The Beggar's Bowl

A Letter to President Obama - Written 11.05.08

2009-01-20T12:07:00.000-06:00

Dear President-elect Barack Obama,

Please indulge me, a hopeful skeptic, for a minute. It is not that I find you or your politics (most of them, anyways) disagreeable, quite the contrary. I appreciate and find myself inspired by much of your call for change and hope. Your honesty with the difficulties ahead and your willingness to listen are, also, a mark of character. Rather, I am skeptical of the powers and principalities of this world and how, to recall Dorothy Day’s diagnosis, “our problems stem from the acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.”

President-elect Obama, you ran a campaign based on hope and change, and rightly so; this country is in desperate need of a change of leadership, direction, and values. You spent nearly $650 million getting yourself elected. That is almost 44% of the $1.5 billion spent by all the presidential candidates. That is a lot of money. Of course, it is worth noting that campaign finances are but mere pennies compared to the $700 billion financial bailout shelled out to the irresponsible and manipulative giants of Wall Street or the cost of $720 million per day to continue the Iraq war. How is this campaign money spent anyway? There are staff salaries, travel expenditures and energy costs, consultant fees, polls and campaign events, but the bulk of the budget is spent in media. Media is the marketing of a candidate, the development of the logo, creation of print, broadcast, and Internet advertising—it is the buying and selling of, in a word, the vote.

What is the folly in all of this? Has the voter finally sold out and been reduced to something we consume? Are billions of dollars spent just to manipulate image and opinion? Do battleground states trump the common good? What would the late Studs Terkel say if he were here today—does hope still die last even after the last vote has been bought for a $3 button asking for change? Can the center hold? Is it so the President can shed his clothes for the vote or is there still redemption?

Please, President-elect Obama, let us see your true colors. You played the electoral game and played it like you belonged. You took our votes and gave us hopes and dreams...could they be true or was it just another electoral gimmick for fools? The John McCain campaign prided itself on “Country First,” asking America “not to hope, but to vote.” Your adversary gave you a run for your money but in the end offered little in exchange for his vote—unlike you, who offered hope. Now what does it mean? Where does hope stop being dream and become something real? What about the economy? What about the poor? What about the strangers and the immigrants? Will the good Dr. King’s radical revolution of values from racism, materialism and militarism find a home among princes and presidents?

While you were out campaigning and promising support from the top, the bottom, the grass roots—churches, teachers, community leaders and organizers—kept the work going on. Now that you will be our president, we are asking you: Will you join us? Will you help us shut down Guantanamo? Will you help us end these mad, mad wars? Will you help us with healthcare and prison reform? Will you help us with sustainable agriculture? Will you help us with comprehensive immigration changes that are humane? Will you help us reform the insanity of campaign finances, economic subsidies and military spending—in order to, as you said, “restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace?”

Hope still dies last, President-elect Obama, but for many, you are the last hope for many Americans that justice can rain down from the White House. The shakers and movers from below are ready—in fact, they’ve been at it for decades!—to change this country by ending homelessness and combating institutional racism, rebuilding our schools and improving teachers, fixing our roads and funding public transit, restructuring power so that transparency and humility are real values and politically viable, starting organic farms and constructing renewable sources of energy, and finding alternatives to violence at home and abroad for solving conflict. The grassroots communities that helped elect you are waiting for you to listen. Change cannot wait four more years, because if it does not start now, President-elect Obama, American hope might just well have died.

You’ve said it well along: “Yes, we can.” Don’t forget us...because we are the ones who can. We are talking about changing culture, changing society, and creating the beloved community. You are right that it will not be easy, so please don’t lend unnecessary support to political structures that make it harder. I do not doubt your goodwill or your commitment. But there are forces in this world—forces like rampant consumerism and the military-industrial complex—that push humanity to live unblinkingly amidst severe poverty and expensive nuclear weapons, and this makes it harder for us, all of us, to be good. Do not fear these forces; do not be afraid. Rather, be overcome with love. For love, and a politics of love—forgiveness, the works of mercy, nonviolence, social responsibility, the common good—can bring even the most hardened of enemies together as friends. Congratulations on your election, blessings and safety on you and your family, and may you be reminded of the simple words Micah spoke to the kings of Judah: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Sincerely,

Jake Olzen

The "Vote"

2008-11-09T20:00:00.001-06:00

A little late, but a collection of thoughts and comments with friends over email:

Here's a quote from the US Bishops' "Faithful Citizenship" (2007): "When all candidates hold a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, the conscientious voter faces a dilemma. The voter may decide to take the extraordinary step of not voting for any candidate or, after careful deliberation, may decide to vote for the candidate deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position and more likely to pursue other authentic human goods."

These are extra-ordinary times. The U.S. government is an Empire of political, social, and economic violence that keeps its lot off of the blood and sweat of millions of poor, oppressed and marginalized people all over the world. Do not be fooled by patriotic whims of electoral duty...a vote for any president is a vote for war and violence. Take a stand for peace and truth, withdraw consent from bloody regimes and begin organizing local, sustainable, nonviolent communities from the ground up. Quit paying taxes to the war machine. Quit our consumer habits that rape the Earth and pillage the poor. Vote by every mile you ride your bike instead of driving the car. Vote by buying fair trade, local and organic food from cooperative projects. Vote by demanding, (with our bodies, because talk is cheap these days) every power elite to shut down Guantanamo, shut down immigration raids, shut down wars for oil, shut down discrimination and hate based on age, gender, race, orientation, shut down nuclear proliferation, shut down the prisons, shut down scandalous electoral politics and hundreds of billions of dollars of campaign finance...put that money into the Dunkin' Donuts cup of the homeless man begging for a meal, a bed, a conversation. Don't let the politicians play their games of rhetoric and backdoor devilry, don't let them spit in the faces of the widows and the orphans who are turned away empty handed because all the coffers have been emptied for Blackwater and Halliburton, don't let them bleed the Earth of the life and beauty that sustains us all. The good news here is that we don't need them. They need our votes, but more importantly, they need our dollars. Tell them to take a hike and give you dough to the young veteran back from Iraq who has been left on his own to find treatment for PTSD. Give it to the local food shelf, or better yet, invite the hungry into your home and cook a meal for them and make some new friends. Give shelter to the undocumented who are being persecuted by ideologues and bureaucrats. Change starts here, not Election Day. We don't need four more years. The revolution, the real revolution, of learning to love our neighbors AND our enemies, has been going on for thousands of years. We don't need a president or elected official to tell us how to do that. We have each other, we have community...start building it now: our lives depend on it.

Is this "rhetorical flourish," or do you dare believe what you write?
And God said to Jake, "You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you" (Luke 12:20).
If what you write is true, then our lives should never...can never be the same.

Why do we waste so much time not meaning what we say or saying what we mean...I do dare to believe this. Dare I take this on faith? Dare I write this and share it with others? These are but passing fancies.

The real rub, the task at hand: Do I dare make this belief reality - or, rather - does my life become one with the creator and creation so that this daring proposition is made real? My salvation is your salvation is her salvation is their salvation is...

Who am I to say if this is true...I've merely been blessed (or cursed, the jury is still out!) to have caught a glimpse of the banquet feast at Maryhouse. The Lord said "Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people" (Ezekiel 12:2). And we are called the rebels by the ones with the bombs and the ballots!

Spare some change? Sorry, good sir, I am on my way to vote so that you are no longer poor. I would buy you a meal but gave my last to the Obama campaign. I hope you understand, but change is on its way, if you would just wait a bit longer... "Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." (Matthew 26:10-13)." So much for the least of these. The works of war (ahem, I mean politics) have once again usurped the works of mercy.

Because the structures that govern this country are inherently created for injustice to persist...it does not matter who is a part of them, violence and extortion are part of their function. A voting system exists to create illusions of control of the people. The reality is that these votes are manipulated by slick advertising, non-binding campaign promises, and cheap rhetoric that borders on idolatry. I fundamentally disagree with the way our country is governed and have strong reservations about the ability of a nation-state to even hold a nonviolent position. So I withdraw my consent and support for that structure (by not voting, paying taxes, etc.) while realistically recognizing that the dismantling of that structure will take some time. The ethical mandate of a Gospel politic (concerning citizens and interaction with the State) is rooted in the works of mercy, the forgiveness of sins, the calling of conversion to state and church powers to serve the poor. That morality, because it is rooted in truth, can be spoken to any politician or person in the power elite because it is the good news. One need not vote for one or the other because any person, whether it be in a local position or the executive branch, will need reminders of what it means to be good. That is just the nature of the beast. In the meantime, I will continue to work on behalf of the poor, the tortured, the oppressed by serving them directly as best I can and organize communities that can create an alternative social structure that eliminates the power elite and their nuclear weapons. Forgiveness and self-sacrifice is the only way God can be known and the government refuses to do either.

Truth and Reconciliation

2008-06-19T13:23:00.004-05:00

The Dakota people came home for too short of a time to the land they were forcibly removed from by primarily White settlers and their military. A few weeks ago the 5th annual Dakota Gathering and Homecoming happened in Winona, MN. It was a weekend of education, dancing, food, entertainment, and community building for the Dakota people and the people of Winona.

One of the most powerful experiences of the weekend was the Truth and Reconciliation circle. In principle, the circle is quite a simple idea. It is the intentional creation of a space to share personal stories and pain, give opportunity for those whose voices are drowned out to speak and for those who speak too much to listen, for history to be told from the perspective of the victim. But such a simple idea becomes a powerful moment. This was the first time I've sat in on any circle of this kind where oppressor and oppressed meet to share in something. For me, I was there mostly as an observer trying to understand the pains and sufferings that hundreds of years of history have granted me privilege and power while belittled and stripped the life and dignity of others.

I just want to share some things I wrote down as I listened to powerful witnesses of pain, stories of hope, and prophetic calls for redemption.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

History: It needs to be learned. Stories of genocide and crimes of humanity are what this country is really built on.

Maintenance sobriety, language, and spirituality are of the utmost importance.

Treaties are a thing of the past, made between “governing” bodies. They are impersonal and static and allow for oppression and injustice. A covenant is about relationships and learning and growing with each other.

Oppressors can learn much from those they have oppressed. They can help us understand ourselves. And the more we learn about ourselves, the more we learn about reality. We need to step out of our ignorance and ASK OTHERS TO TEACH US.

Our minds have been numbed by a materialistic culture. We have no imagination. Our minds are contaminated. The minds of the youth are pure, do not destroy or brainwash their imagination.

The consciousness for our ethical judgments was conceived and developed through an imperialistic mentality; it seeks to control and mold the way we think.

A number of women shared their personal stories and the pain of patriarchy and sexual abuse within their lives on the reservations. The voices of the oppressed within the oppressed are what hold together life and salvation. Create space for the autonomy of women and youth to be exercised, both within native culture and the dominant culture. “A Nation is not defeated until the hearts of its women are lying on the ground.”

The Earth is retaliating for all the poisoning we have done it her. She does not care if you are brown, or white, or red, or black. We all need to become part of the Earth Community and ask the question of ourselves: Who or What comes first in your life? Is the answer the Creator? God? The Earth? My Country? Myself?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems to me that, as folks become more and more concerned about environmental issues (such as the Mississippi River Revival and BLEW's Save Our Bluffs), there is an inherent connection that emerges to issues of human and indigenous rights. It is obvious the the life of a people is connected to the life of the land when the spirituality is rooted within an Earth Community understanding of life. The way to address the systematic and capitalistic development of natural places and open spaces is by returning them and granting access to the lives of the people who have the closest connection to the land. Many of these spaces are sacred burial sites and if shut up and listen to the stories of our unlearned history, rather than looking for government documents to "prove" what the land is, relationships and community with displaced First Nation people and the land will be restored and protected.

Freedom in Nonviolence

2008-06-02T10:39:00.003-05:00

The coercive nature of violence is the real threat to freedom and peace in the lives of all peoples in the world today. Those of us who enjoy some semblance of "freedom" to exercise certain rights or privileges that have been granted us by some structure of government or other state apparatus experience the same coercive violence as those peoples who suffer tremendously for exercising the same rights contrary to the will of the powers of domination. The soul of the Land of Liberty is dying amidst a war of liberation and fight for freedom. Freedom is not a byproduct in need of salvation through violent conflict with an enemy. Freedom is an act of faith and an act of conscience.

Nonviolence is a choice, an expression of freedom that says to the attractive, overwhelming convincing power of violence "I don't need you to solve my problems." The martyrs who stand up for peace and justice through nonviolent speech and action and suffer the consequences of repressive state and corporate violence are the real "Freedom Fighters." They are the ones who realize Freedom cannot be bought or sold, won or lost. Their freedom is not a gift but a choice.

Following the Nonviolent Jesus

2008-05-02T17:36:00.003-05:00

How is it, that as Christians - and some sects of Christianity that explicitly embrace a personal call to follow Jesus, that Christians have failed to assume the Gospel nonviolence that Jesus taught to his friends and students? The early church lived the nonviolence of Jesus, by sharing their lives with the poor and marginalized and each other in small, communal lives. They resisted state violence and oppression by living outside such systems of injustice and were then martyred for their prophetic outrage to such state domination. Have we forgotten that Jesus is an enemy of the state? Jesus was even enemy of the church, because of how he called the church to conversion and conscience.

We 21st century Christians have gotten off easy. We believe in a personal Jesus that loves us dearly but makes no personal claims on how or why we live our lives. The nonviolent Jesus is one of love, sure, but also one of conflict, one of faith and conscience, one of peacemaking and works of mercy. Is this the Jesus that is followed in most of our churches and communities? Is this the Jesus that the stranger knows, the enemy knows, the oppressed know?

Let us begin to reclaim the Jesus that our Gospel stories and traditions reveal to us. Let us remember the nonviolent Jesus.

Tax Resistance: Non-Cooperation

2008-04-15T21:10:00.004-05:00

Gandhi wrote: "When a government becomes lawless in an organized manner, civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty and is the only remedy open specially to those who had no hand in the making of the Government or its laws. Another remedy there certainly is, and that is armed revolt. Civil Disobedience is a complete, effectives and bloodless substitute."

I believe our government, "the greatest purveyor of violence" in the world, to borrow some words from another prophetic advocate of nonviolence, refuses to be accountable to the people it is supposed to represent. When Dr. King spoke these words, he was assaulted by many people. People he thought were friends accused him of betrayal for expressing his non-consent for the war in Vietnam. "Injustice somewhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Because my voice is not being heard when I contact my "leaders" or large, public actions such as protests are, at best, glazed over by mainstream media, the only way this renegade war, started and continued with very little support of the the people, is to stop giving the government the money to fund the war. Over 50% of our income tax pays for military expenditures, past and current. The war in Iraq has cost, in the past 5 years, $600 billion. Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winning economist, estimates the real cost of this war to be $3 trillion, when we consider all the factors of war (Veteran's Healthcare, Rebuilding, Reparations, etc.)

I will not fund that. The money I would have paid the government has gone to the Chicago Anti-Hunger Foundation. When votes no longer matter we vote with our dollars. I vote for the works of mercy and feeding the hungry. And if it means the IRS is gonna come knocking on my door for $119, I will offer them some food too. And if they ask for a check, I'll go with them to jail. That's another work of mercy, visit the imprisoned. If we took the works of mercy as seriously as we took our 1040s and economic stimulus package, the Kingdom of God would be at hand.

Nonviolence is a way of life, it is the way of the cross, the way of truth. There is too much suffering in the world right now. Just imagine, if all of us who profess a faith in Jesus, the man who said "pick up your cross and follow me," such great suffering would redeem us.

a way?

2008-04-09T23:38:00.002-05:00

How tedious we have become. Grasping blindly into the dark for something to hold on to, something that will resist and hold strong as the current beats endlessly against us. We are lost, we cannot find our way.

We turn to...the church? Far off realities echo in the complacency of vast pulpits that (at one time?) were reserved for those who spoke words of peace and truth.

We turn to...the law? We urge the political machine to be wary of where they tread, but our appeals to torture and war as illegal and immoral fall on the deaf ears of the proud.

We turn to...the teachers? Words escape those who used to guide us and walk with us as we lit our own lights in the world, but now fear and insecurity lay waste to projects of the mind and freedom of discourse.

We turn to...the family? Disintegrated by a racist, sexist system of injustice that turns mother against son, father against daughter, sister against brother.

We turn to...the community? What are my neighbors names?

We turn to...ourselves? Our minds have been stolen from us and imaginations killed by drugs: those prescribed for the symptoms of a culture of death and those enjoyed by self-professed enlightened ones.

We turn to...violence? Brief sentiments of security, a sense of peace (absence of war) brought because our bombs and guns are bigger: how do we stay safe once we've killed all our enemies?

We turn to...God? An abandonment to something worse than all we have ever known: for it asks, no demands, of us a humility to the truth that we so desperately seek to hide. God, we turn to you.

Letter to Cardinal George

2008-03-27T11:57:00.000-05:00

There is a unique opportunity here for Cardinal George, the Archdiocese of Chicago, and the Roman Catholic Church to embark on a journey of peacemaking and forgiveness. One does not have to agree with or condone one's actions as a mandate for forgiveness. Perhaps Cardinal George could lend some valuable wisdom to the six individuals trying to resist war. I cannot help but think of Jesus's instructions to his disciples on the nature of forgiveness and the striking parallels it has to the events of Easter Sunday:

"If your brother or sister sins against you, go and tell them their fault, between you and them alone. If they listen to you, you have gained a brother or sister. But if they do not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If they refuse to listen to them, tell it to the Church; and if he refuses to listen even to the Church, let them be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two or three of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often shall my brother or sister sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven." (Matthew 18:15-22)

Are these "Holy Name 6," as these six individuals have come to be known, the ones who have sinned and in need of a brother or sister coming to them in reconciliation? Or do these six see themselves as coming to the Church, to tell the Church of its failure to be the peacemakers Jesus calls us to? Drawing from the exegesis of Stanley Hauerwas and his assertion that the Church is to be a community of both peacemakers and forgiveness, we see "[t]hat the Church is such a community of truthful peace depends on its being a community of the forgiven", there are pieces of truth from both perspectives.

Lead us, Cardinal George, in being a community of peacemakers, unequivocally calling for an end to the war in Iraq and engage in a process of reconciliation that seeks not to continue tearing apart a Church wounded and divided by Easter Sunday's events, but to restore us to community of God's forgiven that practices forgiveness.

Teach Us How to Pray

2008-03-26T23:26:00.004-05:00

"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us..."

Strong words Jesus spoke when his disciples asked him to teach them how to pray. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams offers some poignant insight into these ingrained words we utter at Christian services on a daily basis: "'Forgive us our trespasses' is in some ways the hardest bit of the Lord's Prayer to pray, because it tells us straight away that to pray is also to be willing to change."

Let us consider the common usage of the word trespass in our lexicon. For most of us, images of trespassing do not conjure up all the various grievances and sins we have committed or have had committed toward us. Rather, it's an image of someone being somewhere they should not be. Breaking the law by intruding into someone else's property. Jumping over a wall, climbing a fence, breaking a window - going into or through some place where one does not belong or has not been invited.

How many of us are praying for forgiveness for this country's invasion of Iraq? Do images of burnt-out buildings, blood-stained streets, over-populated and under-resourced hospitals come to mind for the U.S. trespasses into Iraq? War, in the modern age (if not for all of history), has always been the story of one trespass against another. Why, then, can we sit in our churches and in our homes, praying to the Lord, Our Creator, Mother, and Father, for something we really do not believe in? Do we believe in a world without trespass? Without war? A world where change is possible? Where one can turn away from trespass and "sin no more?" If we pray these words that the teacher taught us to pray with hardened hearts and embittered ideas of our world and our God, we blaspheme the Holy Name of the divine and reduce our humanity to a stoic, fatalistic community of despair and un-redemptive suffering.

Forgive us the trespass that our country has done to the people of Iraq (and Latin America, Vietnam, Korea, the Philippines, etc.), as we forgive those who have trespassed against us (those who seek to terrorize us, al Qaeda, the criminals of 9/11, etc.).

We cannot pray these words, neither in the silence of our hearts nor in the sanctuaries of our communities, without recognizing the invitation to reconcile with our transgressors, make friends with our strangers, and forgive our enemies. No national identity or patriotic call for retribution replaces the supremacy of God's divine call to forgive seventy times seven.

Thoughts on the Holy Name 6 Action

2008-03-25T11:18:00.004-05:00

Easter Sunday services with Cardinal Francis George were interrupted by six anti-war activists as they denounced the war in Iraq and staged a die-in with fake blood. Accounts of the action can be seen and read at:

chicago.indymedia: story 1, story 2

I think a number of different discussions can emerge from this and look forward to what follows. While I do not entirely agree with everything said in this discussion thus far, or with the entirety of Holy Name actions, when I called the Archdiocese to ask the charges to be dropped, I mentioned that. I do not have to agree with the activists tactically to agree with their message and with their nonviolence. Jesus threw out the money changers for desecrating a holy place. How do we understand money changers today in our own churches, temples, mosques and place of prayer? Are the activists the money changers who need thrown out? Is it a congregation complicit with silence? A church hierarchy failing to honor truth and justice? All questions I think worth asking. Below is a letter to the editor I submitted:

Dear Editors,

The public outcry that denounced the actions of the six peace activists who symbolically reminded a largely silent and complicit Catholic population that we are a nation at war worries me. When there is more outrage and opposition to one group’s small but courageous attempt to
speak truth to a church called to pray for our enemies and love those who persecute us, I wonder if Jesus has truly risen in our hearts, in our minds, in our communities, or in Iraq this past Easter Sunday.

Surely, there will be many different attitudes and opinions concerning the message, the action, and the location these six activists chose. Of all the opinions I would most like to hear, would be that of Iraqi Catholic Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho. But his body was found in a ditch after he was abducted during a shootout outside his church, after celebrating the Via Crucis, earlier this month. It is realities like this that we Americans are so insulated from in our calm, sanitized Easter Sunday services.

I recall the words of Fr. Dan Berrigan, SJ. He is one of those rare Catholic believers who took seriously (perhaps too seriously!) the words Jesus spoke at the Sermon on the Mount: "We have assumed the name of peacemakers, but we have been, by and large, unwilling to pay any significant price. And because we want the peace with half a heart and half a life and will, the war, of course, continues, because the waging of war, by its nature, is total--but the waging of peace, by our own cowardice, is partial...There is no peace because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war--at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death
in its wake.”

faith

2008-03-05T14:43:00.001-06:00

Dark enters further into the recesses of my soul. Yet...
in this darkness, light beckons. But what emerges is something best left hidden. So I thought.

Creeping, Crawling - grasping in the blinding night (or is it the brightness of the sun?) - I search for an answer. Or is it that I reject the answer given and thus keeping searching?

How desperately I want this unsettled fear to leave me, for it to be replaced by the Peace of something tangible, something real. But this fear, this violence, this is my past - my history - my life. Must I really let it go? Who, then, will I be? Or...*gasp*...who will I become?

It is in the darkness I am born. The pain of light entering my life, my mind, my soul marks the beginning. A transformation. A conversion. The suffering grace of a nonviolent love. Be this the love of Jesus? It is too much. I throw it off, in pride.

It is too late. The darkness can no longer hide what the light has already revealed. Pray that this cup may pass be by. I will go thirsty the rest of my days. But what is in that cup? What does it taste like? Can I just have a glimpse of what is inside before I take a drink? Or is the chalice so deep that darkness hides what is in there too?

I drink from it. Out of fear, desperation. Out of love. Out of the peace that so eludes me and my people. Who are my people? Why do we kill each other? Light - shine out to us. Warm our wearied, war-torn faces. Let us dance, while we still have the light, in the love and laughter of the great invitation. Gratitude at so great a gift. I am not worthy. Celebrate in Thanksgiving. And when the darkness comes again...Surely, it comes, for it always comes...Let us dance into the dark night until we collapse, wrenched with fatigue from so great a day, and rest up for the oncoming fight of our lives, one more time: No easier than the last, no harder than the next. But let us do so in the love of life and gift that is God, knowing that the invitation will come again soon.

The Sacrament of Voting

2008-02-06T13:03:00.000-06:00

I have grown tired and weary of the accusations that I am part of the problem in my choosing to not vote in the primary elections. There are many reasoned, rational, and well-researched arguments I can present for my not voting but at the end of the day, I have chosen to vote with my conscience and that choice was to not vote. We, the U.S. as a country, has turned the holy act of voting into a political sacrament that is to be received with humility and grace. I am not opposed to the act of voting, in fact, I believe every person's dignity brings forth the inherent right to voice their belief and choice. There are many people around the world whose lives are denied them because they have no right to voice. But there are also many other people around the world whose lives are granted such right. I do not think America's current political situation and system allows for enough adequate change in anything other than rhetoric. In participating in our voting structure, I do not wish my voice to be silenced through the machinations of ballot boxes and check marks. If I vote, I agree to participate and condone the system as it is. My conscience will not allow me to do that and I will continue to work for greater political and social change between election days.

partyin' peeps

2007-12-30T01:47:00.000-06:00

i spent the evening at an umphrey's mcgee concert. they are a band that, according to most people, falls within the jam band crowd. i was surrounded by lots of drugs, alcohol, apathy, and ridiculousness tonight. it is very troubling because i found myself being sucked into the lifestyle and attitudes of the music scenes and did not like it. my prayers, my fears, my hopes, are being answered and it is difficult to see a new me emerging out of the fresh ashes, if not still burning, old me. im scared life will not be as fun without the constant pleasure of music and party. i fear losing friends, family even, because now im considered "too cool." my will is being torn, pulled in different directions, but ultimately, my broken heart will yield and give way to the nonviolent life and love of god.

Navidad

2007-12-25T10:42:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas! The Spanish greeting for this happy holy day, feliz navidad, captures all the love and grace one needs: happy nativity and birth. Let us celebrate the birth of Jesus and the nonviolent love of God by asking God to fill our hearts with love and compassion so that the world may know war no more. Peace, friends.

everlasting

2007-12-22T02:37:00.000-06:00

i am fighting god for my peace. i think god is winning.

distillations

2007-12-20T19:45:00.000-06:00

BE FREE. Fight for my liberation. Suffer for peace > love God. givesomething.giveanything.giveeverything. Just let it be. Open my life to love + peace. HATE. HATE WAR. Hate injustice. Hate racism, sexism, ageism, capitalism, communism, every -ism. BELIEVE in something Real. Live peace. Choose purity and life. Believe God. CHANGE is possible.

she lies...

2007-12-15T03:44:00.000-06:00

and says she's in love with him...can't find a better man. she dreams in colors, she dreams in red; can't find a...

does this song effectively engage in nonviolence with regards to personal emotion and feeling? how does one deal with personal relationships in nonviolent means?

Nonviolence in Action

2007-12-14T02:02:00.000-06:00

Nonviolence is all about, at least at some level, the body politics. I want to do justice to the ethos of understanding nonviolence through sacrifice, but first, I have a story a friend told me:

There was a conference on the individual response to the war in Iraq that got a bit out of hand. A number of different perspectives on how to deal with such responses clashed and chaos ensued. Names were called and violence was threatened. A man and woman were in each others' faces yelling, calling names, etc. My friend threw his body between the two to break the tension, create a space between the building violence, and tried to engage the two in discussion (no luck though). Nonetheless, the body politic essentially forced a space for nonviolence to disrupt a moment of potential violence between people. Well done, friend.

Preserving What?

2007-11-13T23:04:00.000-06:00

This is an email I received the other day from my alma mater requesting donations for a Veteran's Memorial. I am troubled very much by how the only way we understand peace is through force, and violent force at that. The preservation of peace, semantically, implies that peace is foreign, something that is strange and hard to hold on to. Preservation seems to be employed when something cannot exist on its own. In our current dominant ideology, this is the proper way to characterize peace: it is something that must be preserved (if wanted). The reason is cannot flourish naturally, much like our beautiful forests, wetlands, rivers, etc. is that there are structures in place to prevent it from growing, limiting the extent that it may prevail. This is because we cannot imagine a world otherwise. We cannot imagine or envision a world where peace is the standard, the status quo, the natural flourishing. Instead, our world is informed by an ideology that violence always has and always will be a part of human life and interaction. It is inescapable. Because it is inevitable, peace must be "fought for." Peace is not is what is preserved, but a way of life, a lifestyle, a certain ethic of an excluding group of people is what is really preserved. The logical inconsistency aside, the fighting for peace has so pervaded the souls of our world that to even dare to dream of this ideology not only being wrong, but there being a possible third way in the global drama of war or extinction is incredulous. But it is not. It is a necessity, a necessity kept alive by a few liberated, haunted, troubled, holy people: Buddha, Jesus, Gandhi, Dr. King, Rumi. Theirs is a dream that inspires and proclaims a vision, although yet to fully be realized, entirely possible. The preservation of peace falls on the shoulders of the war-makers and the politicians of nation-states. The building of peace falls on the shoulders of peace-makers and believers of a nonviolent Spirit of God. Of which is more worthy of the service and honor we should dedicate our lives to?

Obscured Visions

2007-11-13T22:42:00.000-06:00

The President's recent veto of health and education programs included in a recent budget proposed by Congress signifies two things to me, both of which are not entirely new but remain unceasingly frustrating:

1) Bush's veto of the budget coupled with remarks referring to "Democratic" fiscal irresponsibility and partisanship is bogus. The veto is a clear rejection of value in health or education. To paint this as a political issue is to not recognize the sacredness of all people, irregardless of financial cost to provide access to health and learning opportunities.

2) While simultaneously pushing forward with a defense budget that is monstrously larger than the congressional health and education proposal, the President has clearly chosen war-making over peace-building.

The rhetoric cannot redeem the clear motivations that drive this country's political economy and powerbrokers: violence. Unless we refuse to accept the blatant disregard for human life in spending $ 6.3 billion for advancing the technology to further obscure the violence and suffering committed by fighter jets and its patrons, words such as freedom, liberty, and justice remain empty and insulting.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16263477

On Pilgrimage

2007-10-17T14:43:00.002-05:00

I was quite intrigued by the steps delineated in the idea of nonviolence as a pilgrimage. I think that the process that was outlined in the personal transformation that can occur in a pilgrimage is a very powerful one…and one of particular importance for the conversion from violence to nonviolence. This is just a combination reflection/analysis of that journey from my own experiences (though limited), readings, and teachings of prophets and guides of nonviolence.

In all of us, although all too often hidden deep inside of us, there is a longing for something more. Many mystics and theologians speak of a loneliness or an intense longing for God or peace. Dorothy Day referred to it as the “long loneliness” and Thomas Merton wrote of it as a desire for contemplation or solitude. While these images or experiences certainly carry denotations of being alone, that is certainly not the case with the references made by those experiencing a longing for a fulfillment of some sort. The longing that embarks on the pilgrimage is often undertaken in community. It is at this point that the transformative power of the nonviolent pilgrimage awakens. It seems to me that only through others, through a community, can we embrace a calling to nonviolence. For it is in the calling to nonviolence that we are also called to resist the dominance of violence, which can be very lonely and difficult, if not impossible, to do alone.

Thus far, the spiritual pilgrimage to a nonviolent faith is embodied by a longing for something more, perhaps an alternative to the way we understand our lives, our society, or the world at large. It is an experience that often emerges out of a deep spiritual moment or practice (such as Merton’s practice of solitude) or other moving experience. From this longing emerges a call. This call is significant because it requires a commitment to embark on the journey, to answer the invitation to be changed in someway yet to be determined.

The next stage is preparation. The journey to nonviolence requires a number of things before the self can begin to be transformed. To me, the most important element of this personal transformation is that it includes the support of a community. When we resist the story of violence, the myth that violence is what protects us from the unknown, we need something to help us to understand what replaces that myth. A community of fellow pilgrims can fill that void. Some pilgrims may have taken this path before and are helping to serve as guides while others are also sharing in this journey for the first time. Nonetheless, a community of nonviolent believers helps to shape and support the individual pilgrim.

Once the community has gathered to leave, a larger community gathers as well to see off their friends and family. Sometimes this larger community does not understand the pilgrimage this smaller community is about to begin. Perhaps, though, through love and compassion for a pilgrim, they understand the personal call that must be answered in this way. I am thinking of many friends and family of those who offer prayer and support for the sacrifices of others in the name of nonviolence, whether it be parents and siblings of jailed war-resisters or participatory communities on the other side of the fence offering prayers for arrestees. But it could be much simpler than that. For some, the ritual of leaving is signified by a journeying out of the world for an intense spiritual transformation to nonviolence, such as the story shared with us of Dr. King spending the night in the room Gandhi slept in.

The journey, although necessarily taken together, is experienced alone as well. I have found that shared reflection of each others’ personal transformation can offer much insight and understanding into our answering our own callings. The most difficult part of the journey though is to allow it unfold at the level you need it to happen at. Often, that is different for each pilgrim and we need to give the space to allow that individual to develop their own experience. This is not to say it is to be easy. On pilgrimage, we can challenge each other to take varying degrees of risk to allow ourselves to be transformed, but ultimately, we need to recognize the Holy Spirit working among us as that source of transformation and not force what our experience on another.

Many would describe the arrival of the pilgrimage as the culminating experience in this journey to nonviolence. Some of these arrivals, for me, have been a deep conviction that nonviolence is my calling or a confrontation of a new form of violence previously unseen in my life. For others it could be the release from prison after a direct action or the dismantling of a certain system of violence. However, while there is a sense of peace and gratitude, the arrival is not the end of the journey, there is still the return.

The return to the world can be as exhilarating and life-affirming as it can be spiritually dangerous and lonely. While the current pilgrimage has ended, one must face the new reality of life alone. A discipline of prayer and commitment to integration are essential for a healthy transition to a new life. Often, because the powers of violence are so pervasive, nonviolent resistance (particularly that of transformative act of nonviolence) is met with a menacing violence that feels threatened. It is at this point that our experiences and transformations take us back to the beginning for a new pilgrimage, as a new longing has emerged. For once we have a taste of the peace and transformative power of the nonviolent pilgrimage that is embodied in solitude and community, in contemplation and action, in social change and personal change, there is a renewed desire to partake in that journey of faith again.

Prophetic Nonviolence

2007-10-17T14:43:00.001-05:00

I have been following the Planned Parenthood demonstrations going on in Aurora and the drama that is unfolding around there in defense of life. I was reflecting on the many “pieces of truth” that are undoubtedly being brought into the controversy all in the name of life. Even the women and men who claim to be pro-choice are exhibiting a concern for a life ethic, at least in some ways. Many pro-choice advocates are not pro-abortion, but are looking at one solution that is supposed to bring better “life” to pregnant mothers and their children. What gets lost in this battle of personal ethics and interests over whose “right” it is to choose life are the very lives themselves – and the solutions we end up tend to be exclusive, dominating, not life-affirming and violent.

A consistent ethic of life falls in line with creative nonviolence and what the dialogues regarding abortion are overwhelmingly missing is the avenue to “acknowledge, repair, and transform the infinite relatedness and unity of all life.” While we need to withdraw our support from non-life giving practices such as abortion, we also need to confirm and redeem the life of those seeking abortions and provide viable alternatives to prevent, remedy, and support expectant mothers and fathers, but particularly mothers as so often they tend to be the vulnerable and marginalized in out society. Both sides of this life-ethic issue have some truth to offer the other and the solutions proposed thus far do not appreciate the complexity of the issue nor the very real effects such systemized violence can have on all people.

In the newspaper articles I have read and people I have talked to, the proponents and opponents of the Planned Parenthood facility fall into one of two extremes: the clinic has a right to stay or get rid of the clinic altogether. The violence that is at the heart of this debate stays hidden among these simple, easy, and far-sweeping solutions. It does not even come close to touching the violent realities an expectant mother may face and drive her to such action as an abortion. A nonviolent approach necessarily considers her reality to compassionately react and find a solution that projects a consistent ethic of life for mother, child, and society. But, as we have all too often seen, creative nonviolence demands sacrifice and challenge to confront truths that may force you to reconsider your own truths.

In my mind, a nonviolent solution is a facility or institution that provides the relief and support (emotional, physical, financial, etc.) that affirms the life of the mother and encourages to birth her child…and not forger her once that child has been born. While many abortion seekers are unwed mothers, they (and their children) remain, in a sense, the widows and orphans Christ instructed us to love and care for the most.

This illustration or case study, which is all too real, demonstrates how a creative nonviolent approach and imagine or envision alternatives. The trouble is, both in communicating with those not open to discussion and the “pragmatist,” convincing them that such dreams can be a reality. While I do not claim to know the first thing about ministry for mothers to be, I can imagine a world where they are loved and supported and not drawn to violent solutions such as abortion. Yet communicating and inspiring others to buy into that reality is a challenge that can overwhelmingly cast you aside as an unrealistic dreamer, as an idealist who does not know the slightest thing about the “real” world. I find this especially depressing when trying to communicate about a world founded in the nonviolence of Christ with faithful Christians and still meet their resistance and faith in violence.

I am constantly drawn back to some of the great teachers of nonviolence not for their practical approach to social change or personal commitment to conversion, but to the language that they employed in their teachings or writings. The most interesting thing to me about how nonviolence played out in the lives of Dorothy Day, Dr. King, Cesar Chavez, Gandhi, the Berrigans, etc. is not how they were telling the world or society how they should change and transform, but the way in which they did it: as prophets. The image of prophetic nonviolence makes more sense to me than any other scriptural reference because it falls into line with all the other “crazy” prophets of Old and New Testament stories that painted the world in an ideal. The prophets encouraged a transformation to a higher ideal, to a higher, more consistent ethic of life but did not tell them exactly how to do it. Thomas Merton never spoke of how to initiate the social change needed to reflect an ethic of life and rejection of violence. Yet his prophetic call and invitation to embrace nonviolence as the way encouraged others to explore such an initiation. Perhaps through dialogue and faith in this creative nonviolent approach there is another soul who possessed the vision of how to inspire this change in society – in how to do the ministry of Planned Parenthood in a more consistent, nonviolent way.

Turmoil of a Troubled Cubs Fan

2007-10-17T14:27:00.000-05:00

Thomas Merton, in a collection of essays called Disputed Questions, includes a reflection of some sort on solitude. In the essay “Notes for a Philosophy of Solitude” Merton offers a critique of the many fictions men believe in order to mask their loneliness or their solitude. One of the examples he gives is how the solitary recognizes the loneliness one has that is often explained away by others’ beliefs that they are part of something much larger, such as when a nation wins a war, they celebrate collectively in that fact, or the massive cheering at sporting events and the intensity that it may entail.

On a very concrete level, I agree with Merton’s assertion that we as people have theses fictions that enable us to explain away our loneliness. I think it allows for one to see clearly the many myths and false truths society has to justify things such as violence. This is not only useful but necessary if one is to try and live nonviolently. However on another level, part of me is made very uncomfortable by Merton’s very distinct assertions of man’s loneliness and the folly of collective celebration or mourning. While I certainly have not grasped all of Merton’s deep and rich philosophical understandings of solitude, I have been able to internalize it in some way and what I have found is a very disturbing participation in society’s fictions. For me, it is with the Chicago Cubs.

Some friends observed very intense responses to the Cubs playoff games. Yelling, anger, symbolic and violent body movement are all representative of the frustrations and heartbreak of a hope-filled Cubs fan. For me, I very seldom become so intense about a sporting event anymore. Part of my process or pilgrimage in nonviolence has been to filter out the aggressive competitive nature that was unhealthy and violent from my past as an athlete. It still remains something I think about often – what does nonviolent competition look like? Are certain sports by nature violent and should not be practiced (boxing, rugby, etc.)? But at a deeper level, I still love to engage in athletic competition and enjoy watching others do it, but when my reactions become rooted in such seemingly violent frustrations and reactions when a bad call is made or “my team” loses, I am participating in Merton’s fiction.

So I am faced with a very troubling situation: I love baseball and the Chicago Cubs but I easily become sucked into the pseudo-mob mentality and experience sadness and gladness for something of which I do not, in all reality, participate in at all. So to clear myself of tendencies for violent reaction, do I stop watching the Cubs? I do not want to do that at all. Intellectually, I know it is just a baseball game, but the emotions and experiences I have are very real. Where do they come from – Merton’s fiction perhaps? Do I prepare myself and watch out for the tendencies in that I know may cause me to be sucked into the game too much – who I watch it with, whether I am drinking beer or not, have thought about possible outcomes ahead of time?

While to many people, the question of are intense responses (which can be coded as violence) to situations such as a baseball game merely a fiction and participation in an unreality may seem ridiculous, to me it has become an essential stage in my development in nonviolence. It is troubling because the uncomfortable nature of facing my own tendencies and leanings toward a violence that is responsive and reactive to a mere socialized love for the Chicago Cubs might be a sign of even a more hidden conditioned response or participation in violence. It also reveals the capacity for people to be violent in so many aspects of their lives that it can be overwhelming and intimidating to even think or reflect about it.

I think in many ways Merton is on to something when he speaks of loneliness and the relationship that has to violence and nonviolence. Merton says that “the loneliness of man is God’s loneliness.” I think that this loneliness that we seek to eradicate from our lives through such fictions as being part of some collective, participatory group such as Chicago Cubs fans allows a space for a capacity of violence to grow. Historically, many radical and reactionary groups have advocated for atrocious acts of violence, genocide, poverty in the name of belonging to a group. So it seems that violence flourishes most in this fictional understanding of finding one’s self or identity in a group. But when we realize that our loneliness is not something to hide from or to explain away because it is of God, our capacity for nonviolence grows as well. And then we can participate in groups, in society, as Cubs fans because our identity is not determined by whether the Cubs win or lose or how fans react to a bad call because who I am is already made known to me in my loneliness that is God.

But to live this, to experience the loneliness that nonviolence and God conjure is an entirely different thing. It is something that I am not ready to fully dive into out of fear that I may lose who I am, but perhaps that is joy of losing one’s life to save it. The fear is very real of not knowing who I might become when my loneliness and nonviolence is embraced. Will I not like baseball anymore? Will I not watch the Cubs? How will my relationships change? All of these questions are very real to me but perhaps they are just one more social fiction intended to keep us violent and out of the nonviolent loneliness of God. I do not know, I hope to one day know, and will try to cheer for the Cubs but not allow the violence of the group to dictate who I am!

A teacher offered this to me:

DEEPLY SYMBOLIC OF AN ENTIRE PARADIGM.

IS THERE A THIRD WAY? IS IT POSSIBLE TO RECLAIM THE FUNDAMENTAL “DIVINE LONELINESS,” THE BELONGING THAT DOES NOT DEPEND ON THE FICTIONS OF WHAT MERTON ELSEWHERE CALLS THE “SOCIAL WOMB” (IN “RAIN AND THE RHINOCEROS” AND “THE TIME OF THE END IS THE TIME OF NO ROOM,” BOTH IN RAIDS ON THE UNSPEAKABLE).

A FRIEND OF MINE, JANET WEIL, LOVES BASEBALL (THE SF GIANTS VARIETY). SHE HAS A WHOLE MEDITATION ON ITS CENTRAL PREOCCUPATION WITH “COMING HOME SAFE.” MAYBE THAT’S WHERE WE START WITH THIS…!

HERES HER VIDEO:

http://www.rainonline.org/video/comingHome.mov

Subtle Differences?

2007-10-10T12:50:00.000-05:00

Ruminating on the meaning of resistance, I find a troubling element that seems to be inherent to the nature of resistance. When one resists another, is there an act of recognition in that resistance? For example, when one participates in a direct action, arrested, tried, sentenced, and serves time in prison, is there not an apparent willingness to allow or recognize the oppressor's authority? Does that act then participate in the systems of domination we seek to change and reinforce the power-holders position?

It seems to me that in order to understand such an act of resistance as subversive requires a very vocal submission of one's own will to the powers that be. That one is effectively saying: "You are not doing this to me because you have power, but I am allowing you to do it to me because I have power." While there are certainly many Christian theological justifications for this in the model of Christ's sacrifice, many critics can turn to a Nietzchean argument that this giving of the will is a delusion - that one would rather will nothing than not will at all. To this end, does it serve to reaffirm the status quo's consolidation of power?

How does one effectively resist another without giving credence to the illegitimacy of their power?

Volatile Relationships: ROTC and Universities; Violence and Nonviolence

2007-10-02T14:38:00.000-05:00

This is a letter to the editor I wrote in response to the articles in Loyola's Phoenix newspaper.

Read the articles here:

ROTC Rights
Should Ignatius wield a sword? Delving into ROTC presence on a Jesuit Campus

___________

The volatile relationship between Jesuit education and formation and ROTC is not a new one. All but a few of the twenty-eight Jesuit universities in the U.S. participate in ROTC in some way. In many of the universities the issues are raised in terms of financial responsibility, accessible education, or discrimination. Yet there are critics and supporters on both sides who remain unwilling to dialogue or consider the heart of the issue when talking about this contentious relationship: violence.

The Phoenix ran two opposing sides of the ROTC/Jesuit argument. Pat Leahy’s article, “ROTC Rights,” fervently supported ROTC presence for namely two reasons: 1) The “military is the only entity capable of the difficult task of preserving order on this planet”; 2) Jesuit education can better the military – “By introducing officers to different perspectives and ideological stances, Loyola can push American foreign policy – and the manner in which it is carried – toward Jesuit principles.”

Conversely, in their letter to the editor, “Should Ignatius wield a sword? Delving into ROTC presence on a Jesuit Campus,” Dugan Meyer and Danny Gibboney focus on the militarization of the university through the Solomon Amendment, ROTC discriminatory policies that are inconsistent as a department within Loyola, and the inconsistency of ROTC with Jesuit values such as social justice. While the arguments Meyer and Gibboney present require considerable thought and are worthy of discussion, they do not dive deep enough into the issue of ROTC and violence when they claim “we are […] asserting that this institution cannot simultaneously promote military ROTC programs and the principles of nonviolence and respect for all people.”

What this very important and moral debate on ROTC’s role in higher education may be reduced to is a conversation between violence and nonviolence. Leahy asserts very effectively that the military and the ROTC believe in violence as the only means of preserving peace. Meyer and Gibboney briefly recognize the inherent contradictions of a university being, at the very least, complicit with violence, and permitting and teaching nonviolence.

Perhaps the most illuminating advocate to look to for guidance is St. Ignatius himself. All are quite familiar with his conversion from being an officer in the Spanish military to lay down his sword and follow Christ. At a time when Church teachings of the “War on Terror” are most clearly delineated unjust and immoral, any compliance with the war is to be regarded as unjust and immoral as well. Many veterans are returning from the war with horrific stories and experiences there and committing themselves to helping other soldiers and aspiring soldiers learn the realities of war and to lay down their swords.

The ROTC seeks recruitment for violence, and while in the classroom there may be opportunity for discussion and opinion, there is certainly no room for that on active-duty. The moral formation a Jesuit education seeks to embody would certainly be punished if one questions the ethics of military’s hierarchical command. One will be called upon to, in the very least, train and learn to kill. This sort of violence is contrary to Christian values and Christ’s teachings.

As for Leahy’s faith in violence, a real and honest historical look at social change and “preserving order” reveals that the changes that come out of violence are never lasting or permanent. Aside from this nation’s beatification of violence as salvation, in which Loyola, and most other Jesuit or Catholic institutions, are proponents of in someway, either through word, deed, or silence, violence has also clouded our minds from truly considering nonviolence as a viable and proper Christian alternative.

ROTC has no place in a Jesuit, let alone Catholic institution when it actively seeks to subvert the truth, the immorality, and the injustice of the violence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Finally, to return to the arguments of what is a university, Meyer and Gibboney rightly conceive of a university as a sacred space – “cathedrals of free inquiry and intellectual growth where all students have the opportunity to pursuer their academic, social, and professional interests as they see fit.” While Leahy’s understanding of this invokes then a justification of ROTC on campus to provide another education, it remains an education rooted in salvific violence. And as Ignacio Ellacuría, SJ, writes in Toward a Society That Serves its People, “It is often said that a university should be impartial. We do not agree. A university should strive to be free and objective, but objectivity and freedom may demand taking sides” (p. 175). See violence, the ROTC, the war on terror for what it really is and who it is really affecting. Then, consider our own faith in violence and ask why…and why not nonviolence. This is the objectivity and freedom Ellacuría advocates for in a university, because impartiality is all too often complicity.

_________________

Unfortunately, the views cited in Leahy's article are all to representative of the "powers that be" and "redemptive violence" (to use the understanding of Walter Wink). William Cavanaugh further contends that the "myth of redemptive violence" has not only entered our consciousness as a means of saving us or protecting us from our enemies, but that our salvation lies in it as well. This soteriology of the state and the state-sponsored or state-endorsed violence has become so pervasive in our souls that we cannot conceive of our faith in any other terms as well. So nonviolence is doubly threatened, or rather, the state and the individual is threatened by nonviolence because a whole new soteriology needs to be understood.

Jena 6 Demonstrations

2007-10-02T12:20:00.000-05:00

The rallies and demonstrations that emerged in response to the highly contested charges of Mychal Bell as an adult were largely successful in bringing their demands for accountability and truth to the justice system. While the Jena 6 events and court proceedings have been, and remain, a hot bed of racial tensions, the tens of thousands of demonstrators who converged on Jena, LA in September were participating in a nonviolent demonstration that was reminiscent of the Civil Rights Marches of the 1960s.

Unfortunately, the marches then and the marches now have still been unable to produce the kind of systemic change needed to equalize treacherously unfair racial attitudes and practices in many of the U.S.'s social institutions, particularly the justice system. Perhaps the racist attitudes and assumptions of the justice system as it pertains to Black Americans is best illustrated by Reed Walters, District Attorney, speaking about the nonviolent rallies of thousands of primarily Black American activists: "I firmly believe and am confident of the fact that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened. You can quote me on that."

In response to Reed Walter's racist and "religious" comments, Jena minister Rev. Donald Sibley: "I think it's a shame for you to say only Jesus Christ caused what happened there last Thursday. I think it was behavior of 30,000 people." Sibley told CNN, "I can't diminish Christ at all, but for [Walters] to use it in the sense that because his Christ, his Jesus, because he prayed, because of his police, that everything was peaceful and was decent and in order—that's just not the truth."

Walters defended himself: "What I'm saying is, the Lord Jesus Christ put his influence on those people, and they responded accordingly."

The assumption that Walters holds is that Black people are violent. This racist understanding and expectation of a primarily Black demonstration to turn violent reveals Walter's own racialized tendencies based on past stereotypes of Blacks being "uncontrollable" or "animals."

When the demonstrators consciously choose to act in a nonviolent manner, Walter's own worldview is confronted with a new reality. Walter's justifies it to himself as "divine intervention" as being the only thing that stopped the otherwise imminent violence.

This is precisely what nonviolence strives to do...challenge the realities of injustice and force those in the position of power to act in a new way. While Walter's comments still reflect his racist attitudes, had the demonstration turned violent, Walter's attitudes would have been further solidified. And then Walters's police could have responded through the customary violence typical in enforcing the law. At least in this way, the nonviolent nature of the demonstration brought about a disconnect that Walters's had to force himself to explain away - through religious beliefs. Yet once those religious beliefs are forced to be explained away, then there exists one less explanation for why, according to Walters, Blacks are violent.

Nonviolence exposes the realities of people attitudes by forcing the aggressor to recognize the dignity and humanity of the oppressed or the other. Walters may still be a racist with power in an unfair racialized justice structure, but through nonviolent action the demands of the people were heard, Bell's charges were dropped to that of a juvenile and released on bail, and the irrational nature of Walters's and the justice system's racism was exposed .

sourced from the AP News Report, see it here for more information:
Jena 6 Defendant Released on Bail