Cooperation
Times
Volume 15, No. 1 ~
Jan.-Feb. 2001
The CENTER has joined with other Kansas peace and justice, labor, religious, farm and disability organizations to form Kansas Action Network (KAN). KAN is a "broad based coalition for workers' rights, social justice and economic fairness seeking a common ground in the pursuit of a just society." It calls upon "our common values in order to educate, organize and mobilize on issues that will improve the working and living conditions for all men, women and children in Kansas."
The initial effort of the coalition is a campaign to work for the establishment of a living wage in Kansas. According to an Op-Ed article in the December 3 issue of the Topeka Capital-Journal, written by CENTER Director Bill Beachy, "The federal minimum wage—the lowest that employers in most industries can pay—is $5.15 per hour. (The Kansas minimum wage is even worse; the Legislature has put it at the shameful amount of $2.65.) This is not nearly enough for a full-time worker to escape poverty as defined by the same government that sets the minimum wage, the same government that in some small ways still gives handouts to the poor, the same government that must address numerous problems arising from widespread poverty in this age of the ‘booming economy.’"
More than 150 KAN groups' members rallied at the Statehouse in late November for living wage jobs. "They spoke in favor of [a] Federal bill and to the larger issues of what Kansans need to earn to support their families. ..[They] marched through downtown Topeka to Sen. Sam Brownback's office to let him know that Kansans were concerned about this important economic development.
Bill Beachy was elected as KAN President for 2001 at the coalition's November Board of Directors meeting. For more information on how your church or organization can work with KAN please call Bill at 785-232-4388.
Topeka
Victim Offender Mediation Project Underway
The vision that so many Topekans, especially CENTER supporters, have been hoping for is now underway; the Topeka Victim Offender Mediation Project is a reality. As a result of the groundwork laid by the CENTER during the last two years, the Project's Steering Committee and the Shawnee County District Attorney's office, the promise of introducing Restorative Justice into Shawnee County is close at hand.
The Project's victim offender mediation is the process of having trained mediators facilitate meetings between victims and first time juvenile offenders to express feelings, discuss the harm done during the crime, and to negotiate an agreement of restitution, community service or hours of work.
We have recruited volunteer approved mediators, set up shop, established a timeline for referrals from the DA's office and partnered with Washburn's Prof. Loretta Moore and Bethel College's Barbara Schmidt for Victim Offender Mediation–specific training for our approved volunteers on February 1.
It is our intention to begin mediations in early February with the hope of offering core mediation training to non-approved volunteers sometime in the early spring. Please call me at 785-232-4144 if you are interested in volunteering or wish to seek training in order to become an approved mediator.
Personally, I'd like to thank the staff at Central Congregational Church, Prof. Moore, Barbara Schmidt, Ben Coates, Jean Schmidt, our volunteers and of course Bill and Markus in the CENTER office for helping us so much in these formative weeks. Feel free to stop by our new office at 1248 SW Buchanan, upstairs across from the CENTER's main office, in the Community Building of Central Congregational Church.
(Kent Reed is the CENTER's Project Coordinator for the new Victim Offender Mediation Project. Welcome Kent!)
Kansans
Among 10,000 Demanding Closure of the School of the Americas
On November 19th, over 10,000 people from across the U.S. and Canada, including about 70 people from Kansas, along with this author, gathered at the gates of Ft. Benning to demand the closure of the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA). They endured cold, rainy weather to express their outrage at the deadly impact of U.S. counterinsurgency training on Latin American communities. (See announcement on this page and Topekan Roy Lacoursiere's personal account of the weekend starting on page 4.)
Over 3,500 risked arrest by crossing onto the base in a massive act of civil disobedience. Of those, 1,766 protesters, including clergy, students, veterans, grandparents were arrested and processed. They were given letters banning them from entering the base for five years. The protesters were taken to a local park and released. The last bus load of protesters was released shortly before midnight.
The number of protesters processed by military authorities increased dramatically from 65 in 1999. The post’s commanding general chose to use this means to impress on protest organizers that the Army will not allow Ft. Benning to become part of a political protest. However, protesters insisted threats of prison terms and fines would not deter them from organizing future protests and some plan to defy the military’s ban-and-bar orders by entering the base again next year. This year 21 demonstrators violated previous ban-and-bar orders and will probably face trial. Since 1990, 49 SOA Watch activists have defied the Army ban and have spent a total of 30 person-years in prison.
Kansas was well presented at the protest. In cooperation with KU’s Latin American Solidarity and the Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas, SOA Watch Kansas organized about 70 people to go to Ft. Benning, including 9 Topekans. At least half of the Kansas group crossed onto the base and eleven of them (mostly KU students) were processed and received the ban-and-bar letter.
The civil disobedience began when at 11:00 a.m. about 3,300 filed onto the base in a solemn funeral procession, carrying thousands of crosses and other sacred symbols inscribed with the names of victims of SOA violence in Latin America. They were led by a group dressed in black shrouds and white death masks who carried coffins to commemorate the assassination of six Jesuit priests and their two co-workers in El Salvador in 1989 by SOA graduates. When met by military police a half mile inside the base, the lead group fell to the ground, reenacting a massacre. They were among the first to be carried away by the military police.
Once the entire first procession had completely crossed the line, 32 additional activists, dressed as campesinos and soldiers, crossed the line and staged a massacre by Colombian paramilitaries. They were immediately taken into custody by military police.
Then, a second procession of 200 activists with giant puppets, costumes and drums entered the base. Other affinity groups entered simultaneously through different entrances and engaged in various creative actions of nonviolent resistance, such as street-theater and the blocking of the road with their bodies. Dozens of activists planted corn in Ft. Benning soil as a symbol of life and hope.
A few of the military police were unnecessarily rough with protesters, but there were no serious incidents of violence on the part of protesters or police.
Despite the cold and rain, thousands stood vigil at the gate and danced in the streets to the music of Bruce Cockburn, folk legend Pete Seeger, and others. Earlier in the morning, actor Martin Sheen, who plays the President on "The West Wing," received an enormous applause when he stated "As acting President of the United States, I declare that the School of the Americas must be closed immediately." Sheen was among those arrested Sunday afternoon.
The 2001 Defense Authorization Bill passed by Congress had a provision that closes the SOA and opens a new school on January 17 called the "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation." However, this "new school" offers no substantive changes. SOA Watch says "New Name? Same Shame!" and is already planning more mass protests for 2001, including "six days of nonviolent resistance" in Washington, DC, in April.
Kansans who attended the protest committed themselves to continue working until this School of Assassins is closed down. If you want to get involved here in Kansas in the struggle to close the SOA or want more information on the issue, please contact SOA Watch Kansas coordinator Markus Weyel at the CENTER (785-232-4388) or visit <www.kcactivism.org/soawatchks>.
(Markus Weyel, a Mennonite Voluntary Service worker, is serving this year in the CENTER's office as Administrative Assistant.)
Adequate
Defense Taskforce
by Barney J.
Heeney, Jr.
From what I can determine, most people that consider themselves "moderates" believe that the United States needs to have an adequate defense. The problem is how to determine what is such a defense.
To address this question locally, the CENTER purposes to form a group to study and promote an adequate defense by using such resources as the Center for Defense Information, the Council for a Livable World and other similar sources that come to our attention.
The Center for Defense Information believes that strong social, economic, political and military components and a healthy environment contribute equally to the nation’s security. CDI opposes excessive expenditures for weapons and policies that increase the danger of war. An example is the CDI’s opposition to the National Missile Defense program.
The initial organization attempt will be to form a core group and request that group’s thoughts on how to proceed. Possibilities include having a study group meeting monthly or bimonthly, present speakers at events such as the Rice and Bean programs and have promotional exhibits.
The "Penny Poll" is an exhibit example. Citizens just filing their income taxes on April 15 are given 100 pennies and requested to put their pennies in coin tubes representing the various governmental expenditures, for example, education, defense, welfare or transportation. This would show how those voters would like to see their tax dollars spent.
Please contact the CENTER's office (785-232-4388 or TopekaCPJ@aol.com) if you would like to help with the formation of this important task force.
(Barney Heeney retired from the law firm of Schroeder, Heeney, Groff and Coffman in 1988 where he had worked since 1951. He is the Republican Committeeman for Topeka's 2nd Ward, 11th Precinct.)
A
Sacred Experience - Presenté!
by
Roy Lacoursiere
I have just (Nov. 20, 2000, 8:30 a.m.) returned from one of the most moving religious experiences that I have ever had. It was likely as profound a sacred experience as I am aware of. (See related article and announcement on page 2.)
I had the honor this past weekend to be at a demonstration with thousands of everyday, ordinary people from throughout the United States and from Canada and some Latin American countries. The demonstration was partly to try to close the euphemistically entitled School of the Americas, at Fort Benning Army Base in Columbus, Georgia. At this facility killing and "democracy" are taught to armed forces officers and personnel of various foreign countries, some of whom then go on to kill their compatriots and/or United States citizens, who may be lay or religious persons, but who are persons acting democratically!
Yesterday morning, Sunday, a few thousand of us lined up before the entrance to the base, with many people carrying small, white crosses, each with the name of such a killed person written on it. It was a gray, drizzly morning. Hope and grace were all around. From a platform just outside the fort the names of the killed began to be slowly sung, and with each sung name the lined-up citizens, under the rain’s baptismal cleansing, raised the crosses and responded, Presenté! (pronounced pre-sent'-e) "I am here!" We were the voices for those who could no longer announce their own presence. We gave sound to the voiceless..."Bishop Oscar Romero," Presenté!; "Juan Lopez," Presenté!; "Maria Delores," five years old, Presenté!...
The names of the killed sung out in the open air more powerfully than chants of holy monks in medieval cathedral choirs could fill their vast structures. And with each name the wave of crosses went up with Presenté! And with each name we moved forward towards the white line, the dirty white line that marks the entry to the base and the exercise of our right to express ourselves, civilly disobey and protest the atrocities being perpetrated. They are being perpetrated, but "not in our names." Not in the names of us thousands from throughout the United States and elsewhere who want a better country, and a better world where we are not a part of deliberately executed harms.
The singing of the names continued—and there were enough names to allow a long procession of crosses—and the wave of crucifixes went up and down. Our own line of 10 Kansans abreast, about one-third of the way into the procession, eventually moved across the line into the base. At that point, with the singing in the trees and the undulating crucifixes, an urge to cry welled up in my chest. Had I not resisted the urge it would have brought tears to my eyes, tears crying for the beauty of the thousands of us together for others and for ourselves. Common people coming together to pray—in the sense of religious and legal prayers for relief. Relief from oppression of more helpless and suffering people. Relief from a government that has too little care and concern for those it injures and kills. And prayers for the closing of a facility that perpetrates harm onto others. On a Sunday morning, or any other day, there could hardly be a better mass, there could hardly be a better mass gathering. There could hardly be any better religious ritual of whatever persuasion. For those who could not be there we reenacted a contemporary version of the beatitudes of the sermon on the mount.
I had driven to Fort Benning with a group of about 20 people from Kansas, mostly students from the University of Kansas, but also a few "unattached" individuals like myself. We all made our small sacrifices by being present and being able to respond "Presenté!" for those who had made the "ultimate sacrifices," as we say about our military heroes. Some of the group had further decided to cross onto the base, and among this group some had decided to carry out more notable acts of civil disobedience and provoke a legal reaction of processing and/or arrest, whereas another subgroup had decided to have a watch–and–see approach and walk or proceed back out if we concluded that our contribution had essentially been made. After some hours, and following a suggested opinion of demonstration monitors, our subgroup decided to walk back out. We did so 10 abreast after we invited some lone walkers to join us.
Continuing in a religious vein, for me there was one more blessing. This blessing was to have been able to attend the demonstration with a group of university students who had the values and determination to make these contributions, and to allow me and a few others to be with them. Thank you.
It is very good to have arrived home safely some 2 1/2 days after leaving. It had been a most sacred Sunday.
(Roy Lacoursiere who practices forensic psychiatry in Topeka is a member of the CENTER's Board of Directors.)
Topekans
Visit El Salvador
by Ken Cott
Ten years ago, members of Trinity Presbyterian Church and the Topeka Alliance On Central America began investigating ways to accompany the people of El Salvador as they moved from a tragic civil war toward a new era. The result was the establishment of a relationship with the village of Talpetates. Since 1992, Presbyterians and others from Topeka and northern Kansas have contributed to the improvement of health and education in Talpetates and responded to a variety of other community initiatives. Our most important contribution has been paying the salaries of two teachers in the Talpetates school. Today, this makes it possible for the school to offer grades 7 through 9. It is highly unusual for a rural school in El Salvador to go beyond the sixth grade, and doing so opens the possibility of acquiring further education for the children of Talpetates.
An important part of the Topeka-Talpetates relationship has been an annual exchange of visits. For the ninth consecutive year, Topekans will visit El Salvador this summer from July 11 to July 28. We will spend three days in Talpetates, visiting the school and the women's’ health center, meeting with community leaders, and reinforcing the ties of solidarity which have developed between us since 1992. The rest of the time will be spent in the capital, San Salvador, where we will meet with professors, human rights workers, women’s and labor organizers, and a variety of other articulate and dedicated individuals. The purpose of these activities is to familiarize us with the Salvadoran reality. Interested persons may obtain three hours of academic credit from Washburn University for this experience.
If you would like more information about the Topeka-Talpetates Companion Community Project or the trip to El Salvador in July, contact Ken Cott, H) 785-235-6790 , W) 785-231-1010 x1249, or zzcott@washburn.edu.
(Ken Cott is Professor of History at Washburn University.)