Today friends from Holland send me a long list of quotes about conscience. Here are just a few of them:

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, and the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

“War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”— John F. Kennedy

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice … Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of- country stance - how violently I hate all this; how despicable and ignoble war is…I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”—Albert Einstein

Today after our hour of prayer at Marquette University Library lobby some of us came here to enjoy a dinner of homemade soup, break and fruit. As we were talking, someone challenged us to why we are doing these prayer vigils to end the war in Afghanistan and to end Marquette’s support and participation in the war. My friend Joe and I both said that we felt compelled to break the silence and do something about the wars and killing. When we were asked for one word to summarize out activities both of us said “conscience.”

I do what I need to do to stop the wars of the USA because my conscience says so.

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