Daniel Berrigan: Mentor and Inspiration

Dan Berrigan: Mentor and Inspiration by Steve Clemens, May 3, 2016

I don’t think I heard about the draft file burning at Catonsville, MD until a year or two later. After all, our high school baseball team was hoping to win its second straight Ivy Prep League title (we fell one game short with me in the on-deck circle with bases-loaded and two outs) and I was caught up in Senior Weekend and my up-coming graduation. Even Dr. King’s assassination the month before didn’t register in my sheltered life at an all-boys college prep school on Long Island. My life of privilege allowed me to virtually ignore the increasing carnage of the Vietnam War because it was assumed all 41 of our graduating class of 1968 would be attending college and receive “student deferments” as long as we maintained a decent grade-point average.

I do remember thinking that the destruction of property, coupled with the fact that most of the actors of the Catonsville 9 were Roman Catholic, was not an appropriate act of dissent when I became aware of it about a year after the May 17, 1968 occurrence. At the time of their trial, I was wrestling with the momentous decision of registering for the military draft. A month earlier I was issued a rifle and a uniform as part of my registration at Wheaton College; all male students were required to enroll in U.S. Army ROTC unless they had an honorable discharge from military service or a 4-F (physically or morally unfit for service) or 1-O (conscientious objector) status from their draft board. I was scheduled to register for Selective Service on October 16 when I turned 18 years old.

It was not an easy decision; my father had left his Mennonite heritage and entered the U.S. Army when drafted in World War II. He never talked to me (or to my brothers, I assumed) about his experience in France and Germany as a radioman in the infantry as his unit followed General George Patton’s soldiers. Only after his 80^th birthday did he share any details with us about this period of his life and then mostly to say he wasn’t proud of the things he had done but he had “promised the Lord that if he got home safely”, he’d return to the church and “follow the Lord.” Even though the Mennonite Church my Dad helped found in 1950 never affiliated with any of the Mennonite conferences and did not stress the traditional “peace witness” expected of Mennonites, I was aware that some of my relatives were pacifist or conscientious objectors even if my parents weren’t.

After prayer, reading scripture, and talking with a Resident Assistant on my college dorm wing, I decided that I must register as a conscientious objector – to all wars, not just the current one in Vietnam. But it was a personal decision – a moral stand as an individual – rather than a social or political decision at that point. I couldn’t in good conscience take up a gun to kill the Vietnamese but I also wasn’t sitting in judgment on those who did go or my government’s “foreign policy”. I knew little about what was happening in “the far East” other than what my parent’s copies of US News and World Report stressed: those “godless Communists” were killing our “Christian missionaries” and wanted to force their atheism on all of southeast Asia.

So Father Daniel Berrigan, his brother Phil Berrigan and the other actors of the drama at the Draft Board office in Catonsville, Maryland didn’t register. A year after becoming a conscientious objector, I started participating in anti-war marches on the Wheaton, Illinois Draft Board, led by “Father Tom”, a Maryknoll order priest from nearby Glen Ellyn. Sometime that fall or early winter I came across Dan’s book about their trial, The Trial of The Catonsville Nine. I was struck by Dan’s poetic description of the draft files – they were cast as “hunting licenses for human beings.” That made me re-think what was really going on. As I spent more time with Father Tom and other “radical Catholics” at anti-war marches or taking courses at the Maryknoll Seminary where he taught, I was struck by their vibrant Christian faith and was jolted from my anti-Catholic upbringing.

That was a good thing as the books of Dan Berrigan fed my soul and spirit in a way that few others did. No Bars to Manhood, The Dark Night of Resistance, Night Flight to Hanoi, They Call Us Dead Men, The Raft is Not the Shore, America is Hard To Find, To Dwell In Peace, We Die Before We Live,  …. The list could go on and on, especially his commentaries on the Psalms (Uncommon Prayer), the Prophets, Lamentations, Exodus, … Again, insight, challenge, humor, conviction. I didn’t understand probably half of his poetry – but what I did understand, wow! Especially “No and Yes and the Whole Damned Thing” that was published in Sojourners Magazine in 1976.

I only met Dan Berrigan a few times – the first being at my first arrest for civil disobedience a month before the Vietnam War ended. He was one of the 62 of us who refused to leave the grounds of the White House in March 1975, demanding that we meet with President Ford to reject the continued funding of the South Vietnamese military and in rejecting what we called his “punitive clemency” program for Vietnam War draft resisters. I was much closer to his brother Phil and his partner in resistance, Liz McAlister, having joined their Bible study group the year before. In 1980 I heard Dan speak at a national Fellowship of Reconciliation gathering at Berea College and then in the mid-1980s Dan came to our Georgia communities gathering at Koinonia Farm to lead a weekend Bible study on the book of Revelations. I saw him again briefly at larger gatherings or demonstrations but his inspiration and challenge to me was much greater than my personal contact with him.

What stands out most vividly was his claim that our [Christian] baptism is an embracing of the life and crucifixion of Jesus, and, when we are raised out of the water, our resurrection to new life means that there is nothing the state can do to threaten us if we’ve already chosen to “die with Christ”. The state has no power over us since it’s most harsh sanction, death, has already been embraced in our choosing to follow Jesus. The state can jail us – but we’ve already “died to Christ.” They Call Us Dead Men – if we can excuse the pre-feminist exclusionary language – was Dan’s call to me to act out of my faith rather than my fears. Dan didn’t just write about faith and resistance, he embodied it. He incarnated his faith by standing in the street, hammering warheads, ministering to other fellow prisoners, and sharing the Eucharist with all who gathered.

Dan, I love you, I thank you, I miss you. But I know your spirit is still with us every time we gather to say “No” and “Yes” – not too soon, not too quickly, not too easily, not too cheaply. Until our “No” is swallowed up in [Christ’s] “Yes”. We are called to continue on the path you trod for the past 50+ years.

No and yes and the whole damn thing … A poem by Daniel Berrigan. 1976

   What is the point in saying no,

What is the point in not saying no?

   The questions make sense as long as there is a point toward which the questions are moving.

   If I say no, and there is a point at distance, at which someone is saying yes, then it makes sense to say no; for my no is transfigured, hastening into that yes.

   If I do not say no, and there is a point at distance at which someone is saying yes, then my not saying no also makes sense, as long as I am attentive to that yes, and want my not naysaying to echo and be included in that yes.

   I may however say no in a void, just as I may refuse to say no, in a void. In which case my no saying and my non no saying are lost in a void.

   We look for land marks, we look for sea marks.

   “When we are seated in a moving vessel and our eyes are fixed upon an object on the same vessel, we do not notice that we are moving. But if we look further, upon something that is not moving along with us, for instance upon the coast, we notice immediately that we are moving. It is the same with life. When the whole world lives wrongly we fail to notice it, but should only one person awake spiritually, the life of all others becomes immediately apparent. And the others always persecute those who do not live like them.”

                                    (Pascal)

   We must come from somewhere if we are to go somewhere.

   We must go somewhere if we are to remember that we come from somewhere.

   There is only one word in all creation. ‘Jesus is the YES of God.’ (Paul)

   We however dwell on the other side of that yes; the grave side, the dark side, the death side, the underside.

   So it is important not to say yes too soon, too easily, too often, too cheaply. This would be to debase the currency of life itself which is not a money, but the blood of our brothers and sisters, the blood of Christ.

   Just as it is important not to say no in a void. This would be to join our voices to the despairing wail of the damned.

   It is important to say no in view of, in the direction of, a yes which is forever distant, forever nearing.

   Because we are hungry for fullness, for non death, for life, for non suffering.

   Because we cannot merely stand by  or bystand or spectate or grandstand or freeload or grimace.

   Because a because joins us, life to lifeline, to the cause of goodness, of love, of truth in deed.

   Because the distance between the no we insist on and the yes that insists on us, is constantly narrowing, reaching, almost touching.

   Therefore our word to all systems of this world, right, left, center, imperial, colonial, fascist, racist, capitalist, Marxist, maoist, castroist, reformist, is

   Not yet, not enough, not quite, not at all, not by a half, not by a long shot.

   Ours being an ethic of the promise, implying that we keep our promise; to say no until the day when our no is swallowed in His yes; until then we await and press forward and trust to His keeping of the promise which is to say a payment no power or form or arrangement of this world can estimate or hand over to mint or hoard or bribe us with

a war payment but more

a blood sacrifice and more

a livid stigma and more

   His payment coming due on His day; nothing less than the substance of his promise which is our rising from the ‘body of this death’

Life unimaginable

to the degree that our misery, our moral stagnation, our spiritual and corporal and social plague, is beyond healing

any healing but one; maranatha, come Lord Jesus.

Day 4 of Frac Sand Protest Trial - Part 1

Putting Our Fate Into The Hands Of The Jurors by Steve Clemens. Feb 6, 2014
Day 4 of Winona Frac Sand Protest Trial

At 9 AM the jury was seated and defense witnesses continued their testimony. Veteran activist and Catholic Worker farmer, Mike Miles was the thirteenth defendant to take the stand. With a degree in Zoology and a Masters in Youth Ministry, Mike told us the premise of one of his seminary courses was that one cannot know God unless you are doing justice. He said he has found himself "walking up driveways I shouldn't have - because of my commitment to nonviolence.” He knew if he got arrested he would have his "day in court and hopefully be able to tell the truth, the whole truth, to a jury serving as the conscience of the community.” However, the Judge quickly told the jury to completely disregard Mike's statement that he felt confident the morning he walked on to the frac sand loading site at the Winona port because he had been acquitted before by a jury for doing a very similar thing under a Claim of Right defense. When asked by defense attorney McCluer why he stayed and risked arrest after being asked to leave by a police officer, Miles said because of the urgency of this issue: how frac sand is used to extract more oil and gas out of the earth. "We must do everything within our power [to try to prevent or mitigate climate change ]", he responded. When asked if walking on the property was the only recourse left, Miles cheerfully said, "No. There are many arrows in the quiver of nonviolence" and he has used a variety in his long history of activism.

Mike Abdoo became the last defendant to testify after a discussion the previous evening about our lawyer's desire to keep our testimony brief so the jurors could get the case before noon. He is a recent member of the Lake City Catholic Worker after having been a Winona Worker previously. In that role, he "attended numerous public hearings, took part in public protests, wrote letters”, and other myriad activities over 1 1/2 years trying to stop the frac sand industry. He described sand on the sidewalks, sand coming in windows, clogging air conditioner filters as the mining of silica sand exploded in the area about two years ago. His wife is now expecting their first child and "she drinks out of a well - that's terrifying" when recognizing the threats to clean water that this short-term profit industry can cause. He wanted to do "whatever we could do" to stop this.

The defense rested by 9:35 and the jury was excused while the judge and attorneys discussed his jury instructions. Our lawyer requested a broader instruction on Claim of Right, suggesting Hennepin County's Judge Jack Nordby's instructions but Judge Jeffrey Thompson ultimately disagreed. He said as judge he was trying to keep the issue focused on our actions rather than the content of our beliefs. He described how he marched in protest during the Vietnam War after the invasion of Cambodia while a student at Carleton College. But here in this court, we need to be "content neutral" in deciding this case. We need a standard appropriate for any kind of protest. He went on to list a variety of protests which have come before courts including land mines, the people from Westboro Baptist Church, the Klu Klux Klan, abortion, ... citing several cases he has read on appeal.

After denying an expansive view of Claim of Right, he also denied McCluer's request for an instruction on a necessity defense saying that the action taken must directly address the harm caused and the danger must be imminent. In this case he felt defendants still had legal remedies. "Democracy is a messy process. Over time, over a long period of time, maybe you can change people's minds - if you are lucky. But this doesn't mean you can break the law. It is a difficult process to change peoples' mind but the law doesn't allow you to break the law to do so. Civil disobedience means you break the law and take the consequences." He then quoted a favorite TV crime-fighter, Baretta, saying, "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time."

When the jury returned, the Prosecutor said he would not call any rebuttal witnesses. So he was asked if he wished to make his closing arguments. He gave "the State's view", saying even "polite" persons cannot break the law. "Just because the defendants were peaceful doesn't mean they can break the law. The words "frac", "sand", or "silica" won't be found in the Judge's instructions. Trespass is the crime, not protesting. These people made a conscious decision to break the law. This was civil disobedience, a planned event. A deliberate act. Purposely breaking the law. Their strong feelings turned into a criminal act. I urge you to follow the law in this case. They [the defendants] should be held responsible for that.”

Richmond McCluer rose to give the closing for our defense. He asked the Judge for use of the courtroom easel so he could draw a crude "thermometer" with a vertical line with 0% on the bottom, a 50/50 line in the middle, and 100% at the top. His defense asks a clear question: "is it [the case] proven by the State? Every element? The police cannot convict them of a single crime. Even the Judge can't unless the defendants waive their right to a jury trial. Only the jury can do that.

On his diagram he started speaking and writing words as he progressed up from zero to 100. “Hunch”, “suspicion”, “strong suspicion”, “probable cause”. Above the 50/50 line in the middle he continued with “preponderance”, “clear and convincing”. At the very top, by 100% he wrote "certainty". Just below that level, he said and wrote "proof beyond a reasonable doubt." He proceeded to inform the jury that in a civil trial 51%, anything over 50%, “preponderance”, is enough to decide a case. But not in criminal cases. “No one can be 100% certain but we do ask for proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

"Some defendants told you they did it [trespassed] to prevent a greater harm. Some said they had no choice [after trying other legal means]. Some said they believed they had a Claim of Right. Some simply did not have the charges against them proved. The defendants acted with the knowledge that only the community can convict them. It is the conscience of the community and it has given the responsibility to you [the jury]." He illustrated his point with the story of two dogs in Winona, concluding, "What do 99% of people do when they see that poor dog outside in the freezing cold? There are a very rare few who cannot sit idly by. These people [pointing to the defendants] could not sit idle and I'm honored to represent them. I'm asking you to do justice."

Prosecutor Flaherty used his rebuttal time to tell his jury that “any fact can be proved by direct or circumstantial evidence.” After describing the latter, he said, “They [the police] did a good enough job in this case. … When you do an act, there are consequences. They made a conscious choice to protest and break the law or protest and not break a law. It is not about beliefs but what you did. Law punishes you not for what you believe but what you did. This case is about deliberate violation of the law and you should hold them accountable.

The jury instructions were given at 11:35 and 20 minutes later they left the courtroom to begin deliberations.

Day 3 of the Frac Sand Trial

The Whole Truth? By Steve Clemens. Feb.5, 2014
Winona Frac Sand Trial, Day 3

When my name was called by Richmond McCluer, our defense attorney, I walked up before Judge Jeffrey Thompson and told his clerk I would "affirm" rather than "swear" the oath to " ... Tell the Truth, the Whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth, so help me God." I affirmed - but was quickly reminded that in U.S. courts, that is virtually impossible if you want to fully inform a jury about your motives and intent.

I was actually the third witness as the defense started its case. Because of the large number of defendants ( even though after another case dismissal this morning winnowed it down to 19 from the original 35), I knew our time on the witness stand would have to be compact. But when one is facing three months in jail, you would hope for plenty of time to have your say.

Dan Wilson, a former member of the Winona Catholic Worker and one of the organizers for our nonviolent witness against the silica (frac) sand industry which took place last April was first on the stand. With his degree in Biology, we hoped he could describe some of the purported health risks of mining and transporting silica sand. He was able to state he was trying to protect the area from full-scale frac sand operation because the sand in the landscape serves as both an aquifer and filter for water which eventually empties into the Mississippi despite the energetic efforts by Prosecutor Mike Flaherty to pretend this should be just and open and shut trespass case. Despite his considerable knowledge about frac sand, he wasn't able to share the truth as he knows it. When asked about his arrest, he replied, "It's not something we enjoy but what we feel called to [do]."

James Johnson, another former Winona Catholic Worker, now a special education teacher here, told the jury about the myriad of public hearings and meetings he has participated in and attended in Winona County on the silica sand controversy. He was constantly interrupted by the Prosecutor's objection but was able to express than he is "saddened that people are profiting of the pain of others." He also stated that taking this action which entailed risk brought him joy.

I was next to take the stand after my public oath to tell "the whole truth." No such luck. Time and time again objections to relevance were voiced by Mr. Flaherty. The Judge, cognizant of the long line of witnesses still to go, clearly wanted testimony truncated. Once I broached the Claim of Right provision in Minnesota's trespass law, the trial came to a screaming halt. The Judge immediately ordered the jury out of the courtroom so the lawyers, judge, and I could attempt to resolve the impasse created when the Judge insisted that the only instruction related to Claim of Right he would give the jury must be related to a property interest. After I reminded him of my reading of the Brechon case ( involving Honeywell protesters) that defendants must be given wide leeway in explaining their motives and intent to a jury - even if that was a mistaken reason - but reasonable, in good faith, and nonviolent, the Judge relented and said he'd give me a maximum of two minutes to give my rationale ( but no legal arguments!) with the jury present. Needless to say, one cannot give " the whole truth" ( as I understand it) under such constraints. I left the witness stand wondering why I put so much effort into preparing testimony which won't be allowed by some judges.

But I was followed by Marie Shebeck, a gentle White Rose Catholic Worker from Chicago. She described the reasons she joined the action along with explanations about the values of this movement begun by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurine.

She was followed by Will Hesch-Bruggeman, a local teacher who was passionate about health risks to children posed by mining and transport of this toxic and carcinogenic sand. He told jurors the school he teaches at is less than seven blocks from the site where he was arrested. His wife brought their 5-month old daughter to the courtroom yesterday and Will talked about health dangers to expectant mothers and those in the womb. On April 29th last year, Will had two very personal reasons to risk arrest with us!

70+ year-old Roberta Thurstin-Timmerman is our elder among the arrestees. She did us proud as she proclaimed, "I have a voice and a body - I can speak for those who can't." She was clear she was speaking on behalf of not only young children but also flowers, plants, and trees. "I love this world God gave us and the children of this world shouldn't be subjected to these things which can be stopped. If we can stop this [frac sand mining] so we can study the health effects, it [getting arrested] was worth it.

Joe Kruse talked of his love for the sand bluffs near his boyhood home across the river in LaCrosse, WI but went on to lament the devastation he has witnessed after visited several frac sand mines in Wisconsin and told of spills in a nearby county which destroyed trout streams. "[The frac sand industry] is really a trespass on a common resource - water. "I was glad when the police arrived [at the protest site]", he said after describing an irate sand-hauling driver who threatened them with his huge truck. But he concluded his testimony stating he was willing to risk this on behalf of children.

Barb Kass, an activist grandmother, said "silica sand is the wrong answer. It allows us to think we can continue to over-consume oil and gas products." She tried to talk about the importance of "invitation" in standing in solidarity with others but when she tried to briefly illustrate her point with a personal example from her family's powerful solidarity action with indigenous spear fishermen in Wisconsin, the prosecutor quickly objected and the judge told her to "move on" to another topic. Many of us in the courtroom came to Winona at the invitation of local residents who needed our solidarity to pull off such an ambitious public witness. She reminded the audience that the local Catholic Worker community "has been doing this hard work for a long time", making it clear that we were primarily standing behind and alongside them. Her granddaughter turned 4 the day of the arrest and Barb beautifully described her resistance act as a "present" to that precious child. (She also shared ice cream with the younger generation she was protecting.)

Stalwart Quaker/Buddhist activist John Heid kept the courtroom mesmerized with his passionate (and compassionate) explanation to the jury of why nonviolence is "a way of being" for him, not just an interesting philosophy or tactic. He said, "I don't use the term 'protest', this [action] was a prayer. The heart of what we were doing is nonviolence. I felt invigorated, very alive" when going to the site for the vigil. He drew a distinction between law, authentic law, and conscience. After our lawyer told him (while John was on the stand, in front of the jury) that he advised John not to take the witness stand since the prosecution's evidence against him was muddled at best and insufficient, John quipped, "I've always had a tenuous relationship with lawyers!" The judge roared with laughter because he had already faced Heid in his courtroom for previous acts of nonviolent resistance where he represented himself.

While many others (including myself) tried to slip in references to great practitioners of nonviolence in recent history, John quickly reminded the jurors, " [Martin Luther ] King and Gandhi were all criminals - they all broke the law. We idolize the law," he lamented. He described some of his fellow Quakers as " mystics with feet", saying that this is a prophetic vocation. He described his action as "putting my feet where my heart and soul are." Suddenly the hard pews in the courtroom were mystically transformed into church pews - if only our churches were as committed to peace and justice as John continues to model it for us! His testimony made the boring tedium of yesterday's prosecution witnesses worth sitting through to get to the heart of the matter.

Becky Lambert, a farmer like Barb Kass, talked about the huge threat to the soil this mining entails. "These mines are getting closer and closer to our [Lake City, MN Catholic Worker] farm. If our landscape is destroyed, so is what we do." She described the Catholic Worker passion for sharing food, breaking bread with others. She described carrying food to the demonstration site saying, "we hoped to share our food with the workers and police officers." It was a sign of intended reconciliation. When asked if risking arrest was a kind of last resort after trying other legal means to stop frac sand mining and transport, Becky said, "this is what I could do at the time. We stopped the work for one day. This [appearing in court for the trial] is part of the witness."

During one of our courtroom breaks, Rachel Stoll, the next witness, told me she is younger than my youngest son! When she took the stand she eloquently described the benefits of leaving the sand in the ground as a means to protect our river and the water table. She told how all the planning meeting for the action were open to the public and stated our flyer advertising the faith and resistance retreat before the day of action called our plans for Monday, April 29 as "Gospel Obedience" rather than civil disobedience. She felt "compelled to act" and she "felt joy knowing we were doing the right thing."

Matthew Byrnes was the last defendant to take the stand on this long day in court. Again, he was told by our lawyer that he risked conviction by taking the stand because he, too, had poor evidence presented against him by the prosecution witnesses. But he strode confidently to the witness stand after affirming his oath like two other Quakers before him did. He observed that the City of Winona seems to listen more to protests than listening at meetings. The previous city-wide moratorium on frac sand facilities (which had expired before our April 29 witness) was only first discussed by the city after a dramatic protest by Catholic Workers and supporters raised the issue to their agenda. The moratorium was put in place so health effects of silica sand could be studied but no information was ever released to the public. Since our mass arrests, an air monitor has been installed on the downtown YMCA and the Governor traveled to Winona to state that frac sand as an industry was not good for southeastern Minnesota. The judge told Matthew that he couldn't draw causal effect from our actions to these but Matthew concluded his testimony stating about his arrest, "It was the only decision I could do as a moral person."

Day 2 at the Frac Sand Trial

Day Two: Prosecution Brings It's Case

"This case is ONLY about trespassing. Being on private property, being asked to leave, refusing to leave. That's what this case is about, nothing more!" The Winona Prosecutor,  Michael Flaherty kept his opening argument brief and moved quickly to his first witness, Dan Nisbit, owner of CD Corporation, a "bulk commodities company" which leases land from the City of Winona, MN in order to ship silica (frac) sand on barges down the Mississippi River. His operation can handle up to 120 truckloads of frac sand a day to fill two barges. When asked if he is aware of health risks associated with silica sand, he states, "I've seen some pamphlets". He told the jury his employees do not wear any special respiratory equipment while work at his Port of Winona facility. He did say the protesters offered him donuts on the day of the arrest last April 29 and that we were "polite and respectful". "They [the protesters] shut our operation down."

Next on the stand was the owner of the sand washing facility across town where other activists also blockaded frac sand-hauling trucks. Robert Hemker also leases his property from someone else. He has a dredging operation for sand and gravel and equipment to screen, wash, size, and separate loads of silica sand that is trucked to his site from Wisconsin. His operation usually handles 80 trucks per day except in the cold season. When asked, he allowed that he uses 80 to 100,000 gallons of water in his sand washing operation but says he recycles and reuses almost all of it - maybe 1,000 gallons might be lost to evaporation or retained in the sand. When he was called to his site by employees who told him protesters were there, he described finding a "dinner table" set up by the scales used to weigh the sand-hauling trucks with food and "babies crawling on the ground." He was offered food by the protesters (he declined) but agreed they were "peaceful and polite." There was "nothing threatening; they weren't throwing rocks or anything."

The Deputy Chief of Police testified about how they run driver's license or other photo ID through their computers to state-run databases to confirm the identities of those arrested. The next witness was an Investigator from the Winona Police department. Each of the following police or sheriff's officers called to the two protest scenes were questioned about what they saw, what they did, and were asked to identify photocopies made of the driver's licenses given to arresting officers. Some officers making the arrests did not hear the "warning" given by the officer in charge of the site. Other officers issued citations to people they hadn't "arrested." Some officers wrote the citations on site, others after persons were transported to the Law Enforcement Center (jail). Some were transported by the arresting officer, others were placed in a jail van and transported by others. All testified the demonstration and arrests were done peacefully and courteously. We were described as cooperative.

My arresting officer, Jim Sjoberg told the jury, "they were peaceful and nonviolent. Mr. Clemens said he respected me as a police officer." One officer couldn't remember which of the 3 men he processed he "arrested" and which he "cited" back at the LEC. To get a proper conviction for trespass, we need to be told we are on private property, asked to leave, and refuse to do so. If the arresting officer doesn't give the defendant the warning and the opportunity to leave, the procedure is flawed - especially when a sharp lawyer like Richmond McCluer is sitting at the defense table. After his closing statement, I'm sure the Winona Police Department will order all their officers to take a remedial arrest procedure class for future mass arrests.

From this vantage point mid- trial, besides the 6 case dismissals already, I'm fairly confident up to one third of the remaining defendants are likely to be acquitted due to sloppy police work. We'd rather "win" on the basis of conscience and principle but acquittals for many might encourage other local folk to consider civil disobedience as one of their options.

Keep posted - tomorrow we remaining defendants get our chance to tell our stories to the jury. A jury of 7 women and one Catholic priest, ages 30, 41, 44, 52, 56, 56, 57, and 64.

Day 1 of Frac Sand Trial in Winona, MN

When Law Becomes An Idol by Steve Clemens. Feb. 3, 2014

"I don't have an opinion about it (frac sand mining)"
"I've remained neutral"
"It is ok to speak out - but you must do it within the law."
"You have a right to speak out as long as you follow the rules."
"I know nothing about frac sand ... But I'm a mother and [I know] anyone can lie to me."
"You have the right to speak out if you have something to say. ... I don't know much about the frac sand issue."
"I have no opinion on frac sand one way or another. ... There is a time and place to speak out - it must be controlled - but with breaking the law, something must be done."
"People have a right to speak their minds but [you must] stay within the law."
"I don't know a thing about frac sand. ... A lot of people across the river [in Wisconsin] are upset about frac sand. ... It is OK to speak if you do it by the law and don't cause a lot of trouble."
"I don't know the truth about frac sand ... It does give people jobs ... I am disturbed about what it is doing to the landscape - what is removed will never grow back. I don't know about health issues."
"I don't read newspapers. ... I know very little about frac sand. ... I have never spoken out [in protest against anything] ... If there was a law broken ....
"I have spoken out about prevention of child abuse. ... I am interested in the legal process."
"We need to become more independent regarding energy. It would give us jobs. ... [Whatever is done must be] within the boundaries of the law."
"I have no knowledge about frac sand, I don't understand any of it. ... I did go to a Women's Rights protest in 1981 but I'd never do something like that now! ... It made a difference."
" I've seen the headlines in the newspaper but never read much about the issue."

There were 17 Winona County citizens called forth for the jury panel from which we would help select the six jurors (and two alternates) who would hear our testimony and decide our fates. Of the 35 arrested last April for nonviolently blocking frac sand trucks, 3 had the charges dropped, 2 asked to be tried in absentia, and several did not show up for court (no reason given but I know at least two of them are out of the country after our original court date in December was cancelled after a Judge recused herself). This leaves 21-23 defendants who now face the possibility of up to 3 months in jail and/or a $1000 fine and possible restitution for misdemeanor criminal trespass.

Time after time, prospective jurors were asked by Mr. McClure what opinions they had formed about the frac sand industry and whether they had ever engaged in public advocacy or public protest of any kind. Most of the panelists felt it was "OK" for others to give their opinion/protest but quickly added the qualifier: as long as you don't break the law. It was as if the Martin Luther King holiday two weeks prior to our trial was completely out of mind. Dr. King, notorious for being arrested for civil disobedience, used his law-breaking as a way to expose the cancers of racism, materialism, and violence as a way to change both hearts (public opinion) as well as laws. His willingness to suffer the indignities of jail, derision, and violence provided a moral credibility to his campaigns for social change and justice.

We merely hope to follow in the path that he, Dorothy Day, Cesar Chavez, Dan Berrigan, and many others have blazed. How will our jury and Judge respond?

Remembering Ladon Sheats, Peacemaker

Ladon Sheats, Presente! By Steve Clemens. August 2012

It is now 10 years that have gone by since my friend and mentor Ladon Sheats passed over to the other side after a brief but significant battle with an aggressive cancer at age 68. Shepherded through hospice care by my friends Ched, Catholic Workers, and many others, his body was buried in a simple hand-dug grave similar to his own mentor, Clarence Jordan. Ched told me how an eagle flew overhead during their service, a sign of welcome for this gentle peacemaker to the great cloud of witnesses.

My first encounter with Ladon Sheats was during my week of orientation in Akron, PA in September 1974 for my up-coming year of Voluntary Service with Mennonite Central Committee. After spending my summer in rural Mississippi with MCC and MDS (Mennonite Disaster Service), my friend and neighbor Walton Hackman asked me if I was willing and interested in spending a year volunteering at the MCC Peace Section's Washington, DC office on Capitol Hill. Just weeks earlier President Nixon had resigned in disgrace as the Watergate scandal exposed the rot at the center of our national government.

Ladon was on a speaking trip from his home at Koinonia Farm outside Americus, GA and he spoke with passion (and compassion) and conviction. He showed a multi-media presentation using two slide projectors, music by cassette tape, and his spoken narrative which contrasted the values of "The Kingdom of God" and that of America in the final years of the war against the people of Vietnam. Quoting liberally from Clarence's "Cotton Patch" translation of the New Testament, Ladon showed and told us that the American values of "rugged individualism" (exemplified by a photo of John Wayne and Simon & Garfunkel's song, “I Am A Rock"), materialism, and militarism were thoroughly contradicted by the values put forth my Jesus about the Kingdom of God. Interdependence, cooperation and sharing, and compassion with nonviolence were the marks of a radical follower or disciple of the Man From Nazareth – what a contrast with America’s values!

As the slide projector screen flashed pictures of Madison Avenue ads, lynchings of black men and boys, napalm and bombs being dropped from the skies over Indo-China, I could hear Ladon weeping as he told us we had to Choose which values we would live by. The song by Cat Stevens, "Father and Son" played in the background with the refrain "It's not time to make a change, just relax, take it easy; you're still young, it's not your fault, there's so much you have to go through" : the voice of the father trying to salvage for his son the remnants of the crumbling American Dream. But the son tells him, "I have to go away."

Ladon's passion was so great because of what he had given up when he left the corporate ladder-climbing as an up-and-coming executive of IBM (today we'd say he was punching his ticket to enter the 1%) to move to southwest Georgia to be part of a small, struggling inter-racial community committed to economic sharing, nonviolence, racial reconciliation, service to others, and "simple living" as an expression of Christian discipleship.

It was the first time I had heard about Koinonia Partners and the experiment in Christian intentional community that Ladon told us Clarence Jordan had described as a "demonstration plot" of what living out the values of God's Kingdom could look like. It created such a strong impression in this life of a young man about to turn 24 the next month that I moved there as soon as my 1-year commitment in Washington was complete.

I didn't encounter Ladon again until the following March when we shared a jail cell together for the 5-6 hours it took to book us for our arrest on the lawn of the White House in what was to be the last mass arrest of the Vietnam War. There were 61 of us including Liz Macalister, Dan Berrigan, Jim Peck, and Dick Gregory - but it was Ladon Sheats who helped bolster my courage that day in my first attempt to risk arrest for the sake of the Gospel and it's values.

What I discovered (and later re-discovered 6 years later when we spent a week together in a 6-person cell in a county jail in Amarillo, TX after praying inside the fence of the plant that was the final assembly point for all US nuclear weapons) was that Ladon's intensity as a nonviolent resister melted into a joking, hilarious cell mate who loved to relax and laugh.

Many of my friends told me they found Ladon too intense, too serious, always challenging himself and others to "take the next steps" in nonviolent resistance to the American way of death - but had they shared a cell with him, they could have discovered a whole different dimension to him. I think it was because he knew he was in the place where he knew he should be. He had learned from Clarence Jordan that if you hadn't been called a "communist" or had your life threatened, you probably weren't following the Jesus he experienced in the pages of the Bible.

After spending many 1-year sentences for nonviolent resistance in Federal Prison, Ladon would go to the monastery in Snowmass, CO to have time to pray, reflect, and gain strength for the next witness for peace. He often traveled around the country visiting friends and working odd jobs like house painting to earn some of the little money he needed. All his possessions were in his backpack.

One of my favorite memories was when he came through Minneapolis after our family had moved here and my sons were still quite young. I had a wordless children's story book called "The Great Escape" which showed a very determined prisoner escaping from his jail cell or prison over and over again. Ladon would have Zach sitting on his knee while Micah looked on from the side as Ladon turned the pages and together the three of them would make up the stories of this intrepid resister.

Ladon was a man of compassion. Gentle. Humble. With a clear vision of a call to be a Peacemaker. 10 years have passed. I miss him deeply, yet he is ever-present. Ladon Sheats, Presente!

Journey into Peacemaking

Journey into Peacemaking – presentation to People of Faith Peacemakers. October 26, 2011 – Steve Clemens

My journey into peacemaking has been a progression from a purely personal stand (registering as a Conscientious Objector during the Vietnam War draft) to understanding it must inform my politics and sociology as well. Spending the next summer on the streets of Philadelphia with street gangs helped me realize that my “pacifism” had to extend to the rest of my life – not just in wartime. John Howard Yoder’s books, The Politics of Jesus (1972) and The Original Revolution, helped me understand how to link my ethical stand with the life and witness of Jesus.

In joining public protest at the local Draft Board in my college town of Wheaton, IL (led by a Catholic priest from the Maryknoll Seminary), I was forced to broaden my narrow circle of Evangelicalism to include other traditions. My rigid theology defining who was “saved” and who was not was the next piece of my upbringing that I was forced to jettison. Next, I was challenged to stop demonizing our national political and religious leaders and instead of anger and rage at them, I was encouraged to focus on compassion for the victims of war and injustice.

Throughout my early years of embracing peacemaking and nonviolence, I continued to draw inspiration from others who shared my faith-based values. One important voice was that of William Stringfellow, an Episcopalian lawyer who practiced in Harlem and was a close friend of the Berrigan brothers. His 1973 book, An Ethic For Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land was pivotal in helping me understand the nature of what the Apostle Paul called “the Principalities and Powers” and what Stringfellow called the idolatry of National Security. Stringfellow’s contention that institutions as well as individuals were affected by the Biblical concept of the Fall helped me focus on structural and institutional violence rather than just individual political leaders or military officers.

Next, when I doing (voluntary) Alternative Service with the Mennonites in Washington, DC, I joined a year-long Bible study group led by Phil Berrigan and Liz Macalister from Jonah House Community which introduced me not only to the “Catholic Left” but also the writings and insight of Abraham Joshua Heschel, the Jewish theologian and cohort of Martin Luther King Jr. We read Heschel’s masterpiece, The Prophets and discussed how we were being called to undertake prophetic witness today. Under Liz’s gentle prodding, I decided to take a next step and risk arrest and possible jail sentence by protesting the Vietnam War inside the grounds of the White House just one month before the war finally ended with the fall of Saigon. I was arrested with Dick Gregory, Dan Berrigan, Jim Peck, Liz Macalister, and Ladon Sheats – people who became guides and mentors for me for the journey ahead.

It was the decision to risk arrest and jail that finally convinced my conservative evangelical parents that my “different path” might not signal my rejection of Christianity for radical politics: people didn’t usually risk jail for just “politics” – maybe my proclamations that I was acting on my faith, although different from theirs, might be what was behind what they first thought was merely “youthful rebellion”. My decision to continue on a different path by moving to an intentional Christian community in south Georgia, Koinonia Partners, reaffirmed that direction. This ecumenical community embraced commitments to nonviolence, racial reconciliation, simple living, service to others, and Christian discipleship.

I arrived in Georgia just as the 1976 political campaigns were beginning to gel and I lived only 7 miles from Plains, GA, home of Jimmy Carter. My year with the Jonah House folk, coupled with Stringfellow’s insights, kept me from buying into the illusion that “personal piety” and integrity were capable of repairing the politics of the Watergate mess. Stringfellow, writing in an early issue of Sojourners Magazine observed that electing a moral person to an immoral position – that of Commander-in-Chief of a successor to the Babylonian Empire – was an illusion – putting moral people in places of wickedness. In the same issue, John Howard Yoder opined that voting was actually one of the least significant political acts that Christians should engage in – feeding the poor and working for justice and stopping the wars were far more important than voting.

In the summer of 1980, I traveled to a national Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) conference held in Berea, KY. I rode the bus there with my new friend, Murphy Davis, who was in the process of forming a new Christian community now known as The Open Door Community in Atlanta, GA. At the conference, an old-time Southern Baptist preacher and writer, Will Campbell, led a workshop on visiting prisoners. He told us that there were very few specific commands Jesus gave us but one of the most explicit is that we must visit those in prison. Murphy, who with her husband, Eduard Loring, were heavily engaged in visiting and advocating for the growing number of men on Georgia’s Death Row, said she’d find someone for me “who needed a visitor/friend.” It began a 10-year relationship for me (and later for my wife, Christine) with Bob Redd – a man who had been on Death Row already for several years. After our sons were born in 1983 and 1986, Bob asked if we would bring them along for our visits on Death Row and to see the joy on his face when he met them and played with them is something I’ll never forget! It also led me to holding vigil at our Sumter County Courthouse with a full-size replica of an electric chair every time Georgia executed one of its prisoners. Our small group of prayerful vigilers were often jeered and cursed at by those passing-by.  

In the Fall of 1980, my friend Ladon Sheats, who had moved from Koinonia to Jonah House just a month before I moved to the South, approached me and asked if I’d consider joining him and a few others in what might be a very dangerous undertaking. (At the time, I was not aware of the plans for the first Plowshares action at King of Prussia, PA where later that month the Berrigan brothers and several others would put hammers to nuclear weapons – but Ladon must have known since he lived in community with Phil Berrigan.)  Ladon instead felt the call to pray at the physical site of the assembly of all the US nuclear weapons, the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, TX. He asked me to pray about joining him and to discuss it with my wife, my community, and our families. This was further complicated with the sudden onset of my father-in-law’s leukemia, culminating with his death four months later, just weeks before the planned nonviolent prayer witness. Christine and I spent our Christmas vacation in Pennsylvania, shuttling between our two families, sharing with them my sense of call to take this next risky step.

Writing letters to our families as well as to my community during our four-day pre-action weekend of preparation helped steel me for the emotional roller coaster of contemplating my own death in the event of Pantex guards firing on us with their tank, bazookas, or rifles which guarded the alleged most-secure US facility. Choosing to act on my faith rather than my fears gave me a sense of liberation that is hard to describe. As we drove up to the area where we would attempt to scale the dual 12-foot fences topped with barbed wire, although the adrenalin was pumping, I never felt more at peace with my decision to try to pray for peace by being physically present at a place incarnating death. The following six months in the county jail and then Federal prison were grace-filled and taught me a new appreciation for reading the Bible in the context of prison – it gave the Psalms, Jeremiah, Revelations, and Paul’s epistles – books written in prison or exile - a whole new meaning for me.

Acting on my faith rather than my fears only helped increase my faith. Clarence Jordan, one of the founders of the intentional Christian community where I lived used to say that fear is the polio of the soul that keeps us from walking by faith. He went on to say that faith is not acting in spite of the evidence but rather in scorn of the consequences.

It wasn’t until I moved from the Potter County Jail to Federal Prison that I learned that the Roman Catholic Bishop of Amarillo, Leroy Matthieson, had visited Fr. Larry Rosebaugh – one of the six of us – in the jail at the behest of a parishioner whose conscience was troubled when he heard about our nonviolent witness at the place of his employment. Several months later, this Bishop took the unbelievably courageous stand and called for “all people of conscience to quit their jobs” at Pantex and he set up a fund in the diocese to help any families do such! He later joined Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen and Tom Gumbleton in pushing the National Conference of Catholic Bishops to issue the Peace Pastoral Letter against nuclear weapons the following year. 

This experiment in peacemaking was also very important for our intentional community and I think we both grew in our understanding of risks we could take for peace. I think the shock (for some) of our 6-month to one-year sentences helped many to realize the seriousness of this undertaking. We learned how the call of resistance affects the rest of the community and this was a big step which helped enable another step a few years later.

When several other community members chose to spend a week in the DC jail with me instead of paying a $50 fine for praying for peace in the Capitol Rotunda in 1983, it helped the community see that others shared the call to take similar risks. One of the things which was reinforced for me during that week in jail together was how important music has been for me in resistance work. When we were preparing for the Pantex witness, I had just learned the song “Be Not Afraid”. (“Be not afraid; I go before you always. Come, follow me, and I will give you rest. …”). We sang it together as the Pantex guards pointed their automatic rifles at us as we awaited arrest. In the Peace Pentecost witness in the Capitol Rotunda coordinated by my friends at Sojourners, Henri Nouwen taught us new songs he had just brought back from South Africa as well as songs from the Taize Community in France. We learned “Freedom is Coming”, “We Are Marching in the Light of God”, and “It Doesn’t Matter If You Should Jail Us (we are freed and kept alive by hope)” from the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. The 400+ of us herded into the holding cells of the DC Jail the first night after our arrest sang those songs back and forth between the men’s and the women’s holding cells to keep up our spirits and solidarity. Then when the 50 of us continued in jail for the week, those songs were a constant reminder not only of our witness against nuclear weapons in the US Capitol but also our linkage with brothers and sisters in South Africa who were also struggling nonviolently for change.

Also in the early 1980s we learned of the prophetic witness of Jim and Shelly Douglass and the Ground Zero Community in the Seattle area of Washington State choosing to block trains carrying nuclear weapons to the submarine base located in Bangor, WA. They taught us about “The White Train” which transported nuclear warheads to the submarines from the Pantex Plant in Texas. By tracking the train from state-to-state and city-to-city via a network of activists, we learned that the notorious White Train would also head east to resupply the Poseidon submarines at Charlestown, SC and later the new Trident subs at a new naval base being built at King’s Bay, GA just near the Florida state line.

After tracking the train for several years and holding candlelight vigils, I felt led to take another risk for peace by attempting to block the train as it came through our state of Georgia. Having followed the train for numerous harrowing trips where we were always harassed by US Marshalls who escorted the train with their Bronco SUVs, we decided on the small town of Montezuma, GA, about a half-hours drive from the Koinonia community. After several meetings with the head of security for the CSX Railroad, the local Police Chief, and the Oglethorpe County Sheriff to politely but firmly describe our plans as well as our commitment to disciplined nonviolence, six of us calmly walked towards the tracks as the train (which had to slow down considerably before coming down the Main Street of this small town) approached us at only a few miles per hour. The police chose to arrest us before the train came to a complete stop which led us to chose noncooperation with them as we had informed them we would if arrested before the train physically stopped. In the haste to carry us off to jail (and to allow the train to pass), one of the six, and husband of the only woman in our group, a fellow Koinonia community member with me, was left behind as the “paddy wagon” hauled us off! (He later joined the next group to block the train about 9 months later.) We chose to fast in the jail and after a court appearance a week later, we were released with a promise to return for trial – a trial which never occurred due to a gross violation of our rights by the Judge prior to our arrest. (But that, and the death threats our family received, are another, much longer story.)

Looking back, my wife and I realized our second son was conceived the day I was released from jail so no one can say nothing constructive ever comes from acts of civil disobedience!

But having young children and parenting responsibilities are factors that must be taken into consideration in choosing to risk arrest, particularly when lengthy jail time and/or one’s physical safety might also be a consequence. Micah, my oldest son, came to visit me at the County Jail with Christine after the White Train action but at 1 ½ years old, he was more interested in the Sheriff’s bloodhounds in the cage next to our prison visiting yard than in seeing his Dad. Even though Christine has never been arrested, she has been an absolutely essential partner for me all during my “criminal” career. To show the change which had occurred in our community since the original skepticism when I proposed the Pantex witness about five years earlier, the entire Partnership (the name of our community members) carpooled over to the jail to sing and pray outside one evening in lieu of their regular Partner meeting. Katy and I were very touched by that gesture from our fellow Partners.

To fast forward into my journey, our family moved to Minnesota in 1990 for a Sabbatical Year and then chose to remain here and join the Community of St. Martin. It was a difficult decision to leave our commitments to our “family-of-choice” behind in Georgia (although we didn’t mind leaving the heat and humidity). We experienced the loss as somewhat akin to what others have experienced in a marital divorce and, still today, I deeply miss the close fellowship and sense of partnership we experience for 16 and 20 years respectively. It was the place where we met, married, and started our family. When you’ve worked, worshipped, and got arrested with folk over many years, those bonds are hard to replace.

However, as I gradually got involved with the Alliant ACTION vigil circle, the Lake Street Bridge vigil, WAMM, Pax Christi, and several other groups here in the Twin Cities, they have become a new family for us. As the war threats against Iraq (again!) began to surface in August of 2002, Kathy Kelly came to speak at Loring Park, having just returned from another delegation to Iraq in defiance of the economic sanctions. She described a vision of people of faith, peacemakers, traveling to Iraq just to stand side-by-side the Iraqi civilians, in solidarity and friendship, as our bombs were falling – taking risks with them – letting them know that not all Americans were their enemies. I came home excited about the challenge and the prospect of another concrete way to stand for peace. Also, my sons had by then entered high school and college and I felt freer to take on some additional risk. I have to be honest: it was a much harder sell with Christine this time – and with one of my sons as well. In forming a small “discernment group” of friends from the Community of St. Martin, one of them, Peter Thompson, a former Federal Prosecutor, Public Defender, and Criminal Defense Attorney, told me he was discerning that he should join me – but his wife was even more reticent than mine! As a compromise, we agreed to try to limit our time in Iraq to only two weeks although the time we were going, early December, would coincide with the deadline date the United Nations and the US had given Saddam Hussein to release all the documents about “weapons of mass destruction” – December 8^th. Many of us thought the war might start that night or the next day – little did we know that he would release those documents – and, more surprisingly, we have all later discovered that he had no WMDs – just like the UN weapons inspectors had said! Two days later, on Kathy Kelly’s 50^th birthday and the day the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded, she was invited to meet with the Deputy Prime Minister and former Foreign Minister, Tarik Aziz and told she could bring “some of her friends with her”.

This trip of solidarity continues to be important as I got to visit the area where depleted uranium was used in the first Gulf War and to visit the Children’s Hospital in Basrah where the doctors introduced us to children whose cancers, they believed, were resultant from their exposure to the radioactive dust left behind by these weapons built and sold by Alliant Techsystems. I made a solemn pledge to the Iraqis I traveled with to the Highway of Death area that I would do all I could, nonviolently, to try to prevent these weapons from being used again – after tearfully asking for their forgiveness for their use in 1991 by my nation. As we hugged and cried together, we also felt the bonds of recommitment for the long struggle ahead.

It was just a little more than 8 years later that Kathy contacted me again to travel to a war zone. She had met Afghan young people on her two previous trips to Afghanistan who were being mentored by a doctor from Singapore committed to Gandhian nonviolence. Going by the name Hakim, this doctor met people from the Bamiyan Province when they were in a refugee camp in Quetta, Pakistan where this doctor was working as a public health physician. When the refugees were able to return to Bamiyan, he returned with them, having learned Dari, their language, to supplement his fluency in both Mandarin and English. Kathy asked Hakim and the group of young peacemakers he mentors called the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers how other peacemakers around the globe could support them. They told her that a tangible sign of solidarity would be to plant trees together for peace – on the first day of Spring, which is also the Persian New Year which is once again celebrated in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is out of political power.

They also stated that they wished to do an inter-ethnic peace march in the capital city to model the need for an end to ethnic and tribal and religious rivalries. They indicated that they did not wish to have internationals join that march, as they wanted it to be a clear call for peace in Afghanistan by the Afghans themselves. So just one day before we arrived, 28 of us from Germany, Australia, and the US, 40 young people – Hazara, Pashtun, Uzbeki, Tajik, Turkmen, and others, Sunni and Shia and those who identify as humanist – marched from the Iranian Embassy to the Embassy of the United Nations, in the heart of Kabul. The police were amazed that this protest was not accompanied by the usual “death to so-and-so” chants with angry fists up in the air but rather smiles to the police, telling them, “We can be friends”. It was inspiring to me to take relatively small risks (compared to their daily lives – especially when they are in the presence of westerners) to stand in solidarity with them. We continue to keep in contact almost monthly through Skype calls and FaceBook.

I have found that the use of pictures helps people connect with others on a non-rational level. I use my blog entries to try to help demystify nonviolent resistance actions, arrest, and jail so others realize they too might be able to consider these strategies in their own work as peacemakers. In my desire to stand in solidarity with the actual and potential victims of war, including traveling to war zones, it is likely we will have to take risks which others can’t afford to do. We have to consider the costs of peacemaking. Dan Berrigan reminds us that the costs of making peace are at least as costly as making war and there is no peace because there are few peacemakers. (read quote from No Bars to Manhood)

In our desire to be peacemakers, we must resist our culture’s obsession with rugged individualism and the Lone Ranger mentality; instead, we must envelope ourselves with small communities of challenge and support in order to be about prophetic witness. John Howard Yoder reminds us that we are not responsible to “make history come out right” – that is God’s job. We are called to try to be faithful rather than only striving to be effective. Yoder goes on to say, however, if God is really sovereign, than what is faithful will always be effective in the long run.

However, part of all of this is acting confessionally rather than dogmatically. We need to guard against self-righteousness and as Quaker leader John Woolman observed, we need to see what are the seeds of war, injustice, and slavery within our own lives. Our political leaders have embraced weapons of domination because they feel this is what the people want. We need to embrace lifestyles which do not need “defending” against others. Clarence Jordan used to talk about the “incarnational theology” of Jesus. Jesus modeled for us what our relationship to God can be. In Clarence’s CottonPatch translation, he tells us that “Jesus parked his mobile home next to ours.” What we need to do is incarnate our peacemaking.

One final observation: it is important that we recognize that peacemaking involves both saying YES and saying NO. Dan Berrigan in a beautiful poem, No and Yes and the Whole Damned Thing, observes that we stand on the dark side, waiting for our NO to be swallowed up in God’s YES, the resurrection.

I want to end with several images – first of some of my mentors, then of some of those on the receiving end of our empire of domination and destruction.