Prayer Vigil for stabbing victim.

This morning a few of us gathered in the rain to pray for a man who had been stabbed to death on the South Side of Milwaukee. This afternoon I got a military newsletter about a new unmanned Apache helicopter called the Guardian, that uses “eye-in-the-sky” technology. Now we have “killer drones” and “killer helicopters” that are unmanned, quiet but deadly.

Recently I have received two petition requests to send our congressperson, one from National Peace Action on the Move the Money campaign from war to community resources and the other one to request our congressperson to take action on behalf of the people in a village in Palestine to save their village from a complete takeover by Israel.

When I wrote peace organizations and peace persons about taking nonviolent direct action with our liberal Congressperson who votes for more military spending and against Palestine all I got back from anyone was from a new staff person of the local Peace Action saying they were having a press conference today about the Move the Money campaign.

I was not talking about more Peace talk but about Peace Action, particularly to get our liberal congresswoman to vote against more military spending and pro-Palestine. I remembered a quote from the deceased historian Howard Zinn: “The really critical thing isn’t who’s sitting in the White House, but who is sitting in the streets, in the cafeterias, in the halls of government, in the factories. Who is protesting, who is occupying offices and demonstrating ? - those are the things that determine what happens….” In another quote he tells us our problem is civil obedience not civil disobedience.

I realized what I called ‘nonviolent action’ was just some abstract talking or workshop for most. It was not preparing them to take nonviolent direct action, even civil disobedience in struggles, like to stop senseless killings on our streets or by our government.

Presently our US congress is debating what the least meaningful gun control bill it can pass to please the most people. They do not realize that no act of congress will stop the killing, be it by a student in Texas who today stabbed 14 college students or by the operator of an unmanned helicopter or drone.

Violence from with a gun, drone or knife will only stop when we say No to violence by our words and, more importantly, by our actions, even to the point of risking arrest and harm.

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