Last March I was picking flowers in the gardens and this March I am still ridding the driveway of ice. Time and weather change.
What does not change is our efforts to ‘break the silence’, struggle for the truth, ‘do the right thing’ and follow our conscience. My friend Joe and I were reminded of this fact of life today when we traveled to Chicago to view the world premier of Hit and Stay. It is a documentary about the Catholic Left that explores a group of nonviolent activists in 1968–71. They broke into draft boards, destroyed 1A files and went to prison in an attempt to stop the killing on both sides. I was privileged to be involved in one of the earlier nonviolent actions, the Milwaukee 14 action on September 24, 1968.
Although I had lived in this time and was involved I learned a lot today about the great number of similar actions and the people behind them.
The movie made me think how far we have gone or gone back in history, from the burning of draft files in 1968 to being subject to arrest for praying in the lobby of the library at Marquette for Marquette to Stop Teaching war and killing on this Catholic campus.
Times change but we can learn from history as portrayed in this Milwaukee that only direct nonviolent action makes for real change with the Industrial/Military/Education complex. Do we, especially youth have the courage of the hundreds of persons in this “Hit and Stay” to actions to risk lost and jail to ‘hit and stay’.
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