Topeka Center

for Peace and Justice

Contents:

• Hate in Topeka

• Missing Peace Fills in Some Gaps in History

• Rally Against Hate

• Community Supported Agriculture

• Voluntary Service in Topeka

• Peace Camp 2002

Hate in Topeka
by Dr. Robert D. Carey

The long-simmering frustration of Topekans over Fred Phelps’ embarrassing street signs calling on people to hate "fags" has been heated up by his latest tactic of flying the United States flag upside down. And this comes during the time we are still grieving from the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York, when we treasure the flag as our symbol of defiance against terrorism. How outrageous can he get? Is this just another tactic to remain in the spotlight so he can continue his message of hate for a portion of humanity?

Fred Phelps is skillful at staying just inside the law on free speech and protecting himself with a family lawyer who will defend him when necessary. We realistically have no hope of putting a legal stop to his program of using his children and grandchildren to hold up the signs of hate as we drive by. Should we just ignore him and hope he and his little family church will someday tire of the charade?

Fred hasn’t committed a hate crime. Or has he? What is a hate monger and what connection does a hate monger have to a hate crime he motivates others to commit? Who commits hate crimes anyway? In our nation before September 11 we thought the thousands of hate crimes in the U.S. (7,876 by FBI count in 1999) were committed by "skinhead" hate-type people. But research in Los Angeles over a two-year period found that less than five per cent of the hate crimes were committed by hate groups. Most such crimes were committed by young people acting out of their own prejudices. They were not lawbreakers otherwise, and they did not feel that their hate-motivated actions were morally wrong or unlawful. Why didn’t they? Where did they get those prejudices and hatreds? The researchers believe that these young people should be reached before they commit acts of violence. But somebody is already reaching them with the wrong ideas! How many other Fred Phelps-type people are there in our nation? How do we counteract them?

Bigotry and intolerance motivate hate crimes; a majority of states have hate crime laws that cover "bias crime" factors of ethnicity, race, and religion. Some also include the factors of sexual orientation, age, and disability. A congressional hate crimes bill passed the U.S. Senate in 2000, but House leaders killed it. A bill moved through the Senate Judiciary Committee again last summer, but there were still controversial views that some congressional members had about protection for gays and lesbians.

Regardless of legislative developments, there are things that people of faith (Christian, Jewish, Islamic, etc.) can do in their own places of worship and service, for youth in their communities. They can treat hate violence as a sin, in addition to it being a legal, psychological or sociological matter. Congregations can be prophetic, speaking out, breaking the silence, letting the community know that their religion and its institutions are unalterably opposed to hate violence. If their own religious group has some people who misuse the scriptures to attempt to justify wrongful actions, they should bring the issue to light in their religious community at all levels. None of the great religions of the world justify hate crimes. There should be a strong interfaith body of religious leaders in every community organized to work together in rooting out hate violence. Each faith should also turn the spotlight on their own leaders and followers, not just pointing at outsiders. Love for God (Allah, or whatever name is used) is paramount in every faith. Love for God and hatred for others is incompatible. We are all God’s creatures.

One of the best defenses against hate violence is education—in schools, universities, churches, homes, and all social and service groups. Everyone should be well informed about hate groups through newspaper, radio, TV, Internet web sites, and government reports. Information on every hate group and the media they use should be widely shared and discussed, without fear that this is giving such groups the publicity they want. (There are currently over 3,000 "hate" web sites on the internet, which are especially dangerous because they encourage "lone wolf" violence.) To counteract them, information about these Web sites and the effect their actions have in increasing the climate of hate in the community should be spread. People should be helped to analyze the language of intolerance, often cloaked in religious language or emotionally charged images. And youth leaders should especially be informed about how youth can be drawn in by such language and motivated to commit hate crimes. In addition to providing information, drama is a good way to reach youth and the community.

Do our youth have permission to harass and even kill homosexuals because Fred Phelps says God hates fags? We Topekans have to face this issue before something tragic happens in our own city. Counteract him as suggested above. Start the process now, Topekans!

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Missing Peace Fills in Some Gaps in History
Book review by Duane Johnson

American history books and biographies of America’s heroes enthralled me when I was a school kid. I understood my country’s history as an epic story that revealed how the world had progressed gradually and gloriously – though sometimes painfully – from a past characterized by barbarism and oppression to the wonderfully civilized, nearly idyllic conditions of the present.

Granted, the "present" of my childhood may have been a simpler and happier time from which to view the past than the dawn of the 21st century; at least it seems that way at a backward glance. But the authors of a new history, The Missing Peace: The Search for Nonviolent Alternatives in United States History, suggest that my perception of my country’s purity and innocence was no aberration, and no accident.

"In two centuries of national life, most Americans have learned their history in terms of a master narrative of patriotic triumph and material success," write authors Jim Juhnke and Carol Hunter. "If Americans occasionally resorted to violence, it was believed, the savagery was exceptional and contrary to their own basic character."

This self-congratulatory approach to presenting history, the authors note, came under fire beginning in the 1960s, with the emergence of historical accounts that focused attention on our nation’s persistent racism, poverty and senseless wars. Such narratives have often left readers depressed and alienated.

Now, Juhnke and Hunter have offered an alternative approach to both triumphant nationalism, which still dominates the history textbook market, and critical denunciations of America’s past with a supplemental history that refuses to glorify or deny our nation’s propensity for violence and yet which offers hope by recounting past attempts at peaceably resolving conflict.

The Missing Peace challenges the myth of redemptive violence, where order is perceived as having gained victory over chaos through violent means. Juhnke, a professor of history at Bethel College (Mennonite) in central Kansas, and Hunter, associate professor of history at Earlham College (Quaker) in Richmond, Ind., attempt to:
1. "demonstrate that violence in the United States has done more harm than good…"
2. "offer a different lens from which to view history, one based on mutuality and interdependence rather than self-willed triumph…"
3. "provide hope and encouragement for a less violent future by remembering those people and events who worked for nonviolent alternatives, but whose stories are often missing from traditional texts."

They argue that traditional history books do us a disservice by ignoring so many of the nonviolent alternatives that were rejected in the heat of the moment, because it robs us of the ability to learn from our mistakes.

Although not a history of peace movements in America, the book spotlights many of the efforts made by advocates of peace within the context of the course of U.S. history, including the perseverance and courage in the face of death shown by Cheyenne Peace Chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope, Joseph Galloway’s nearly successful plan to avert the American Revolutionary War and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan’s failed attempt to keep the United States out of World War I. The book is, in many ways, a reminder and recounting of missed opportunities for peaceful reconciliation.

They also point out some of the events that often go unnoticed in other history books because of their success, such as John Adams’ refusal to cave in to the push for war with France in1799. Though it cost him his re-election bid, Adams’ conviction ("Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.") held firm.

The book has its flaws. In an attempt to show that gun ownership on the American frontier was not as prevalent as is often portrayed, the authors cite a source whose use of probate records has recently drawn criticism from some scholars, demonstrating the dangers inherent in relying on secondary sources.

Moreover, the authors sometimes stretch the limits of credibility with their frequent ventures into speculation over whether history might have taken a different turn if nonviolent alternatives had been embraced.

Could the Civil War really have been averted, for example, if President-elect Abraham Lincoln had taken a more conciliatory approach and worked to forge a political alliance with moderate groups both within the Republican Party and within the upper Southern states?

Nevertheless, The Missing Peace makes a welcome contribution to the historical record by reminding us that peaceful alternatives to war and violence are often closer than we think.

"Abundant signs of hope lie within our history," the authors conclude. "The challenge is to seek out those signs, read them diligently, and follow their paths toward a more just and peaceable society."

The Missing Peace: The Search for Nonviolent Alternatives in United States History, published 2001 by Pandora Press, Ontario.

(Duane Johnson is a Viet Nam era veteran who served as a drill sergeant. He is a former newspaper reporter and editor who is now a free lance writer.)

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Community Supported Agriculture
by Teresa Oliver

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), not a new concept in agriculture, is nevertheless unique in its approach to farming, in that marketing and forming relationships between the producer and the consumer becomes as important as the harvest of the fields. Family farms are fast becoming a memory as they fade into the huge infrastructure of agribusiness which is described as a more efficient way of providing food for the American people.

Something becomes lost when food is raised on an "assembly line" basis though, and that is where CSA’s come into focus as a way to retain a direct link to food production for consumers. The goal of CSA is not picture perfect food or marketable packaging, but rather a product that will communicate with taste and touch and maybe even sight and sound, the miracle of growth and the excitement of food. Food is the direct basic link to life and there is an interwoven relationship between it and the very survival of life that should be reflected in how it is grown.

Sundog CSA is a direct marketing option that is open to consumers of fresh produce, fruits, natural meats and other farm raised products. CSA marketing efforts involve responsibility on the part of the farmer to raise food for a group of people who purchase subscriptions where on a weekly basis they receive food from the farm—whatever is in season and available that week. Making that trip to the farm and picking up your fresh organically grown food is making a commitment to sustain a family farm that is dedicated to the growing of food in a diversified setting. Our whole family is involved in the production of the CSA bags, from beginning seedlings to harvesting and cleaning produce and filling bags. We invite and encourage you to come to the farm this growing season, experience food on a first hand basis—see where it is grown, see who grows it.

Beginning our 4th season of growing organic produce and fruit along with offering farm fresh eggs, healthy medicine and hormone free meats, and other value-added products from the farm, Sundog CSA invites you to join our subscription service. Our newsletters relate farm work experiences and daily life as well as recipes and information about produce. Our growing season is dictated by weather conditions but on the average lasts about 18 weeks. During this time period, subscribers are treated to a large variety of seasonally grown vegetables and fruits with each bag reflecting what is being harvested on the farm that week. Past seasons have seen peas, potatoes, tomatoes, beets, kohlrabi, tomatoes, onions, leeks, sweet potatoes, peppers, eggplant, greens of all kinds, radishes, carrots, broccoli, cabbage and a large variety of fresh herbs, and fruits—apples, peaches and pears—in the produce bags. And when the Kansas weather is kind, we are blessed to have fresh berries available. Value added products include honey, eggs, flavored vinegars, fresh butter, pickles, jams and jellies and bread. Each season is different which adds to the wonder of growing and the challenges. The bags are priced at $12.00 per week which includes Kansas sales tax. There is a $40 membership deposit which is applied to the cost of the last two bags of the season and to operating costs such as newsletter printing, produce bags etc. For more information please contact Teresa Oliver at 785-654-2313 or <oliver@flinthills.com>.

(Teresa Oliver is the owner and operator of her 40-acre farm, along with her two adult children. She bakes bread for a local restaurant and attends Allen County Community College.)

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Voluntary Service in Topeka
by Kent Fellenbaum

Like most gardeners, Anthony Swartzendruber has seen a relatively inactive winter give way to the busyness of springtime planting, not on the farm, but within Topeka’s city limits. He is one of several full-time volunteers living and working in Topeka with Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS).

Anthony coordinates the Topeka Common Ground Project, a community gardening program of the Kansas Rural Center (KRC). Common Ground has established several mentoring projects with at-risk students at Whitson and Linn Elementary Schools and the Hope Street Behavioral Intervention Unit. Each week, he also spends time working with residents at TARC and at the Topeka League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Senior Center, where he tends plants in the greenhouse.

Anthony oversees several other garden plots throughout the city, including the half-acre Hi-Crest Garden of Unity, near the corner of 37th and Colfax St. In addition to tending their own individual plots, participants who help with the community plot are entitled to its produce. Surplus produce is donated to local charities and food banks, which last year received more than 250 pounds of fruit and vegetables. Anthony, who began his assignment in September, is from Shickley, Nebraska.

Erma Edwards, of Iowa City, Iowa, has worked on the support staff at Marian Clinic, also since September. The clinic works with low-income clients who do not have health insurance. She spends most of her time in the chart room filing the lab and consultation reports in the medical charts as they arrive by fax or mail. Having these reports and tests added to the charts within a few hours of arrival provides the nursing staff up to date information in caring for patients as well as saving them time and providing assurance of quality care.

Kent Fellenbaum hails from Lancaster, Pa., and since last August has split his time between working at the CENTER’s office as the Administrative Assistant, and for the Kansas Rural Center as a communications assistant. KRC is a nonprofit organization based in Whiting that promotes sustainable agriculture, family farming, and regional food systems. In addition to writing articles for the KRC newsletter, Kent has compiled a report on the various farming "cluster" groups that work with KRC.

Jerry and Jené Yoder have done voluntary service in Topeka for almost three years. They share a 1½ time position with Cornerstone of Topeka, an interdenominational, local church-supported agency that provides services for low-income and homeless families. Jerry does maintenance on the houses owned by Cornerstone while Jené works with the organization’s transitional housing and education program in addition to home-schooling the couple’s two children, Jevin, 7, and Jayce, 5. They previously lived in Hutchinson.

MVS is a program of the Mennonite Church USA that provides opportunities for people to do service assignments at social service, education, social justice and related agencies in nearly 30 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. MVS participants live in community by sharing a "unit" house along with household responsibilities and finances, which come from stipends paid by each participant’s respective agency.

Members of the Topeka Unit are actively involved at Southern Hills Mennonite Church, which supports the program personally and financially. A committee of the church meets with the volunteers monthly to check in on how jobs are going and attend to any unit issues that may arise. The Topeka unit began in 1997 with the support of the Southern Hills congregation and has hosted more than a dozen volunteers since then. If you want more information on the program, call Kent in the CENTER's office, 785-232-4388.

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