[Pacg] Father John Dear in Clinton, Sunday, Oct 7th

[Carolina 1961]

*Father John Dear is scheduled to speak in Clinton, IA*
*Sunday, Oct. 7, from 1:00 - 4:30 p.m., at the *
*VGrande, 2141 - 16th Street NW.*

 Below is an article in COMMON DREAMS magazine by Father John Dear.  *Rev.
John Dear is a Jesuit priest, pastor, retreat leader, and author of twenty
five books on peace and nonviolence, including most recently, "
Transfiguration<http://www.amazon.com/dp/038551008X?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=038551008X&adid=1E5GBBZH8DG4MX8191ME&>"
(Doubleday, with a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, available from
www.amazon.com<http://www.amazon.com/dp/038551008X?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=038551008X&adid=1E5GBBZH8DG4MX8191ME&>).
He is featured in a new DVD film, "The Narrow Path," with music by Joan Baez
and Jackson Browne (at www.sandamianofoundation.org), and writes a weekly
column for the National Catholic Reporter at www.ncrcafe.org. He lives in
northern New Mexico. For information, see: www.fatherjohndear.org*
The article is also re-printed below.


http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/09/3711/

'Guilty!' — Of Trying to See Our Senator
 by Rev. John Dear

On Thursday, September 6th, 2007, six of us were found guilty in Federal
court in Albuquerque, NM by a Federal judge for trying to visit the office
of our senator. We will be sentenced in a few weeks. The message? It is a
Federal crime to attempt to speak to an elected Republican about the U.S.
war on Iraq. Don't visit your senator. Don't get involved. Don't speak out.
Don't take a stand for peace–or you too may end up in jail.

It all started one year ago, on September 26, 2006, when nine of us entered
the Federal Building in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and tried to take the elevator
to the third floor to the office of Senator Pete Domenici to present him
with a copy of the "Declaration of Peace," a national petition campaign
aimed at stopping the U.S. war on Iraq, bringing our troops home, and
pursuing nonviolent alternatives and reparations. Over three hundred seventy
five similar actions took place across the nation that week.

The Senator's office manager came downstairs, said she would only allow
three of us upstairs, and after forty five minutes of waiting and
negotiations, we nine just decided to go upstairs, figuring we had a right
as group of constituents to deliver our petition to the Senator's office.

As we stepped onto the elevator, a policeman put his foot in the door, and
the next thing we knew, the power was turned off. So there we stayed–for
some six hours. At one point, a police officer brought over a chair for one
elderly member of our group who uses metal crutches. It seemed the officer
was inviting us to make ourselves at home. He even said he supported our
anti-war stand.

By the end of that memorable day, with over twenty police officers, SWAT
teams, and FBI officials standing in the lobby, the Homeland Security
director told us we had the choice to be arrested, jailed and tried, or
cited and tried. He never gave us a warning, never told us to leave, never
read us our rights. We took the citations, and for the past year, have been
in and out of court, waiting to testify about our attempt to visit the
Senator's office.

The prosecution would hear none of it. As far as the prosecutor was
concerned, we went there to disrupt the Federal Building and shut down the
elevator. He seemed to think we liked being in an elevator. He, of course,
had been a marine for decades, and now commands a national guard unit, and
was just back two days before the trial from directing military operations
in Colorado Springs. He called the police and the senator's assistant to
testify against us. They said we had plenty of warning, said we threatened
to do a sit in, and said we disrupted the government's office work.

Then it was our turn. One by one we took the stand–Philip, Michella, Sansi,
Ellie, Bud and me. Our excellent pro bono lawyers, Todd Hotchkiss and Penni
Adrian, asked us why we went to the Federal Building and what happened. We
each testified that we intended to bring a copy of the "Declaration of
Peace" statement to the senator's office, in the hope that it could be faxed
to him, that he would sign it, and that he would work to stop this evil war.


During my testimony, I was asked about the lists of names I brought with me
that day. I had printed out the name of every U.S. soldier killed in Iraq,
and some ten thousand Iraqi civilians killed, and said I thought they would
help remind us why we were there, that perhaps we might leave them with the
Senator's staff. The judge interrupted me and asked if I carried those names
around with me all the time. While unfortunately it's now all too common for
many of us to spend our time at demonstrations reading the names of the
dead, I held back from saying, "Yes, don't you? Don't you care about the U.S.
soldiers who've been killed, and the countless, innocent Iraqi civilians
killed?" Instead, I said I always carried with me information about the war
and how to stop it.

It was a grueling, exhausting eight hour day. At the end, the judge returned
with his verdict but then launched into a speech explaining why he believed
the police and the senator's staff person, and not us, particularly, not me.
He said the fact that I carried with me the names of every U.S. soldier
killed and some ten thousand Iraqi civilians killed proved I intended to be
there a long time, and shut down business in the Federal Building. He
basically called us all liars, and defended the government's evil war.

I'm not so sure that on the day one year ago I did intend to shut the
Federal Building down, as noble a nonviolent act that might be in such
times. Only a few months before, I brought a group to meet with Governor
Bill Richardson, and he received us warmly, and let me speak for twenty
minutes about why he should work to end the war on Iraq, disarm Los Alamos
and abolish our nuclear weapons, and end the death penalty in New Mexico. I
didn't rule out the possibility that in fact Domenici's staff might be
willing to hear us. In the end, however, the police themselves disrupted
business as usual. They turned off the elevator. They shut down the Federal
Building. They prevented us from visiting our elected representative's
office.

So what do we learn from this experience? What is the message from Federal
Court in New Mexico? I suppose it's this: Anyone who dares visit their
Republican senator to speak against this evil war is liable of a Federal
crime. Don't presume you have any rights in this so-called democracy. Those
days are over.

The judge said he would sentence us within thirty days, so there's more to
come. He asked each of us to submit a statement to him. We face 30 days in
jail and a $5000 fine, which I certainly won't pay.

Meanwhile, the real crime continues, and the real criminals get away with
mass murder, with the crucial, full backing of our courts. The war goes on,
the killings go on, and the lives of our sisters and brothers in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Palestine and elsewhere are shattered. Our government, in its
race to become a global empire, has sunk to all new levels of corruption,
lying, repression, and old fashioned hubris. Our task is permanent
nonviolent resistance against the culture of war, nonviolence as a way of
life, full-time non-cooperation with violence, war, and empire.

All things considered, then, it's a great blessing to be found guilty of
speaking out against this evil war. I hope more and more people will write
their senators and congress people, especially Sen. Pete Domenici of New
Mexico, and demand that they end this war; that more and more people will
sign up at www.declarationofpeace.org  and keep building the movement
against this war; that more and more people will march for peace, vigil for
peace, organize for peace, agitate for peace, speak out for peace, fast for
peace, cross the line for peace, pray for peace, and find themselves guilty
of pursuing a new world without war.

In such times as these, there may be no greater blessing.

*Rev. John Dear is a Jesuit priest, pastor, retreat leader, and author of
twenty five books on peace and nonviolence, including most recently,
"Transfiguration<http://www.amazon.com/dp/038551008X?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=038551008X&adid=1E5GBBZH8DG4MX8191ME&>"
(Doubleday, with a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, available from
www.amazon.com<http://www.amazon.com/dp/038551008X?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=038551008X&adid=1E5GBBZH8DG4MX8191ME&>).
He is featured in a new DVD film, "The Narrow Path," with music by Joan Baez
and Jackson Browne (at www.sandamianofoundation.org), and writes a weekly
column for the National Catholic Reporter at www.ncrcafe.org. He lives in
northern New Mexico. For information, see: www.fatherjohndear.org*

Thanks,

Cath

*"Let us find health and vigor and hope, and the diseased portion of the
earth will fall behind of its own doing. For that we need no aggressive
strategic plans, no provocation of military hostilities, no showdowns." *George
Kennan




-- 
Caroline Vernon
Organizer
Progressive Action for the Common Good
carolina1961 at gmail.com
563-676-7580
www.qcprogressiveaction.org

"The arc of the universe is long but bends towards justice." MLK, Jr.
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