Category: Just Peacemaking

Grandma Drone Resister Appealing While being Remanded to Prison

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(Press Release) Mary Anne Grady FloresHancock drone resister and grandmother Mary Anne Grady Flores will be taken into custody on Tuesday, January 19 at the Town of DeWitt Court at 5400 Butternut Drive, East Syracuse, NY. Her lead Attorney, Lance Salisbury, will speak at the 4:30pm press conference at the court. Grady Flores appears before the court at 5pm.

On May 16, 2014, Grady Flores was convicted of violating an order of protection while taking pictures of eight Catholics nonviolently protesting the US drone assassination program at the Hancock Air Base in DeWitt, New York on Ash Wednesday, February 13, 2013. DeWitt Judge David Gideon sentenced Mary Anne to one year in prison and fined her $1000, but she was released on bail while her appeal was pending.  All eight Catholic drone resisters arrested that Ash Wednesday were acquitted, by a judge who asserted that the protesters intended to uphold law, not break it. Continue reading “Grandma Drone Resister Appealing While being Remanded to Prison” →

A Double Stance

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AORFrom Elaine Enns & Ched Myers in their 2nd Volume of Ambassadors of Reconciliation (2009).  Enns & Myers direct Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries, hosting their annual February Kinsler Institute from February 15-19–this year’s theme is Landscapes of Trauma, Stories of Healing: Women in Luke’s Gospel—ONLY 2 MORE DAYS to register:

To secure peace with justice, whether locally or globally, requires that peacemakers assume a double stance. On one hand, we must be close enough to a given conflict that we can identify the particularities of each party and situation, which calls for the approach of community organizers, social workers and pastors. On the other hand, we also need to step back enough to see the influence of larger historical, social and ideological forces, requiring the skills of social analysis and advocacy. Holistic peacemaking cannot ignore any of these competences or perspectives if it is to be transformative. And if we do not experiment with alternatives, we are left with the retributive solutions of sheriffs and the prison system, which merely manage the inevitable conflicts generated by a dysfunctional society.

2015 Ohio River Valley Catholic Worker & Christian Intentional Community Gathering

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cwBy Ross Martinie Eileer
The children were the best dancers at the 2015 Ohio River Valley Catholic Worker & Christian Intentional Community Gathering, although they faced fierce competition.  Most (but not all) of the dancing occurred Saturday night at the lakeside, where the music was illuminated by moonlight and punctuated by persistent frog harrumphs.
The Gathering was held at the Solsberry Hill retreat center outside of Bloomington Indiana and hosted nearly seventy people (and three wolves) from fourteen communities located in or near the Ohio river valley, particularly Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and the great state of Chicago.

Continue reading “2015 Ohio River Valley Catholic Worker & Christian Intentional Community Gathering” →

Wisconsin Walk for Peace and Justice: Nine Arrested at Volk Field

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Let-it-Shine-peace-walk-photoBy Joy First, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance    August 26, 2015

Voices for Creative Nonviolence engaged with a number of Wisconsin peace groups to organize an 8-day 90-mile walk across southwest Wisconsin from August 18-25.  The purpose of the walk was to call attention and make connections between the militarized police violence at home and the military using violence abroad through drone warfare and by other means.  In both cases the victims are people of color, which forces us to reflect on the systemic racism of our society.

The walk began at the City/County/Jail complex in Madison on August 18.  Dane County has one of the highest rates of racial disparity of any county in the country on many issues, including when it comes to incarceration – hence starting the walk at the jail.  In fact, in order to make the prison population match the general population in Dane County, we would need to release 350 Black people.  This is horrific, especially when we understand that so many people of color are in jail for nonviolent crimes and crimes of poverty that could better be solved by more positive interventions.  It is up to all of us to stand up with our brothers and sisters and proclaim that “Black Lives Matter!” Continue reading “Wisconsin Walk for Peace and Justice: Nine Arrested at Volk Field” →

Aug. 6 Pentagon Witness- 5 Arrested

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IMG_20150806_081948_919A message from Art Laffin, of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in Washington DC

Dear Friends,

To commemorate the 70th year since the U.S. began the Nuclear Age by dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, 30 friends from the Atlantic Life Community and other peace groups participated on August 6 in an early morning peace witness at the Pentagon that was organized by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. The group carried signs, photos of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing, and banners, two of which read: “Remember the Past, Repent the Sin, Reclaim the Future–Hiroshima and Nagasaki” and “Abolish Nuclear Weapons.” The group then processed from Army-Navy Drive to the regular protest site near the Pentagon metro station. While most people entered the police designated protest area, five of our community remained on the sidewalk a good distance behind the main procession, and were prevented by police from walking any further. They proceeded to kneel or stand  across the sidewalk, holding photos of Hiroshima victims, as several people spread ashes on the pavement. Bill Streit, Nancy Gowen, Kathy Boylan and Andrea Eiland were arrested within ten minutes. Steve Baggarly, who handed out at least of dozen leaflets about the conversion of Fr. George Zabelka, the Enola Gay military chaplain, was also arrested for leafleting. They were all charged with “disobeying a lawful order.” Steve was given an additional charge under a “soliciting” statute. They were all  processed and released after several hours. They were given a trial date of October 1 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA.    Continue reading “Aug. 6 Pentagon Witness- 5 Arrested” →

When Nonviolence Is Preached

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coatesFrom TA-NEHISI COATES:

When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is “correct” or “wise,” any more than a forest fire can be “correct” or “wise.” Wisdom isn’t the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the community.

Canada Guilty of Cultural Genocide Against Indigenous Peoples

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4By: Chris Sabas. Chris  identifies as a Follower of The Way, Anglican, but also Catholic Worker, mystic, former attorney (owned own law firm in U.S., with almost 10 years of living in a courtroom before the Gospel awakening). Now a reservist with Christian Peacemaker Teams (“CPT”) and an At-Large Member of CPT’s Steering Committee.

Today is truly a historic…but somber day in and for Canada.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (“TRC”) released its long anticipated report today, finding Canada guilty of cultural genocide against Indigenous Peoples by way of the state sponsored, and church run Indian Residential Schools. Continue reading “Canada Guilty of Cultural Genocide Against Indigenous Peoples” →

The War on Drugs Fails

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gabor mateFrom Gabor Mate in In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction (2009):

The War on Drugs fails—-and is doomed to perpetual failure—-because it is directed not against the root causes of drug addiction or of the international black market in drugs, but only against some drug producers, traffickers, and users. More fundamentally, the war is doomed because neither the methods of war nor the war metaphor itself is appropriate to a complex social problem that calls for compassion, self-searching insight, and factually researched scientific understanding.