Civil Rights March

Today the people of Egypt by standing together and by nonviolent action overthrew a government that with USA aide of two billion dollars a year had suppressed their rights for 30 years. Our government now applauds the victory of the people of Egypt that cost over 300 lives. This victory in Egypt is another victory of nonviolent power when people stick together.

The immorality of the USA wars in the Middle East in Iraq and Afghanistan has bothered many of us in this country for a long time. We protest but find our actions ignored and effectively. Here in Milwaukee we have been struggling to stop the war here at home, to close the military training schools at Marquette University, our local Jesuit Catholic University, and to demand our congressional representatives, like our local Milwaukee House representative, to not vote for more war spending.

Watching the Egyptian revolution on TV I thought if people in Egypt can overthrow the government why can’t we stop a small thing like teaching war at a local university and getting our house representative to vote no for war spending.

Remembering the civil rights nonviolent marches and the ones in India that led to independence, I thought why not a march of a 1000 persons up Wisconsin Avenue. We would start at the Federal Building in downtown Milwaukee and demand our congressional representatives say and do No More Money for War; then we would march up Wisconsin Avenue to the administration of Marquette University to demand that it Teach War No More. I spread my dream of the 1000 person march to few friends and a few thought it was possible. But I remained a doubter if it was impossible till tonight.

We watched an edition of the PBS Frontline TV show we had recorded. It was called The Wounded Platoon. It tells the story of soldiers from Fort Carson, Colorado who fought in Iraq. It started off saying that 36 members of a particular platoon had committed suicide, 18 charged with murder, attempted murder or manslaughter. However it was the next words, from a counselor for one of the veterans, that strengthen my resolve we must March, like Martin Luther King Jr. said, despite personal sacrifice. The doctor told one of the affected soldiers, “We give up part of our morality to go to war; it allows us to survive, it allows us to kill”.

Watch the video at The Wounded Platoon. Rather than surrendering our morality, join the 1000 person march.

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