Trespassing On Conscience Today I took my friend Ella, of Ella’s Quilts shopping at Sam’s Club, a store, like Wal-Mart, that my religion forbids me to enter except when helping a friend. Ella was looking for black pepper and as is the case in this store all the quantities were large and expensive. I finally find a decent size bottle that was only $2.88 but Ella read the sign below the bottle that said $6.98. I finally convinced her to read the sign above the bottle and she put the pepper in her cart. However, at the check out counter she asked the girl what was the price of the pepper. The checkout girl confirmed it was only $2.88. All the way home she was proud of her good buy. But I kept reminded her how she did not believe me and we had a good laugh.
This shopping adventure came after a number of us of Breaking the Silence had a Freedom March at Marquette University to press them to Teach War No More and Close the School of Army at Marquette. Marquette does not allow any protest on campus unless they are approved so we mostly kept to the sidewalk which is public property. There was noticeable fear in the eyes of students as they tried to avoid us, our signs and our flyers calling for Marquette to keep to the Christian principles of conscience that it professes. We walked through the library lobby and although no security stopped us we went back to the sidewalk. We also walked into the Marquette Alumni Memorial Union. There the Marquette security guards were waiting for us and asked us to leave and go back to the sidewalk. We did and proceeded to the sidewalk at 12th and Wisconsin across the street where we had started. We were ending the march when a Milwaukee Police officer pulled one of us to the side and gave the person a citation for trespassing. They said that person was spotted in the union where the person had been banned. The person knew nothing of the ban and just the day before had been to the library and Union without incident.
Our flyer called for the priority of conscience over military values and some of us took the ignoring of our message by students and the citation authorized by the administration as an answer to our Open Letter to Four Leaders of Morality In Milwaukee. By silence and citations they are saying “we do not want to hear that message and if ignoring does not work we will marginalize you and penalize you for persistent giving us the message.”
Ella did not want to believe me about the price of the pepper but she checked it out and was glad she did. Marquette students, faculty and administrators do not want hear our moral message, and if we keep persisting they will ignore us or cite us for trespassing on their conscience … or quite possibly, like Ella, check out the facts and be glad.
Comments
Omar Barberena — 07 October 2010, 10:33
Great comments! And great effort to get people beyond thinking and to take actions for many of the injustice that we the “poor” confront each day. Those of us who are more fortunately should continue beyond our concious the fight for injustice. We must commit ourselves more and more in “every thing” we do we our actions. Sometimes we do “things” and we ignore them because it is easier this way and we think “we can change the world.” I believe we can and that goes with our concious actions from the moment we wake up. For instance, be more aware of the water we use, the energy we waste, the clean air we breath. We live in a “spoiled and priviledged” society because we have taken many of the resources from the poor. Therefore, any time we buy things, be it groceries, even a bottle of black pepper, we can make a great impact in society. When we buy from places, such as Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club, although it might seem “inexpensive” to us at the moment of purchase in reality it is very expensive. So we must always make a concious effort and remember where they get their products from - most likely from an exploited individual making less than a sustainable wage and those working at the store not having health insurance. I know it is a challenge we face every day and we can also do Trespassing on Conscience this way.
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