How do we respond when government infringes on individual & religious rights?

The Interfaith Alliance forum at Joy Evangelical  Lutheran  Church January 8, 2008

Panelist Delphine Herbert, Marions for Peace:

How do we respond when government infringes on individual and religious rights?

There is only one way – with courage.  We must take a stand and act on our beliefs even if initially the whole world seems to think otherwise.  The greater numbers of our citizens prefer not to be discomforted and in fact do not see the now accelerating erosion of our constitutional rights as the current administration, with the acquiescence and complicity

 of our Congress, our economic structure and our media , presumes to monitor all aspects of our lives with  the  Orwellian Patriot Act which makes thinking for oneself a crime..

Americans not yet accessing the world wide web would be shocked to learn that US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and the UK-based Privacy International , in assessing 70 nations,  has ranked  the US with Russia, China and the UK as  among the worst in the world for invasion of the privacy of their citizens. The assessment is based on many criteria, including constitutional protection, the use of identity cards, data sharing between government agencies, and visual surveillance.

Right after 9/11 the author of the following words published in the New Yorker on 9/24/01 was excoriated as a traitor:“  The disconnect between last Tuesday’s monstrous dose of reality and the self-righteous drivel and outright deceptions being peddled by public figures and TV commentators is startling, depressing.  The voices licensed to follow the event seem to have joined together in a campaign to infantilize the public.    …..Our leaders are bent on convincing us that everything is OK.  America is not afraid.  Our spirit is unbroken ……a robotic president assures us that America still stands tall.  A wide spectrum of public figures, in and out of office, who are strongly opposed to the policies being pursued abroad by this Administration apparently feel free to say nothing more than that they stand united behind President Bush…….the unanimity of the sanctimonious, reality-concealing rhetoric spouted by American officials and media commentators in recent days seems, well, unworthy of a mature democracy. Those in public office have let us know that they consider their task to be a manipulative one:  confidence building and grief management.  Politics, the politics of a democracy which entails disagreement and promotes candor – has been replaced by psychotherapy. ”

The author was Susan Sontag, once president of American PEN, an organization devoted to the protection of freedom of expression for creative individuals. 

Truly free men cannot allow themselves to be cowed into conformity by the heavy fog of fear which clouds irrational response to danger.  The exceptional among us – the Dr. Martin Luther Kings, the Sojourner Truths, the Frederick Douglasses, the Daniel Ellsbergs, the Berrigans, rose to the call of history.  Now we have   Scott Camil, the Winter soldier who after serving as a gung ho Marine in Vietnam, had an epiphany in Detroit in 1971, transforming him into a powerful voice with Veterans for Peace. A homeless advocate, Clare Hanrahan, spent six month in Federal prison after protesting at the School of the Americas.  The Rev. Gwin Pratt, Presbyterian minister in Jacksonville, was arrested in the well of the US Senate last year for protesting against the war.  These voices defend your rights just as surely as does anyone wearing a military uniform.    But we who are more frail vessels hesitate.

Often, we simply don’t know what to do, where to start.  We mistrust our own ability to make a difference and we fear the censure of public recrimination.  We don’t want to appear ridiculous if indeed we are proven wrong.

Paul Rogat Loeb, in Soul of a Citizen, wrote “We never feel we have enough knowledge or standing.  If we do speak out, someone might challenge us, might find an error in our thinking, or an inconsistency – what they might call an hypocrisy in our lives……..we…..use the standard of perfection to justify our detachment.”   He went on to say that “social change always proceeds in the absence of absolute knowledge, as long as people are willing to follow their convictions, to act despite their doubts, and to speak even at the risk of making mistakes.”

It is hard for many of us to take a stand.  We all seek community – be it the community of family, church, tribe, interest groups or the universes of the intellect now expanding exponentially through the miracles of technology.  Thus there is a constant tension between the desire to appease our personal communities and the need for the expression of our innermost hearts and souls. 

Five years ago 150 people in Marion County joined with hundreds of thousands of others throughout the nation who lifted their voices against an unprovoked war by signing an open letter to President Bush which was published in the Ocala Star Banner on January 19, 2003.    It endorsed the words of national religious leaders of all creeds, beseeching the president to turn from the brink of war with Iraq as such action “will only sow more seeds of intense hatred, strengthening the extreme ideologies, and breed further global instability and insecurity.”  Two and a half years later when fear prevailed and patriotism brooked no challenge, only 80 would sign a similar letter.

The candlelight vigils and rallies which first attracted 75 people at the Ocala town square in January of 2003 now attract only a handful of regulars at our weekly street rallies.  Friction developed between those who wanted silent vigils and those who wished to voice their concerns about the immorality of a Pax Americana spread by the sword.    Many lost sight of the reason we came together – our rejection of an unjust and illegal war - not our personal stances on religious issues.   Mercy me,  if a street preacher said a prayer in the presence of an atheist.

In the local churches there were the perfunctory prayers for peace and the safety of our troops . But really supporting the troops by wanting them out of useless danger characterized one as a traitor. Just where were the strong voices standing publicly for the Prince of Peace? 

Many have mocked Marions for Peace for continuing our street rallies.  They don’t know that we read public repudiation of the war long before the politicians did.  Yes, it is hard to stand in 100 degree heat with the sun blazing in your eyes.  It is difficult not to respond in like manner to the rude and the uninformed.  But, while our numbers are small, the response from passersby has been at least 80% supportive right from the start.  And just before the 2006 election we were experiencing almost total and enthusiastic acknowledgement, leading us to believe that by our presence we were in fact giving courage to others by showing them that’s it’s alright to stand up against the status quo. There is a certain exhilaration gained both from standing with like-minded folk and from the grateful responses from the street. 

And yes, despite all the criticism that demonstrations large and small throughout the nation have accomplished little because of discord among the groups, peace people , through the power of the internet and the passion of personal commitment, have thus far stopped the administration from bombing Iran, an action which might indeed lead to world-wide conflagration.

Those who taunt Marions for Peace on the street do not realize that just about every man who has ever stood with us has served in the military, and many of the women have been nurses. Among our most faithful supporters have been:

The Rev.Mac White, retired Methodist minister, past president of the Marion County TIA  and lifelong champion of peace who marched in the civil rights protests in the 1960s;

George Newkirk, 89 year old elder of the Quakers, who until recently dragged himself to our rallies and vigils with his walker; Lee Wiggins, a retired VA nurse and her husband, Jerry Janiszewski, a design engineer who worked with the space program, Bob Zannelli, savant extraordinaire and nuclear engineer once associated with Admiral Rickover; Cynthia Merkey, former owner of a Gainesville bookstore; and Homer Detwiler, forest dweller, marathoner and member of the Marion County Chorale.    

But perhaps the most impassioned among us was Rex Weng, 86 year old veteran of the segregated military, whose heart broke each day as he learned of the latest casualties.  Now living with his daughter in California, Rex cannot understand why the black community does not see the need to stand with us since the war impacts minority communities so greatly.  Rex, who regularly protested alone against the Confederate flag still flying near the Marion County Commission headquarters, deems institutional racism and continuing gender discrimination as the two underlying reasons that multinational corporations for whom profit is the only god now  rule the world, crushing the good which globalization might otherwise bring to all mankind.  

Dr. Martin Luther King said that “the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” I think this means that yes, we have rights but we also have duties as citizens to defend those rights.  How are you using your first amendment right to free speech?  Is fear of what others might think causing you to acquiesce to consensus thinking?  Or are you speaking out publicly – on the internet, in the papers, on the radio, in your churches and other groups – in the realization that killing anywhere, whether of body or of spirit, is the real terrorism of our times.

Yes, the winds of change are giving breath to the audacity of hope……..and perhaps the new thinking Einstein said we need to save mankind from extinction.                 `````