Bob & Jerry at burning 1A
draft records in Milwaukee, 1968
In 1968 I, with thirteen other people, was arrested for burning 1A draft records in a nonviolent action called the Milwaukee 14. Now, in 2013, I join a few friends praying in the lobby of the Raynor library of Marquette University, a Catholic Jesuit University, to encourage the end of teaching war and killing on campus, and I may be arrested for that. Although we have been doing these prayer vigils since 2009, no one has been arrested for this. However, last Wednesday I was given a letter from the Marquette Administration that I would be ‘subject to arrest’ for criminal trespass if I was found on campus.
Yesterday, one of my companions in ourBreaking the Silence prayer vigils, and I, traveled to the Logan theater in Chicago to watch the world premier of the feature length documentary Hit and Stay about the Catholic-Left, who from 1968–1972 took over 100 similar actions, after the Catonsville 9 and Milwaukee 14: hitting draft boards, destroying 1A draft records and staying for the consequences.
Since 1969 onwards, after the Milwaukee 14 actions many student, faculty and community members had taken to the streets and demanded the end of ROTC which teaches that military values are a priority over personal and religious values. There were hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people, mostly students, protesting ROTC in the 1970’s until now, when only a few Christians in recent years have been praying for peace and giving testimony to the gospel of Christ in the library lobby of MU and sometimes other buildings.
I remember back in 2009, at one of our early prayer vigils in the lobby of Raynor library, counting 14 members: students, alumni and community giving witness. In doing research, we discovered the selective service system had been changed to an educational based system. In this new system, nearly all universities and colleges are required to make ROTC programs available for students; but only a few universities freely choose to be military bases for officer training. Marquette is one of these. It is the only university in the region with a Department of Defense military base on campus, the only Catholic university in Wisconsin to host military bases on campus and the only one, of two Catholic universities in the nation, to host military bases for all 3 branches of the service: Army, Navy/Marines and Air Force. (Notre Dame is the other one.)
During this same period, from 1968–1972 onwards to the present, the military training has changed dramatically to be educational based, as mentioned above, and in recruiting by the Department of Defense including programs for 5th graders though university level using many new adaptive techniques including training based on reflexive killing and drone warfare, to site 2 examples.killing without conscience This has been portrayed in the following documentary, Soldiers of Conscience.
So, we have the educational systems in the USA being used as the recruiting and training vehicles and the Jesuit Catholic University at Marquette being complicit in this by being the only military officer training base in the Milwaukee area for young men and women to learn “how to kill and be killed.” Is it that these military education programs have become the new selective service system? I believe so. What are we doing about it? We are not risking burning military records, that’s for sure. Now at risk, is a criminal trespass violation for one person, for praying in the lobby of a library at a Catholic University.
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
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