Special
Report Peace activists stand against violence
By MARGOT PATTERSON
As President George W. Bush and other national leaders spoke of
declaring war against an enemy still unknown, Americans responded with shock,
horror and anger to the Sept. 11 bombing of the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, icons of American financial and military might. Amid calls for
retaliation and reprisals, however, peace groups across the country counseled
restraint and nonviolence while reaching out to immigrant communities, donating
blood for victims of the bombings, holding vigils and prayer services, and
perhaps most important, offering a different perspective on the violence than
that seen in the mainstream media.
Within the peace community, there was a range of responses. Fr.
Daniel Berrigan, dean of the Catholic peace movement, refused to comment.
Its all beyond words. I cant talk to you. Its too
close, he said.
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, auxiliary of Detroit and a longtime
activist in peace and justice causes, said, My hope is that well
find a way as a nation to look at this in a much broader perspective. We need
to ask the question Why? Why would anybody go to this extreme, to
kill themselves and thousands of others?
When I begin to think about it, it reminds me of a slave
rebellion
when people are so oppressed that they have nothing to lose by
killing themselves, he said.
Asked if Catholics might become targets of harassment if they make
bold statements against retaliation, he replied, Do you mean we should
water down our words? I think not. If the religious community of the United
States cant come up with a different response than one of violence and
war, weve betrayed our whole religious tradition.
Other peace activists spoke at length and published condemnations,
condolences and reflections. Expressions of sorrow, dismay, sympathy for the
victims and their families were common. So, too, were calls for restraint and a
concern that the United States might rush to judgment.
We have deep, deep concerns about retribution and calls for
violent responses and were beginning to put out the message that war is
not the answer, said Joe Gerson, Northeast program director of the
American Friends Service Committee. What we all deeply feel is that this
is almost exclusively an attack on innocents, and attacking other innocents
whether in this country or elsewhere doesnt make it any better.
Trinitarian Fr. Stan DeBow, director of the Office of Justice and
Peace for the Conference of Major Superiors of Men and the Leadership
Conference of Women Religious spoke of the need to step back and use common
sense in responding to the terrorist attacks. Its already being
called a war, but a war against whom? asked DeBow, the morning after the
terrorist attacks. Lets be balanced. We do not know who has done
this yet.
As word filtered in later in the day that Osama Bin Laden might be
involved in the bombings, DeBow emphasized that the United States must avoid
demonizing an entire people because of the actions of one zealot or
stereotyping people because of religion, ethnicity or ideology.
Concern about vengeance at home as well as abroad was also sounded
by the interfaith peace group, Fellowship of Reconciliation. Will we
respond to what has happened with suspicion of our neighbors because of their
ethnicity, dress, religion or culture? Will we compound the tragedy by taking
out our anger on others? the fellowship said in a statement.
Vengeance vs. justice
Pax Christi, the national Catholic peace movement, urged U.S.
leaders to break the spiral of violence that many citizens may be quick to
embrace. Vengeance is not justice. The only kind of justice that will
honor the memory of all those who lost their lives is a justice based on
international law, not reckless retribution, Pax Christi said in a
statement.
Tom Cordaro, chairperson of the national council of Pax Christi
USA, was one of many who said that for the United States to contribute to the
cycle of violence by lashing out blindly would be counterproductive.
I think the perpetrators need to be brought to
justice, Cordaro said. But we have to distinguish between justice
and violence. It disturbs me profoundly that President Bush says we will make
no distinction between terrorists who commit such acts and those who harbor
them. And yet distinctions must be made between the guilty and the innocent,
between the perpetrators and the civilians who may surround them, between those
who commit atrocities and those who may simply share their religion or
political points of view. Justice must be targeted toward those who are guilty
and must be done according to the rule of law. If at all possible, they (the
culprits) should be apprehended and brought to stand trial, to be found guilty
or innocent by proper authorities. This is what it means to live according to
law. Vigilantism, whether it be by a superpower or individuals, is always
wrong.
Terrorism will end, added Cordaro, when all
nations great and small adhere to and are accountable to international law. As
long as the strong can lord it over the weak, terrorism will be the choice of
the disenfranchised.
Longtime peace activist Elizabeth McAlister, who lives at the
Jonah House community in Baltimore and who has devoted much of her life to
anti-war activities, said the attacks have exposed the vulnerability of a
nation that spends billions of dollars in the name of defense and security.
Money for defense
How many billions have we spent on the military to defend
us? They cant. How many billions have we spent on the [National Security
Agency], CIA and FBI and theyre powerless, and theyll remain that.
We can spend double that. There is no security and there is no defense except
the works of justice, McAlister said.
If many in the peace community expressed sorrow and grief at the
attacks, most also seemed unsurprised. Instead, they said, the bombings should
cause Americans to look more deeply at the causes of the violence that has been
brought home to them in such a devastating way.
We cant condone any act of violence no matter who
carries it out, but we have to understand that because of our policies around
the world, we are hated by many people for our acts of military intervention,
economic policies and our support for dictatorships, said Art Laffin, a
member of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker community in Washington.
Laffin noted that his community holds a peace vigil every Monday
morning outside the Pentagon, just a short distance from where a highjacked
jetliner cut a swath in the west side of the building killing hundreds.
In New York Kathy Kelly, a member of Voices in the Wilderness, a
Chicago organization working to end the economic sanctions on Iraq, was on the
37th day of a 40-day, liquids-only fast when the attacks occurred. Kelly and
other fasters planned to break their fast on Sept. 14 with a meal of lentils
and rice they would share with passersby at the corner across from the U.S.
mission to the United Nations. Kelly said that after the attacks the focus of
the fast changed to breaking the cycle of violence.
A frequent visitor to Iraq, Kelly recalled a family in Baghdad who
welcomed a newborn into the world during the U.S. bombing in 1998 and named her
Hofran, which means forgiveness. Rather than emphasizing national security,
Kelly urged that Americans forge bonds of compassion and
understanding with all peoples.
Roots of terrorism
In addition to advocating a measured, legal response to terrorism,
peace advocates spoke of the need to change U.S. policies that feed
terrorism.
Gerson at the American Friends Service Committee said, I
think its important that we think through in both a compassionate and
rational way the multiple causes of this to ensure it doesnt happen
again, and I think that means looking at our military budget and our foreign
policy and that is in no way meant to justify this attack. Its terrible
to see Palestinians celebrating this attack, but its understandable,
given the U.S. financial and diplomatic support for the Israeli occupation,
which has been a brutal experience for more than three generations of
Palestinians.
Arun Gandhi, director of the M.K.Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
in Memphis and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, said the terrorist bombings should
be a wake-up call for the peace community to work harder for peace and
justice.
We have to understand that nonviolence is not a strategy.
Nonviolence is an attitude. Its about cultivating an attitude of peace
and nonviolence within yourself. Everybodys response is that somebody is
going to have to pay for this, and were going to smash them. But how many
people are we going to smash? To get rid of Saddam Hussein, we bombed the whole
nation, and so many men and women and children we killed, and we made the whole
nation of Iraq into terrorists. A lot of innocent people are going to die
because we want Osama bin Laden. This kind of response, a political response
and a violent response, is not going to solve problems.
Justice is a misunderstood concept, Gandhi said. Justice should
not mean revenge but reformation, recognition that the other person is
misguided and needs reform.
Margot Patterson is NCR senior writer. Her e-mail
address is mpatterson@natcath.org Patricia Lefevere, Patrick
ONeill and Claire Schaeffer-Duffy contributed to this story.
Related Web sites |
The American Friends Service Committee [
www.afsc.org ]
The Catholic Worker www.cathlicworker.org
Fellowship of Reconciliation www.forusa.org
The M.K. Gandhi Institute for
Nonviolence www.gandhiinstitute.org
Pax Christi USA [ www.paxchristiusa.org ]
War Resisters www.warresisters.org |
National Catholic Reporter, September 21, 2001
[corrected 10/05/2001]
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