We are a group of believers committed to revisioning the relationship between the Word and our world, in order to help animate and build capacity for communities of discipleship and justice.
This is what "good news" sounds like! It didn’t take long – after news broke this afternoon that President Obama had indefinitely kiboshed the climate-killer Keystone XL pipeline – for my phone to ring.
"Hi Rose, I’m calling from White House on behalf of President Obama.
Last night, September
21st, the final night of the Air Force Association "Arms
Bazaar", a group of 13 of us from Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Pax
Christi and other peace groups held a nonviolent witness across the street
from the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center during the AFA/Lockheed
Martin-sponsored $330 per plate banquet that was attended by some 150 weapons
contractors. We were closely observed by
at least six Prince George County police and several Gaylord security
personnel. At 7 p.m. we paused to pray for a miracle that Troy Davis would not be executed
in Georgia.
BCM Note: We are reproducing this press release from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in anticipation of the U.N. debate on 9/20/11 concerning Palestinian statehood; we endorse the views of this release.
Washington, DC | www.adc.org | September 19, 2011 - Events at the United Nations this week involving Palestine’s bid for statehood will not by themselves mean a just peace and realization of Palestinian rights so long denied. But these events may lead to new and important possibilities, and ADC remains engaged in these developments. While this appeal is being intensely debated between intellectuals and politicians invoking either the positive or negative consequences of such action, there are some facts which remain indisputable. The Palestinian people are ready for statehood and the opportunity to express their self-sufficiency. The path to statehood must be walked upon starting this moment, yet we remain cautious about the dangers we continue to face. The Palestinian people deserve the same human rights and opportunities as any other population- their suffering – our suffering – has endured for too long.
I was at the annual
gathering sponsored by www.Jesus
Radicals.org, the “flagship” of young Christian anarchists in the
U.S. Thanks to Christine and Steve Clemens for their hospitality in Minneapolis. Speaking of younger activists, we worked this
summer with student environmental filmmakers at UC Santa Barbara on their documentary on the Ventura watershed.
We also continue to collaborate with the
nearby Abundant Table Farm Project,
with whom we are currently studying Ellen
Davis’ Scripture, Culture and Agriculture. The Word
& World Mentoring Program goes well; we’ll next meet at Stony Point, NY
in October as part of events around the opening of the Center and Library for
the Bible and Social Justice. And we’re
pleased that Elaine is increasing
her hours at the Pasadena Peace and
Justice Academy this coming school year.
When I first signed up to come to Washington and return to
the White House, I thought to myself: wasn’t it just a year and a half ago that
I told Christine that I’m getting too old to spend another night in jail? My
experience protesting President Obama’s continuation of the Afghan and Iraq
Wars had left me physically very sore (but spiritually content) after 28 hours
in the four different DC jails we occupied after our “die in” at the White
House the day before the 2010 State of the Union address.
This time it was an email from my friend, Rabbi Arthur
Waskow of the Shalom Center in Philadelphia that got the juices flowing again.
He sent me a letter signed by Bill McKibben, Jim Hansen, Naomi Klein, and
Wendell Berry (among others) asking us to come to DC at the end of August to
nonviolently pressure President Obama to declare that allowing the Trans-Canada
project to build the Keystone XL pipeline linking the Alberta Tar Sands oil
fields to Houston, TX refineries and Gulf Coast shipping would not be in “the
national interest”. Since the proposed 1,700 mile pipeline would cross the
international border, Obama can unilaterally declare it is or isn’t in our
national interest without Congressional interference. Come to Washington, the
letter said, and risk arrest in a two-week civil disobedience campaign. The
letter especially encouraged we older folk who have made a very large carbon
footprint over our lives to share some of the burden of risking arrest to
change our policies.
Last
Saturday Aug 21, 2011, I got arrested (right,
photo by Milan Ilnyckyj). Having
never been arrested before, it feels strange to write that. Like most Americans
I associate getting arrested with committing egregiously unlawful acts that
require punishment … or, you know, getting drunk in public and being picked up
by the cops.
In my
case, though, I was arrested for willfully breaking the law for something I
believe in. Together with 60-some others, last Saturday I plopped down in front
of President Obama’s front lawn in Washington D.C. Normally you’re allowed to
sit down on a sidewalk on a summer morning. However, due to security laws, you
can’t do it in front of the White House. Yet, when the D.C. Park Police told
our group to go, we all stayed put. We were there to commit non-violent civil
disobedience.
The
summer garden is coming in strong, especially with fruit. Yes, those are our oranges, peaches, grapes
and raspberries pictured above (thanks to Ted
Lyddon Hatten for the photos). On
top of that there are apples, strawberries, plums and apricots (and melons to
come). It’s been an incredible bounty—and
a little overwhelming to keep up with; the processing (freezing, drying,
canning) will stretch on for months. Sadly,
we had to take down our apricot tree after harvest this year, as it was
terminally infected with brown rot. So
our intensive gardening learning curve continues, and we’re grateful we were at
home all month to tend to it all. A
highlight too was attending the July 22nd open house at the new Ventura River Steelhead Preserve just a
few miles from our house, a major new project of the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy.
On a hike there we were thrilled to observe several young and adult
steelhead in one of the Preserve’s shaded perennial pools!
After
presenting our “watershed discipleship” Bible study at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker early this month, Elaine and I drove on
to Orange County to celebrate my mom’s
89th birthday! While down
south we enjoyed a long lunch with Tommy
and Lindsay Airey, whose journey has taken them from Rick Warren’s
Saddleback Church to helping launch the new Anabaptist Network in North
America (http://anabaptistnetwork.ning.com/). On the way back we attended a board meeting
for the Abundant Table Farm Project
in Oxnard, where we continue to try to shape a sustainable future for this
awesome faith-rooted organic farming internship (http://theabundanttable.org/blog/).
This time it was an email from my friend, Rabbi Arthur
Waskow of the Shalom Center in Philadelphia that got the juices flowing again.
He sent me a letter signed by Bill McKibben, Jim Hansen, Naomi Klein, and
Wendell Berry (among others) asking us to come to DC at the end of August to
nonviolently pressure President Obama to declare that allowing the Trans-Canada
project to build the Keystone XL pipeline linking the Alberta Tar Sands oil
fields to Houston, TX refineries and Gulf Coast shipping would not be in “the
national interest”. Since the proposed 1,700 mile pipeline would cross the
international border, Obama can unilaterally declare it is or isn’t in our
national interest without Congressional interference. Come to Washington, the
letter said, and risk arrest in a two-week civil disobedience campaign. The
letter especially encouraged we older folk who have made a very large carbon
footprint over our lives to share some of the burden of risking arrest to
change our policies.
