained at the SOA. Much of the recent destabilization in Haiti can also be traced to graduates of the SOA. The SOA is a symbol of an empire bent on world domination, whether it is by economic rewards and/or strangulation, mercenary armies, or direct military intervention.

How do we resist this march of the empire? If democracy depends on the “consent of the governed,” how do we withdraw that consent? Several defendants talked about “speaking truth to power” in our trial preparations, but I think we do more truth telling with our feet than with our tongues. Kathy Kelly reminds us that “what you see depends on where you stand.” When we sit in our new Federal Prison homes in the next couple of months, what we will see is the underbelly of the empire. When our nation spends in excess of $500 billion this year for the military (not counting Veterans Affairs or war-incurred national debt payments), there is no money left from the federal coffers for education, the environment, healthcare, housing, or other human needs. My protest against the SOA is also a cry of “nunca jamas!” to empire and domination.

Our witness as privilege.
I suspect there are very few other defendants who come before this judge with a roomful of supporters. I had four friends who traveled more than 1,000 miles from Minnesota to stand with me, and two more who came from West Virginia. As a wealthy, educated, healthy white male I expect to be listened to, given the benefit of the doubt. Even though I chose to represent myself in court (rejecting the fee imposed by the judge on each defendant for using an “out-of-state lawyer!), I had ready access to lawyers if I had a question. Still, being on trial at the “mercy” of the judge gives one a small taste of losing some of that control, and it will be further challenged when I enter the prison grounds. Still, I need to remember that even this loss of control is the result of a deliberate choice I made when I decided to cross the line.

On the airplane ride home from the trial (privilege again!), the pilot walked through the cabin to greet several soldiers dressed in desert fatigues returning from the war in Iraq. “Thank you for your sacrifice,” was the refrain I expect they will hear repeatedly as they try to re-assimilate into civilian life. Warriors around the world hear the same from their supporters: Nazi soldiers, Contras, Tamil Tigers, paramilitaries in Columbia, Mujahedeen. I also expect that we “prisoners of conscience” will be greeted with the same commendation when we walk out of prison. Is this a way we can continue to live vicariously through “the sacrifice” of others without getting our own hands dirty or giving up our comfort and security?

Yet those going to jail are not necessarily more committed – it is only one form of resistance. It will take the gifts and calling of all of us to shut down the SOA: people demanding their Representatives and Senators to pass HR 1217 to investigate the record of atrocities by the SOA; people in the streets attempting to disrupt “business as usual”; letters to editors and representatives; conversations with friends and family; delegations with Witness For Peace and Christian Peacemaker Teams; and other creative ways to add our “No!” to the Domination System.

Prison.
We’ve been given a gift. Many of us will be going to prison during Holy Week. Specifically, it looks as though we’ll start our sentences the day that the church commemorates Jesus’ own civil disobedience, when he “cleaned money-changers out of the Temple.” Since Judge Faircloth is choosing not to do pre sentencing investigation reports in advance on us, we are likely to spend Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter in “the Hole”. Although our “suffering” will be insignificant in comparison with that of the original Holy Week, or with the present day victims of those trained at the SOA, it will provide us a better context for reflection during that sacred time.

Our journey into “the belly of the beast” will also coincide with the April 15 tax frenzy. We remind friends of the cost to the taxpayers for our principled protest: as some of us will likely be headed for Penitentiary instead of work camps, the per diem expense to harbor our “criminal” consciences will be even greater. Although the waiting has been difficult for some of us, hopefully we can use these next few weeks to prepare psychically for the journey ahead. To enter prison with the knowledge and support of people world-wide is a privilege few people have, so we are cognizant of our responsibility to be present to those we meet “inside” as we together struggle to recover the soul of our nation.

My report date is April 11th. My place of service for the next three months on behalf of “those who have no voice” will be prison in Duluth. My Bureau of Prisons number is 92565-020; if you wish to send me any mail after I arrive, it can be addressed as follows:
Stephen D. Clemens 92565-020
FPC Duluth Federal Prison Camp
PO Box 1000
Duluth, MN 55814

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me!

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me!
Shared Word, Community of St. Martin. 3/12/06 by Steve Clemens

Mark 8: 31-38
Jesus began to teach them that the Human One must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. Jesus spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny oneself, take up ones cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save ones life will lose it, but whoever loses ones life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit ones life? What could one give in exchange for ones life?

Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Human One will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

It is interesting that this same text is almost identical in all three synoptic gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all saw this passage as essential to the understanding of who Jesus was and what he taught.

I wonder what Pat Robertson has to say about this text today? After publicly calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez this summer, we should note that this is NOT a call to arms but rather a call to risky nonviolent discipleship. Ever since Constantine took up the cross and proclaimed “in this sign we conquer”, some Christians have grabbed the cross by the top and sharpened the bottom to a point to make it into a sword.

I’m reminded of the old sign they used to have at the entrance to Fort Benning in the 90’s when we gathered there for the witness against the SOA- it was a dagger shaped like a cross, placed on a shield with words above it: Follow Me! In the 1980’s a small group of candlelight vigilers would take a second sign which we placed next to it which was the identical shape, size, and color but had a cross instead of a dagger. Above both signs we placed a larger inscription: CHOOSE.

My Dad has part of this scripture printed on his personal checks – the part where it says ‘for what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? I can tell you that made an impression on me as I was growing up. It was one of the ways my dad “witnessed” his faith. Of course the word witness in the Greek comes from the word we today use for martyr so it, in spirit, is close to Jesus command to “take up one’s cross” and follow him. The Anabaptists used the German word Natchfolge as a central element in their understanding of the Gospel. Natchfolge meant to “follow after”. It was how the Anabaptists defined “discipleship”. When Jesus stated: If anyone wishes to come after me, Jesus means to “follow me” … or it could mean if anyone wants to come along with me. If anyone wishes – it is something one chooses to do.

Deny oneself
When the Early Christians were arrested, they were tempted to “deny Christ” to save their lives. Polycarp, among others, was given the choice to denounce Jesus and live - or be brutally executed.

Feminist theologians have wrestled with this and other texts which have been used to keep women subservient and to endure suffering. Women have frequently been told to “deny their very selves”, especially in relationship to men in the Patriarchy of both the church and society. In today’s society, the basic unit of society is the individual self. However, when Jesus spoke his “deny yourself”, it was understood more likely as renouncing one’s kinship unit. Other Gospel passages about taking up one’s cross include the admonition “whoever does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” Denying oneself could mean to be willing to leave the comfort and security of one’s kinship unit.

This is one of the texts that led Dietrich Bonhoeffer to talk about “the cost of discipleship.” Bonhoeffer talked about the difference between cheap grace and costly grace, citing frequently Jesus’ call to “take up the cross and follow me.”

Clarence Jordan, founder of the Koinonia Farm Community used to speak around the country. Once, in the early 60’s he was proudly shown around a large church facility with a fountain serving as the baptismal fount. Then the person giving the tour proudly pointed to the steeple and boasted “We paid $10,000 for that cross!” Clarence wryly responded, “Use ‘to be Christians could get one of them crosses for free!”

Luke’s version adds “daily” to the admonition to take up the cross. Some preachers have used the cross as a metaphor for dealing with inconveniences, sickness, having to put up with a nasty co-worker, … But the Gospel writers are not lumping all “suffering” together or even self-sacrificing in these texts because taking up one’s cross refers only to one specific type of suffering. For Jesus and his disciples, the cross was a cruel reality, not just a metaphor. The equivalent today would be to “strap yourself into the electric chair” if you want to follow me.

Jesus is saying, let the disciples take up the position of someone already condemned to death, carrying the crossbeam of ones cross to the place of execution. In those days, the upright pole of the cross was often reused many times – the crossbar is what the condemned would carry to the place of execution.

Paul picks up this theme when he writes in Galatians 2:20:
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
For Paul, in the act of baptism, one is symbolically “dying” (being crucified) and when one is raised up from the water, the life we now have is by God’s grace. In baptism we are choosing our own death.

Dan Berrigan comments that when one has voluntarily given up one’s life (in the act of baptism and confession of faith), there is nothing the STATE can do to threaten you – they can put you in jail but you are already dead. The state can’t kill you if you’ve already acceded to that - so one is now no longer in fear of the state’s ultimate sanction. And that is the power of Christian nonviolence. Yes, it is costly – it is not cheap grace. But it is also powerful enough to turn the world upside right.

Ched Myers writes about this passage in Binding the Strong Man – This is the central paradox of the Gospel. The threat to punish by death is the bottom line of the power of the state; fear of this threat keeps the dominant order intact. By resisting this fear and pursuing kingdom practice even at the cost of death, the disciple contributes to shattering the powers’ reign of death in history. To concede the state’s sovereignty in death is to refuse its authority in life. … Jesus has revealed that his messiahship means political confrontation with, not rehabilitation of, the imperial state. Those who wish to “come after him” will have to identify themselves with his subversive program. The stated risk is that the disciple will face the test of loyalty under interrogation by state authorities. If “self” is denied, the cross will be taken up, a metaphor for capital punishment on grounds of insurgency.

I want to share an article from a friend of mine from the Open Door Community in Atlanta:

Persecution As a Mark of Discipleship. By Ed Loring. Hospitality. Feb. 2006

There are a number of notae, or marks, of the Church. If these marks are missing, so is the gospel. There are ways to discern the presence of the Holy Spirit in the congregant life of a confessing people. Persecution is a necessary mark of the Church of Jesus Christ. Without persecution, we know that the congregation has dropped the cross and is living in collusion with the idols of death and with the domination system that killed Jesus and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr; bombed Koinonia Partners, burned Black Churches, and threw a rock through a stained glass window of Covenant Presbyterian Church in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta.

Mark is clear as he is concrete:
Then Peter spoke up, .Look, we have left everything and followed you...”Yes,” Jesus said to them, “and I tell you that anyone who leaves home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and for the gospel, will receive much more in this present age. They will receive a hundred times more houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields, and persecutions as well; and in the age to come they will receive eternal life. But many who now are first will be last, and many who now are last will be first.” (Good News Bible)

In the basic outline of the Christian life, the Beatitudes, Jesus gives two out of nine of his blessings to those who are persecuted. He did this because his life was filled with conflict, rejection, bad-mouthing, and death threats all the time. He and his followers were pursued people, and Jesus knew of the necessary rent that had to be paid to live in the household of faith. Only centuries later did domestication replace persecution as a fundamental mode of the powers to keep the truth in a vessel of lies.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness. sake, for theirs is the Beloved Community.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (NSRV)

Without persecution, the truth becomes distorted, a half-truth. Without persecution, the Christian Church becomes like the Kiwanis Club. Without persecution, the hard road toward a narrow door becomes an 18-hole golf course: gated, segregated, and protected by moonlighting former Marines who are now minimum-wage-earning security guards.

Reinhold Niebuhr, a theologian who has taught me much, sees an irony of history in that much of human struggle and accomplishment contains the seeds of evil, or at least the unintended consequences of loss and negation.

The loss of community experienced in African American life, for instance, is a sad and unintended result of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. There is no argument here that we should return to Jim Crow or that the Civil Rights Act should not have been passed. I worked for its passage. But as the African American community becomes more like mainstream America, it is useful to ask, “How did this happen?” The Civil Rights Act mitigated the experience of persecution of African Americans. Truer for those with money, education, and bits and shreds of privilege; but shaping for all.

No longer did an African American need the unity of community for the simple acts of the Works of Mercy. Now the market, not human relationships, offered the choices. For instance, with interstate travel, Blacks could stop and eat wherever they could afford it. No need to go out of the way to eat with relatives, friends, or make arrangements through Church connections for a meal and a shower eight hours from home. No need for the pastor or deacon to help guide the travelers to a home where they could spend the night, as Quakers had done for Harriet Tubman and her fugitive bands of runaway slaves. Need to pee? Defecate? No need to stop and ask for Hospitality; just pull over at the gas station or the rest stop and pee for free with dignity!

The money economy replaced the need for community, as persecution of Black folk was mitigated as they traveled the American highways. The role of pastor, church, women’s clubs, homes, and visiting all diminished with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The binding needs, Hospitality, and institutions - purified by fire, hate, lynching, and Jim Crow – began to slip and spin as the unity of community spilled into the mixed waters of mainline America. The Rock of the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Church and the Black Family, were less viable as Blacks, like Jesus, moved from persecution to domestication. From the revolution of values to the .I Have a Dream. of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are called, Black and White together, within the circle of faith, to live lives of risk and courage for the Gospel. To stop the war in Iraq. To mitigate human suffering in all of its ways and means. To house the homeless, stop the death penalty, free 87% of our prisoners. We are to pick up our cross, which means to accept persecution and follow Jesus, The Human One, into conflict, persecution and suffering - such is the
rent for the joy and goodness of a shared life in the household of faith which heals and sets us free.

(Eduard-the-Agitator Loring is a partner at the Open Door Community)

Where do we see people taking up the cross today?
On Thursday, the FBI identified the body of Tom Fox of CPT in a trash dump in Baghdad, Iraq. Yet while he and three other CPTers were still missing, Michele Obed-Naar left her family in Duluth to join the team in Baghdad. She is taking up the cross to follow.

Jacob Reitan joined a group of young people on a current-day Freedom Ride, going to so-called Christian campuses around the nation to let them know that God loves gay and lesbian people- even though those colleges have banned openly-affirming GLBT students. He now faces a possible 6-month sentence for trespassing at Jerry Falwell’s college in VA. He has taken up a cross in his attempt to follow.

Taking up a “cross” might be seen when an introverted college professor takes up what others sarcastically or cynically say is a quixotic attempt to unseat an incumbent Member of Congress from his own political party because of his strong belief that the present war and occupation of Iraq is both wrong-headed as well as immoral. This risky behavior could be the taking up of the cross in an attempt to live out his commitment to follow the nonviolent Jesus.

81-year old Delmar Schwaller will report for his 2 month prison sentence during Holy Week this April for his trespass at the School of the Americas. This WWII vet has been a city council member in Appleton, WI for 10 years and has repeatedly traveled to Nicaragua to help build schools and hospitals there. He said at his trial,
"I have listened to those who have been tortured, held captive, and witnessed friends murdered. I have also read many accounts of these horrendous acts. I have lived with, talked with, and helped to alleviate some of this pain people have suffered when I do volunteer work in Central America, especially Nicaragua. My conscience tells me it is right and just, almost compelling me to act. In the year 2000 I was arrested, processed, and released with a five-year ban from entering Fort Benning. This year the five years are up and after long years of witness, prayer, and thought I crossed the line and entered the Fort Benning military base again. I have no regrets. It was the right thing to do. Pax Christi."
Is Delmar taking up a cross to follow his Lord?


Let’s take a little time to reflect on what ways we are challenged to take up the cross today- share out loud if you wish.

Reflections on My SOA Trespass Trial

It’s “Only” Three Months – When I Expected Six.
Steve Clemens. February 2006

When one expects to receive the maximum sentence of six months in a Federal Prison, a sentence of half that amount can make one feel like they got off easy. The government prosecutors (U.S. Army JAG Officers) made the mistake of not certifying the prior arrest/conviction records of defendants and when the SOA Watch Legal Collective attorneys objected to including them in consideration at sentencing, the Judge had little choice in sustaining their exclusion. Therefore, my life of “crime” was not in evidence other than my “Ban and Bar Letters” given to me on prior trips “crossing the line” at Ft. Benning, GA. Unbeknownst to me, my five-year ban and bar expired the night before I entered Ft. Benning this year. (I mistakenly thought it had two more days when I entered and expected to be doubly charged for trespass and violating the ban and bar.) The SOA Watch lawyers reminded the judge that to sentence someone who did not violate the ban and bar as harshly as someone who did would send a message to others that honoring the exclusion from the base was meaningless - thus my three month sentence rather than the expected six.

It seemed at times that Judge G. Mallon Faircloth had the Biblical disease of “a hardened heart”. To hear testimony now for six years from principled resisters about the nature of the School of the Americas, to hear the witness of acting on behalf of the victims, to hear defendants of all ages (our group ranged from 19 to 81 years old) speak from the heart about their commitment to nonviolence – and then to continue to send nuns, priests, students, and other community activists to prison must take a toll on the judge’s soul.

The courtroom oozed an idolatry of the Law. The focus of the prosecutors was always did you cross the line rather than why did you cross the line? The U.S. Government represented by the JAG Officers (what ever happened to the separation of powers between military and civilian courts?) was only interested in documenting one’s illegal presence on the base, not whether something illegal is being taught on base. The collusion of the Judge with the Army’s intention was clearly evidenced when the Judge made a pre-trial ruling prohibiting defendants from using International Law and/or Necessity as a defense: this ruling despite a well-reasoned thirty page brief from defendant lawyers and without any rebuttal argument submitted by the prosecution! Whenever the judge sentenced a defendant, he explained that we had broken the law – assuming automatically that it called for punishment. If Dr. King, Susan B. Anthony, Thoreau, Gandhi, or members of the Boston Tea Party were resurrected and stood before our Judge, would he repeat the mistakes of the past by sending principled resisters to prison?

The chief values exhibited in the courtroom seemed to be those of punishment and deterrence. These values seem to go hand-in-glove with our present national preoccupation with the efficacy of terror and torture. If you threaten others (with the BOMB or with economic destabilization or other weapons of policy or warfare) then hopefully they will cease doing what you dislike or begin doing what you want. Despite history as recent as our Vietnam War days, it continues to fail to work against those who value freedom, self-deterrence, or their conscience over intimidation and bluster. What does the judge do when he gives six months in prison to a Franciscan priest and he returns not just once but twice since doing that time to commit the same act again? Fr. Jerry Zawada unashamedly told the judge this is his third time crossing the line since 9/11, not waiting for the prosecutor to ask the judge to “throw the book at him”. How does one deter a principled act of conscience? These defendants were not acting on a whim or fancy, most had counted the cost for months if not years before deciding this was their turn to add their voice on behalf of those who have no voice in the policies of the empire.

One defendant recalled the defensiveness of her German cousins who lived there during the rise and reign of the Third Reich. The guilt and shame of their silence or inaction was often attempted to be mitigated by the refrain “we didn’t know what was really going on”. Instead of saying “I don’t know what the SOA/WHINSEC is doing”, Judge Faircloth does his imitation of Pontius Pilate when he “pontificates” from the bench that it is the Legislative Branch and the Executive Branch of the government that sets the policy regarding the operations of this “school of assassins” (not a term he would use) – the Judicial Branch merely upholds those laws. I reminded him in my statement at sentencing that “German judges were also prosecuted at the Nuremberg Tribunals for their complicity in War Crimes.”

Whatever happened to the concept of checks and balances that is always touted in our high school civics classes? When will any branch of our government stand up and say “no torture, no rape, no “disappearing”, no murder” by agents of our government? Like Pilate, the Judge also “wiped his hands” of any responsibility once he sends the convicted off to prison. When told a fellow defendant was “put in the hole” for two weeks upon arriving at his federal prison destination without the necessary paperwork being done at the courthouse after sentencing, and after being informed that said political prisoner had to remain on his bed for seven consecutive days because his basement segregation cell was flooded, the judge replied, “I don’t tell the Bureau of Prisons how to run their prisons and they don’t tell me how to run my courtroom”.

In recent years we’ve heard a lot about the pitfalls (or advantages) of “activist” judges or “activist” courts. In reality, instead of being a check and balance to the misdeeds of government, most courts are more likely to practice cowardice. How many courts were willing to rule that the undeclared Vietnam War was unconstitutional? Where are the courts today when torture is trumpeted by the present Administration in Washington? When will courts heed the Sixth Article of the U.S. Constitution and honor the requirements of International Treaties signed by our government and “bind all judges” in the land? Theologically, is it reasonable to expect the court, a “principality and power,” to not be fallen and in captivity to the service of death?

It is instructive to compare our trial court with another. Our prison sentences come less than a week after a military jury in Colorado found a U.S. Army interrogator guilty of negligent homicide in the torture and killing of a detainee in Iraq but decided not to jail him. I pray it is some comfort to Iraqi citizens that our actions and willingness to go to prison sends a strong message that there are some Americans who denounce our practice of torture and murder. It has been more than two years since Christian Peacemaking Team members reported on the torture and mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other Iraqi detention centers yet only a handful of low-level soldiers have be prosecuted allowing the upper echelon officers, Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, John Ashcroft, and the President off the hook.

Some may question why we focus on the School of the Americas - isn’t that so 1980s while we need to focus our energies in stopping the occupation of Iraq? While the U.S. media focuses on Iraq (and even there usually only from the vantage point of the Green Zone), members of the peace communities, union leaders, and other progressives continue to be gunned down in Columbia, the nation that has the largest number of troops presently being trained at WHINSEC. Like the Contra campaign in the Reagan years, this war is fought for U.S. interests by proxy armies. Our alleged concern for democracy is exposed for lie it is when one looks at the present situation in Haiti. Much of the recent destabilization there can be traced to graduates of the SOA/WHINSEC or, most recently, by direct intervention of the U.S. in the ouster of its popularly elected President who was kidnapped by the U.S. with the complicity of the Canadian and French governments after a destabilization campaign orchestrated from Washington. The SOA is primarily a symbol of the larger reality of an empire bent on world domination, whether it is by economic rewards and/or strangulation, mercenary armies, or direct military intervention.

How do we resist this march of the empire? If democracy depends on the “consent of the governed,” how do we withdraw that consent? Do we stop shopping when our President calls on us to consume our way out of the post 9/11 depression? Several defendants talked about “speaking truth to power” in our trial preparations but I think we do more “truth telling” with our feet than with our tongues. Kathy Kelly (among others) reminds us that “what you see depends on where you stand”. When we sat overnight in the Muscogee County Jail, when we stand in our new Federal Prison homes in the next couple of months, what we will see is the underbelly of the empire. Our fellow defendants from the Catholic Worker movement see this reality every day on the streets of our cities. When our nation spends in excess of $500 billion this year for the military (when you add the new request for the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars into the Department of Defense budget, not counting Veterans Affairs or war-incurred national debt payments), there is no money left from the federal coffers for education, the environment, healthcare, housing, or other human needs. My protest against the SOA, while in the context of Abu Ghraib and Columbia, the anniversaries of martyrdom in Central America, is also a cry of “nunca mas!,” no more! to empire and domination.

One of the most helpful sessions of our pre-trial meetings was the discussion of privilege. I suspect there are very few other defendants who come before this judge with a roomful of supporters. I had four friends who traveled more than 1,000 miles from Minnesota to stand with me and two more who came from West Virginia. Although by far most of those arrested plea bargain and don’t go to trial, those who do rarely have the show of support we enjoyed. As a wealthy, educated, healthy white male I expect to be listened to, given the benefit of the doubt. Being on trial, at the “mercy” of the judge, gives one a small taste of losing some of that control that I so often take for granted. Even though I chose to represent myself in court (rejecting the obscene fee imposed by the judge to charge each defendant for using an “out-of-state lawyer), I had ready access to consult with any of the lawyers if I had a question. Yet from past experience I know that sense of being in control will be sharply challenged when I enter the prison grounds. Still I need to remember that even this loss of control is the result of a deliberate choice I made when I decided to cross the line.

On the airplane ride home from the trial (privilege again!), the pilot walked through the cabin to greet several soldiers dressed in desert fatigues returning from the war in Iraq. “Thank you for your sacrifice,” was the refrain I expect they will hear time-and-again as they try to re-assimilate into civilian life. I’m sure warriors around the world hear the same: Nazi soldiers, insurgents, Contras, Tamil Tigers, paramilitaries in Columbia, private “contractors” (aka mercenaries) in Iraq, Mujaheddin, the list goes on. “Thank you for your sacrifice.” I expect political prisoners or “prisoners of conscience” have been greeted with the same when they walk out the prison doors. Is it a way we can continue to live vicariously through “the sacrifice” of others without getting our own hands dirty or giving up our comfort and security?

Going to jail may be the easier route than continuing to find creative ways to resist the empire. I recall the conversation between Thoreau and Emerson – [In times like these] why are you not in jail? Those going to jail are not necessarily more committed – it is only one form of resistance. It will take the gifts and calling of all of us to shut down this symbol of a foreign policy of domination: people demanding their Representatives and Senators to past HR 1217 to investigate the record of alleged atrocities of SOA, people in the streets attempting to disrupt “business as usual”, letters to the editors, conversations with friends and family, delegations with Witness For Peace and Christian Peacemaker Teams, and other creative ways to add our “No!” to the Domination System. Can we hear the present-day voice of Jonah to our Nineveh-like empire to repent? Will we?

Trial Statement -SOA. Jan. 2006

Trial Statement of Steve Clemens. US Federal Court. January 31, 2006

On November 20, 2005 I joined more than 19,000 fellow citizens at the entrance of Fort Benning in Columbus, GA, adding my voice to the growing chorus calling for the closure of “The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation” (WHINSEC) aka “School of the Americas” (SOA). This peaceful/prayerful witness has been taking place in November for the past 15 years to coincide with the anniversary of the martyrdom of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter in San Salvador in 1989. The U.N. Truth Commission set up after El Salvador’s long, bloody civil war concluded that responsibility for the assassinations of these people of faith (as well as countless others) was directed and carried out by military personnel who had been trained at the SOA before committing these murders of unarmed advocates for justice.

I had the opportunity to travel to El Salvador this past March to be present for the national recognition of the 25th anniversary of the martyrdom/assassination of the Archbishop of El Salvador, Oscar Romero. I had read several books that have been written about his life, collections of his sermons and pastoral letters, and had viewed the motion picture released about his life and death. The love of the common people for his life and witness in El Salvador gives evidence that he has become a patron saint for the church in that small Central American nation. His murder has also been determined to have been ordered by a graduate of the SOA.

The group I joined also made a pilgrimage to two other sites during our week in El Salvador besides the places where Romero and the Jesuits were killed. We traveled to the chapel in the countryside built on the site where the bodies of three nuns and a lay religious worker were hastily buried after their rape and murders in December 1989. Again, the murders and human rights abuses to Jean Donovan, Maura Clark, Ita Ford, and Dorothy Kazel were linked to graduates of this school. I prayed for forgiveness for our complicity as citizens of the nation that trained and paid for their killers. We also were blessed to spend time with the survivors of the massacre of Copapayo, a small village outside of Suchitoto. After visiting the site of the original village and the ravine/lake shoreline where more than 150 were gunned down by the Salvadoran military, we were invited to visit their new village up-lake from there to share a meal with some of the survivors. Again, these murders of the peasants was directed by, and carried out by, SOA graduates. I went to the annual vigil this year to honor their memories.

This year was the 12th year in a row that I was able to attend the annual vigil sponsored by the School of the Americas Watch. I was blessed to be able to travel and be present with members of my faith community, the Community of St. Martin, as well as my youngest son, Zach. He is morally and politically opposed to this present war and I wanted to show him that there are nonviolent ways to take a stand in the hope that he too will embrace nonviolence as a way to refuse to participate in the oppression of others. It is my hope that he is on his own journey to become a conscientious objector to the violence in our world.

As the annual litany of names of the thousands killed in Central and South America by SOA graduates was sung in the prayerful, solemn memorial remembrance, it was my intent to carry a small cross painted with the name of Monsignor Oscar Romero on to the military base and to walk toward the location of this school of torture and assassination. It was my intent to “give legs” to my prayers for peace and an end to the violent oppression that this school symbolizes. Although I was arrested by military police before I was able to reach the SOA buildings I attempted to walk as far as I was able, each step a prayer for both the victims and the perpetrators, for our governmental leaders and all of us taxpayers who are complicit in the on-going crimes committed by the product of this institution.

I came to pray for the victims of the SOA and an end to the policy that “winks” at the violations of human rights and seeks to parse the word “torture” in order to continue its use. I came to pray for forgiveness for my own complicity as a citizen of this nation which has chosen to use military force and intimidation to secure and use a disproportionate amount of the world’s resources in the face of poverty and repression of other peoples. I have committed myself to attempt to walk in the way of nonviolence as lived and taught by Jesus of Nazareth.

I do not view my act of conscience as a criminal act. Under the U.S. Constitution, Article 6, known as the “Supremacy Clause”, U.S. citizens are informed that any treaties entered into by our government become the supreme law of the land and all judges are bound by them. When the United States signed the treaty to become a member of the United Nations, the language of that treaty contained the language of the Principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal. The last of those seven principles states that “complicity with the commission of a war crime, a crime against peace, and a crime against humanity is a violation of International Law.” Respectfully, I remind the Court that German judges were prosecuted by the Nuremberg Tribunals.

The U.S. Government as a signatory to the Convention Against Torture and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has legally committed itself to forgo the activities I believe have been taught and encouraged by The School of the Americas and its successor, WHINSEC. As such, I feel I have a moral and legal obligation under the Nuremberg Principles not to be complicit by remaining silent in the face of the atrocities committed by graduates of this military school which has promoted torture, rape, assassination, and repression of progressive peoples in Latin America over the years. I urge our national leaders to live up to both the letter and the spirit of the treaties it has not only signed but helped write. Amnesty International USA has also called for an investigation of this school.

The SOA/WHINSEC is a symbol of our national foreign policy which has led to the tortures of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib and many other prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and many secret locations run by the CIA around the world under the misguided aim to quell “terrorism” by violence and intimidation in order that the “beneficiaries” of the American Empire can continue a standard of living at the expense of the world’s poor. The SOA continues to train military officers of Colombia who have been implicated in human rights abuses.

I went to Fort Benning and the SOA confessing my own failure to more fully follow the life and teaching of Jesus who calls us to a lifestyle of justice and compassion. My prayers and act of civil resistance to these powers of death are a small attempt to give a voice to the voiceless, to speak and act in solidarity with the victims of our national policies which are embodied in this institution which has produced so much evil over the years. I pray that this saying “NO” to the powers of death is swallowed up in the “YES” embodied in the life and teaching of Jesus and I will continue to work for a world of justice, compassion, and equal opportunity. I ask all of you to join me as you are able to work and pray to close this school and change our policy.

I wish to end on a personal note. On Monday I was seated in the rear of the courtroom in support of my friend Sam Foster. Prior to the beginning of the trials, the Court Officer/Bailiff told us, “Act like you’re in church”, informing us of the behavior he expected of those of us observing the trials. I’ve taken his instruction to heart.

Although the Court has framed this issue before us as a political one – the law does not permit “political demonstrations on a military facility”, for me, this is primarily a theological issue.

I know this is dangerous ground because much of the worst excesses in recent history have been the result of some people acting because “God (or Allah) told me to.”

For me, as one who has chosen to follow the way of a nonviolent Jesus, I resonate with the response in Christian scripture attributed to the disciples Peter and John when a conflict arose: “We must obey God rather than human authority.”

I gladly submit to whatever punishment the Court wishes to impose but wish to make it clear that my presence on the military base on November 20 was a theological statement that this precious earth entrusted to us by our Creator is not to be used to prepare for war and domination of others but rather to embrace all of life as God’s gift.

For my sentence I suggest a period of service with the Mennonite Disaster Service in the clean-up and rebuilding of areas destroyed by recent hurricanes in the southern states in lieu of sending me to prison; I will gladly make a monetary contribution to that organization in lieu of paying a fine. I am a Mennonite and a pacifist- any fine levied by the court is a tax upon my conscience and a violation of the promises given to my ancestors in 1705 when they were recruited by William Penn to help populate the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

[I entered a plea of Nolo Contendre (no contest) because the Judge previously ruled before trial we were not allowed to use International Law or Necessity as a defense. I was able to mention it above because this statement was given after I was pronounced guilty. I requested a sentence of service with Mennonite Disaster Service helping rebuild after the hurricanes. Instead, Judge G. Mallon Faircloth sentenced me to 3 months in Federal Prison and a $500. fine.]

Why I'm Going to Prison - Pretrial letter. Dec. 2005

Why I’m Going to Prison
Steve Clemens. Dec. 1, 2005

Dear Friends,

Almost 25 years ago, I went to jail for six months as the result of a prayerful protest against nuclear weapons in Amarillo, TX. At that time, it was left up to my Dad to explain to family members why his son was in the slammer. Before I head off to what may be another six month sentence in a Federal Prison, I felt it best to try to share with you the reasons why. In 1981 we didn’t have the luxury of the internet and e-mail and with Wilma conveniently providing e-mail addresses with the Clemens Family Corporation newsletter I now have the ability to do this.

Let me say at the outset, I am not trying to “convert” you to my position and I am well aware that many of you do not share my perspectives on what some might see as “political” matters. I offer the following only in the hope that you might better understand me and my values and actions so that when we interact with each other, you have a better idea of who I am. I trust that as we work to be honest with each other we can also work on healing some of the sharp and bitter divisions that seem to proliferate in our culture. We can only “respectfully disagree” when we take the opportunity to listen to one another. I confess that too often I’ve neglected to speak a word when my silence has implied consent with something I understand to be wrong. Sometimes I’d added my “two cents” into a conversation without the context of my life experience and values and it has seemed to be strange or bizarre. So here is some of “why” I am likely to be headed off to jail (again).

My Dad always instructed me as I was learning to use a gun before hunting season to “never, ever point your gun in the direction of a human being” and “never aim your gun at something you don’t wish to kill.” Although I was only twelve when I learned to fire his old German mauser rifle prior to my first deer hunt, those words stuck with me and ultimately led (in part) to my declaration to be a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. That decision in the fall of 1968 set me on a path which has led me to understanding the Gospel and the way of Jesus as a commitment to nonviolence, ironically returning me to some of the same Anabaptist heritage that most of my relatives abandoned in the aftermath of World War II.

That conviction, that Jesus’ life and teaching are a call to love one’s enemies as well as one’s neighbor has been both a challenge and growing edge in my life. One of the biggest challenges for me in recent years has been to re-image God in light of those teachings. For me, to confess Jesus as Lord has meant to work for a more just society, praying and working for peace and reconciliation. Because many wars are initiated over economic reasons, the many years I spent building homes for low income families at Koinonia and with Habitat for Humanity was part of my commitment to peacemaking.

While living in Georgia in the ‘80s, I often helped drive a bus to the Texas-Mexico border or from Georgia to the Canadian border filled with refugees from the wars in Central America. From those refugees I learned about the atrocities committed by their own militaries (and paramilitary units), many of whom had been trained by the U.S. Army at the School of the Americas (renamed but with much of the same content in 2001 as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security and Cooperation). I heard first-hand (via a translator) of stories of rape, torture, disappearances, and murder committed by graduates of the SOA. Twenty-five years ago, one of these graduates ordered the assassination of the Archbishop of El Salvador, Oscar Romero, a man who I have come to love and deeply respect for his faith, his compassion for the poor, and his commitment to justice. Other SOA graduates have been named by the UN Truth Commission as being responsible for murders of nuns, priests, teachers, union members, and others working for a more just society in their countries in Central America.

I helped start a weekly silent prayer vigil at the entrance to Fort Benning (home of the SOA/WHINSEC) back in 1983 and traveled regularly over the next 7 years to be present there. After moving to Minnesota in 1990, a growing nationwide movement to shut down the SOA was begun and I’ve traveled to Georgia for an annual protest and vigil each of the past 12 years. (Over the years, Christine, Micah, and Zach have joined me; Zach went with me again this year.) Several times I joined other people of faith in “crossing the line” – entering the base in an act of symbolic civil disobedience to protest against the continuation of a school and national policies which promoted the use of rape, torture, and other human rights abuses in the name of anti-communism, the drug war, and/or the “war on terror”. Because I was among hundreds, and later thousands of others taking this step, I was not prosecuted for the civil disobedience when only a handful were singled out each year to be sent to trial and jail. However, since 9/11, everyone who has “crossed the line” (now 3 - 12’ high fences) has been prosecuted and most have received 3-6 month prison sentences. [Note: the fences are only up for our annual vigil. Other days of the year one can drive on to the base without interference.]

Having traveled to El Salvador this past March with my eldest son, Micah, to commemorate the martyrdom of Oscar Romero, and having met with some of the survivors of the Copapayo massacre in their new “base Christian community”, I decided this was the year I should consider risking my freedom to stand with these humble peasants to say no to a national policy which winks at torture in Abu Ghraib and continues to support regimes in places like Columbia where peasants are being killed in wars fueled by American tax dollars. My understanding of Jesus’ call to be peacemakers necessitates taking risks for peace in a similar manner to the witness for racial justice by Martin Luther King, the stand for women suffrage by Susan B. Anthony, and the nonviolent actions which, I believe, helped end the Vietnam war.

Many people view such acts of civil disobedience to be political statements. However, my choice to carry my witness to Fort Benning was/is primarily a result of my faith rather than my politics. My intention was to walk to the location of the School of the Americas to both pray for peace as well as a prayer of confession for my complicity in the violence symbolized by that training school for Latin American military personnel. To the degree that my lifestyle and consumption patterns continue to create hunger and economic disparity in our world, the mere fact of my identity as a citizen of the U.S. has made me complicit in the actions taken by our elected leaders. Our nation spends more on its military than the next 25 nations combined because our leaders think we want them to protect our excess consumption of the world’s food, energy, and other natural resources. My “crossing the line” is an attempt to “put legs on my prayers” by putting my body in the way of “business as usual”. [More info about SOA is available at www.soaw.org]

I am scheduled for trial on Jan. 30 and face up to 6 months in prison and/or a $5,000. fine. I am immensely grateful to have a spouse, sons, and a faith community who support me in taking these steps for a better world. If in some small way, my action (along with 36 others, mostly also people of deep Christian commitment) helps lessen our readiness to use military force against the poor of the world, the probability of 6 months in a federal prison is worth it. I pray that attempting to act on my faith will be seen as an acceptable offering to our loving Creator who longs for all peoples to be reconciled.

After Jail, At Time to Give Thanks

After Jail, At Time to Give Thanks by Steve Clemens

Spending parts of two days in the Muskogee County Jail in Columbus, GA a few days before Thanksgiving helps to remind me of why I need to be grateful in my life.

I am doubly blessed at this time because I was able to act on my conscience and take a risk for peace as well as being joined in that witness by some incredible people. The Community of St. Martin has rented a van or bus for the 12th year in a row to help people travel to Columbus, GA to continue the call to “Close the SOA”. The School of the Americas, renamed “The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC)” in 2001 after the U.S. Congress narrowly defeated a bill to close it, has been linked to a multitude of atrocities and human rights violations over the past several decades. Many of the thousands who join the nonviolent protest at the gates of Fort Benning where the school is located have traveled to Latin America and have spoken to victims and family members of victims who have suffered at the hands of graduates of the SOA under the guise of “fighting counterinsurgency”, stopping the “spread of communism”, or “opposing Liberation Theology”. Today the excuses for the brutality and inhumanity emanating from its graduates include “fighting the war against global terrorism” and “stopping the drug trade”. Our nation has yet to learn that using tactics of torture, rape, and terror only leads to increasing the spiral of violence rather than solving any issues.

The School of the Americas Watch, a group of peace activists led and inspired by Maryknoll priest Roy Bourgeois, has organized an annual vigil, rally, and solemn funeral procession/remembrance for the weekend in November which mostly closely coincides with the anniversary of the martyrdom of six Jesuit priests who were killed by SOA graduates in El Salvador in 1989. Each year, the number of protestors grows – this year approaching 20,000. Organizers said that the gathering this year had almost half of the attendees as high school and college-age young people which help balance out those of us with graying and balding heads. Over the past 16 years, more than 200 persons of conscience have been jailed for their nonviolent acts of civil resistance to this “school”.

After my trip to El Salvador this spring with my son Micah, I began thinking that this might be a time to once again consider risking arrest by carrying my prayers as far on to the base as possible, hoping to pray at the site of the school itself. Knowing that virtually all of those who have been arrested for entering the base since 2001 have received prison sentences as a result, it was important not to make such a decision casually. My time of discernment about taking such a step was complicated by Hurricane Katrina. Wanting to respond to the needs created by the hurricane, I contacted Mennonite Disaster Service to see if I could help. After some back and forth, it appeared they could best use me next Spring, making entering at Fort Benning again a possibility. My wife Christine would prefer me spending 6 months rebuilding Mississippi or Louisiana rather than sitting in a federal prison but said she’d support me in what I felt called to do. I am so grateful for such a partner!

When I told my two sons about my decision to risk arrest, Zach told me he’d like to join me in riding down to the vigil on the CSM bus. I was really pleased to see his interest rekindled in this issue as an adult. He had traveled with me several times over the past 12 years but school work/schedules discouraged his participation in more recent times. He arranged to reschedule two midterm exams at his college to be present when I “crossed the line”. In Minneapolis, I had a send-off from our Wednesday AM vigil group in front of weapons-maker Alliant Techsystems and then another send-off from our Community of St. Martin’s circle before the bus left on Friday morning for the 24 hour ride to Georgia. Those traveling on our bus also circled up for a prayer and blessing on Sunday morning prior to our joining the witness. Such signs of support and caring are essential to sustaining a spirit of resistance over the long haul.

Carrying a small wooden cross with the name of the martyred Archbishop Romero, I participated in the solemn procession until the time came when the first group would attempt to enter the base. We walked along the fence and after hugging some of my supporters, Zach watched as I crawled under a portion of the fence that others had lifted for me. Sam Foster, a Veterans For Peace member from Minneapolis followed closely behind. I knelt in prayer and was fairly quickly grabbed by a Military Police, handcuffed, and hauled off. We were processed at two locations on the military base over the course of about six hours before being bussed in cuffs and shackles to the county jail to be booked and processed again as federal prisoners. After a cold and noisy night in the “geezer cellblock” (all the prisoners in this cell area were 50 or older), we were taken to court the next morning for arraignment and a bail hearing. [I will write more about the jail time and courtroom events soon]. I posted a $1,000. bond, promising to return for trial slated to begin on January 30.

I returned from Georgia with David Harris, another Vet For Peace from our AlliantAction circle, who served as Sam and my support person. I’m grateful for all the prayers and expression of support I have received as I continue this journey.

(please check out more information about the opposition to the school and to view pictures of the protest at www.soaw.org)

following is a local newspaper article:

Protesters get first day in court

36 SOA Watch demonstrators arrested

BY PAT GILLESPIE, Staff Writer
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. Posted on Tue, Nov. 22, 2005
From New York to California and from Wisconsin to Washington D.C., the SOA Watch's weekend protest brought three dozen people to the confines of the Muscogee County Jail.
On Monday, 34 SOA Watch protesters pleaded not guilty to crossing onto Fort Benning over the weekend, with two others pleading guilty. The 36 arrested is triple the number taken into custody last year.
This year's group is significantly older than last year, with 20 of the 36 older than 50. Last year, four of the 12 arrested were older than 50. Trials are scheduled to begin Jan. 30, 2006.
Christine Gaunt, 49, of Grinnell, Iowa, pleaded guilty to re-entering the military installation after being banned for five years after trespassing in 2002. She was sentenced to six months in prison and a $2,000 fine. The maximum punishment for the federal misdemeanor is six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Donald Nelson, 62, of Summertown, Tenn., pleaded guilty to entering the post and was sentenced to 90 days in prison. He said he was motivated to cross over not because of violence, but because of his conscience.
"I've been trying to figure out how to deal with the terrorism the SOA has caused," he said. "I want to take some action. I'm looking for a better way, but I haven't found one."
Nelson was arrested Sunday at the protest, where 15,000 SOA Watch protesters gathered outside the main gate of Fort Benning. For the 16th consecutive year, the protesters demanded the closing of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas.
As they have since the demonstrations started in 1990 with six people, the protesters are calling for the closing of the institute, which trains soldiers, police and administrators from Latin and Central America. SOA Watch cites human rights abuses that have been committed by military personnel trained by the U.S. Army.
U.S. Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth held arraignment hearings for the protesters, some of whom remained silent and let their attorneys enter not guilty pleas. Others spoke of their personal convictions to protest. The mood was light-hearted, as Faircloth joked with the defendants throughout the daylong hearings in the Columbus Recorder's Court building.
Gail Phares, who pleaded not guilty and was given a $1,000 bond, told the judge she planned on being in court for her Jan. 30 trial and the judge agreed.
"I look forward to seeing you," he said to the Raleigh, N.C., woman. "But you are too far out of the jurisdiction, so I'm going to need (financial) assurance."
Father's offer denied
Faircloth gave a Georgetown University student a break because he told the judge he was financially dependent on his parents and that $1,000 was too "excessive." After a long pause, Faircloth agreed.
"Just because of the way Georgetown plays basketball, I'm going to reduce your bond to $500," he told Donté Smith, 19. "But don't tell anyone."
Thirty people received a $1,000 bond, Smith got a $500 bond and two men got bonds of $1,500 and $2,500. John LaForge, 40, of Luck, Wis., received a $1,500 bond because of an extensive past of unlawful entry to other military bases, as well as the White House, dating back to 1981. Faircloth placed a bond of $2,500 on James Walters, 41, of Columbia, Mo., because of his criminal past, which includes nine felony and 11 misdemeanor charges, although the number of convictions was disputed in court.
Father Jerome Zawada of Cedar Lake, Ind., offered to stay in jail on behalf of his "companions" who were already sentenced. Zawada was the last defendant to have a hearing Monday and the judge had already set bond for the others, so Faircloth rejected it.
"Your offer is impressive, and I hope they know you offered to do that for them," Faircloth said. "At the same time, I cannot accept it."
Zawada told the judge he wasn't going to post bond and intended to stay in jail until his trial.
"We are very eager to return to the trial to continue our message," he said.
Sentenced after pleading guilty on Monday :
• Christine P. Gaunt, 27, Decatur, Ga. -- 6 months in prison, $2,000 fine; • Donald W. Nelson, 62, Summertown, Tenn. -- 90 days in prison.
Pleading not guilty; bond set for release pending trial :
• Buddy R. Bell, 23, Wood Dale, Ill. -- $1,000 bond; • Frederick C. Brancell, 79, Madison, Wis. -- $1,000 bond.
• Robert S. Call, 72, Hasbrouck, N.J. -- $1,000 bond; • Charles F. Carney, 47, Kansas City -- $1,000 bond.
• Stephen D. Clemens, 55, Minneapolis -- $1,000 bond; • JoAnne N. Cowan, 56, Boulder, Colo. -- $1,000 bond.
• Anika D. Cunningham, 26, Bowling Green, Ohio -- $1,000 bond; • Scott J. Dempsky, 30, Demark, Wis. -- $1,000 bond.
• Joseph Deraymond, 55, St. Fremansburg, Pa. -- $1,000 bond; • Kenneth F. Crowley, 65, Washington, D.C. -- $1,000 bond.
• Samuel O. Foster, 70, Minneapolis -- $1,000 bond; • Jonathan P. Robert, 49, Grinnell, Iowa -- Bond deferred pending state hold.
• Michael Lee Gayman Jr., 26, Davenport, Iowa -- $1,000 bond; • Sarah C. Harper, 36, Emoryville, Calif. -- $1,000 bond.
• Rita O. Hohenshell, 30, Des Moines, Iowa -- $1,000 bond; • Jane M. Hoskings, 37, Luke, Wis. -- $1,000 bond.
• John M. LaForge, 49, Luck, Wis. -- $1,500 bond; • Elizabeth A. Lentsch, 68, Oak Ridge, Tenn. -- $1,000 bond.
• Robin Lloyd, 57, Burlington, Vt. -- $1,000 bond; • Linda O. Masburn, 63, Brevard, N.C. -- $1,000 bond.
• Liam O'Reilly, 22, Durham, Maine -- $1,000 bond; • Dorothy Parker, 76, Chico, Calif. -- $1,000 bond.
• Gail S. Phares, 66, Raleigh, N.C. -- $1,000 bond; • Judith Ruland, 47, Springfield, Mass. -- $1,000 bond.
• Delmar J. Schwaller, 81, Appleton, Wis. -- $1,000 bond; • Donté Smith, 19, Washington, D.C. -- $500 bond.
• Edward J. Smith, 38, Harrisburg, Pa. -- $1,000 bond; • Cheryl F. Sommers, 68, Berkeley, Calif. -- $1,000 bond.
• David A. Sylvester, 55, Oakland, Calif. -- $1,000 bond; • Priscilla K. Tresca, 66, Cleveland, Ohio -- $1,000 bond.
• Louis J. Vitale, 73, San Francisco -- $1,000 bond; • James L. Walters, 41, Columbia, Mo. -- $2,500 bond.
• Francis H. Woolever, 72, Syracuse, N.Y. -- $1,000 bond; • Jerome Zawada, 68, Cedar Lake, Ind. -- $1,000 bond.
Protesters from the November 2004 SOA Watch demonstrations who were convicted of misdemeanor trespass and sentenced in January in U.S. District Court by Judge G. Mallon Faircloth:
• Alice Gerard, 48, Buffalo, N.Y. -- six months in prison, $500 fine; • Robert N. Chantal, 52, Americus, Ga. -- 90 days in prison, $500 fine.
• Elizabeth A. Deligio, 28, Chicago -- 90 days in prison, $500 fine; • Brian D. DeRouen, 26, Dayton, Ohio -- 120 days in prison, $500 fine.
• Meagan Elizabeth Doty, 22, Dayton, Ohio -- 90 days in prison, $500 fine; • Ronald E. Durham, 24, Chicago -- 90 days in prison, $500 fine.
• John Thomas MacLean, 79, Ashfield, Mass. -- 90 days in prison; • Lelia J. Mattingly, 63, Maryknoll, N.Y. -- six months in prison.
• Elizabeth K. Nadeau, 27, Minneapolis -- 90 days in prison, $500 fine; • Michael P. Ring Sr., 65, Wall, N.J. -- 12 months probation, $1,000 fine.
• Daniel J. Schwankl, 31, Siler City, N.C. -- 90 days in prison, $500 fine; • Aaron Peter Shuman, 32, Oakland, Calif. -- 120 days in prison, $500 fine.

Risking Arrest at The School of the Americas. November 2005

A Prayer For Peace –by Steve Clemens. November 2005


On November 20th I join more than 10,000 fellow citizens at the entrance of Fort Benning in Columbus, GA, adding my voice to the growing chorus calling for the closure of “The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC)” aka “School of the Americas (SOA)”. This peaceful/prayerful witness has been taking place in November for the past 15 years to coincide with the anniversary of the martyrdom of six Jesuit priests and their housekeeper and her daughter in San Salvador in 1989. The U.N. Truth Commission set up after El Salvador’s long, bloody civil war concluded that responsibility for the assassinations of these people of faith (as well as countless others) was directed and carried out by military personnel who had been trained at the SOA before committing these murders of unarmed advocates for justice in El Salvador.

I had the opportunity to travel to El Salvador this past April with the Center For Global Education at Augsburg College to be present for the national recognition of the 25th anniversary of the martyrdom/assassination of the Archbishop of El Salvador, Oscar Romero. I had read several books that have been written about his life, collections of his sermons and pastoral letters, and had viewed the motion picture released about his life and death. The love of the common people for his life and witness in El Salvador gives evidence that he has become a patron saint for the church in that small Central American nation. His murder has also been determined to have been ordered by a graduate of the SOA.

Our group also made a pilgrimage to two other sites during our week in El Salvador besides the places where Romero and the Jesuits were killed. We traveled to the chapel in the countryside built on the site where the bodies of three Maryknoll nuns and a lay religious worker were hastily buried after their rape and murders in December 1989. Again, the murders and human rights abuses to Jean Donovan, Maura Clark, Ita Ford, and Dorothy Kazel were linked to graduates of this school. We prayed for forgiveness for our complicity as citizens of the nation that trained and paid for their killers. We also were blessed to spend time with the survivors of the massacre of Copapayo, a small village outside of Suchitoto. After visiting the site of the original village and the ravine/lake shoreline where more than 150 were gunned down by the Salvadoran military, we were invited to visit their new village up-lake from there to share a meal with some of the survivors. Again, these murders of the peasants was directed by, and carried out by, SOA graduates.

As the annual litany of names of the thousands killed in Central and South America by SOA graduates is sung in the prayerful, solemn memorial remembrance, it is my intent to carry a small cross painted with the name of Monsignor Oscar Romero on to the military base and to walk toward the location of this school of torture and assassination. It is my intent to “give legs” to my prayers for peace and an end to the violent oppression that this school symbolizes. It is likely that I will be arrested by military police before I am able to reach the SOA buildings but I will walk as far as I am able, each step a prayer for both the victims and the perpetrators, for our governmental leaders and all of us taxpayers who are complicit in the on-going crimes committed by the product of this institution.

The SOA/WHINSEC is a symbol of our national foreign policy which has led to the tortures of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib and many other prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and many secret locations run by the CIA around the world under the misguided aim to quell “terrorism” by violence and intimidation in order that the “beneficiaries” of the American Empire can continue a standard of living at the expense of the world’s poor. The SOA continues to train military officers of Colombia who have been implicated in human rights abuses. I go to Fort Benning and the SOA confessing my own failure to more fully follow the life and teaching of Jesus who calls us to a lifestyle of justice and compassion. My prayers and act of civil resistance to these powers of death are a small attempt to give a voice to the voiceless, to speak and act in solidarity to the victims of our national policies which are embodied in this institution which has produced so much evil over the years. I pray that this saying “NO” to the powers of death is swallowed up in the “YES” embodied in the life and teaching of Jesus and I will continue to work for a world of justice, compassion, and equal opportunity. I ask all of you to join me as you are able to work and pray to close this school and change our policy. (You may learn more about this “school” at www.soaw.org , including the call for cessation of all classes at the school by Amnesty Int’l. USA and an investigation of human rights violations connected to the school).