One of the things that excite me about the “Occupy Wall Street” movement that has become international is that the emphasis is not about the electoral process or even protesting but taking nonviolent action, like strikes or occupying streets and parks, that cannot be ignored. As many, like the historian Howard Zinn pointed out, true change in this country only happens with direct nonviolent action, often involving Civil Disobedience. The Civil Rights movement was a good example of this lesson.
We had a small example of this today in our movement for Marquette University To Stop Teaching War. Since 1968 we have protested, sent petitions, wrote letters and emails, marched, did street theater all in our attempt to have MU stop teaching killing on campus. During recent years we have been ignored. Even when we had an hour of prayer each week during Lent in the lobby of the library we were told to move and we were trespassing but the University did nothing about.
Today was the birthday of Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement. She is known for practicing the works of mercy but also for doing the works of resistance. She sincerely believed that no Catholic University should have military training on campus. She died in 1980. It is ironic that the only Jesuit Catholic University in the country that hosts three departments of military training also now host the Dorothy Day and Catholic Worker archives.
So what better way to celebrate Dorothy Day’s birthday but to hold a birthday party calling on Marquette University to honor Dorothy Day by ending military training on campus. However, a celebration outside of the administration building could be ignored. So a few persons went up to the president’s office and requested to talk with the President. His assistant said he was out of the country and it was impossible to schedule an appointment with him. So they stayed and eventually the security officers were called and when it seemed like the two persons would not leave willingly suddenly the assistance decided there could be a brief meeting with the President. The two were peacefully escorted out of the office by the security.
This was a small nonviolent action but one that could not be ignored. With an appointment the individuals were going to stay. The results were small; a brief appointment with the President but the risk was small. Without a small risk, however, there would have been no small result.
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