Today I filed a ‘discovery motion’ for my upcoming trial for trespassing at Marquette University. The police report confirmed my belief that I was a scapegoat so Marquette did not haveto face the message: Marquette University, Be Faithful to the Gospel, and No Longer Host Departments of Military Science. The police report calls us “unapproved ant-war protestors.” Perhaps 1967 or 1968, when I was a graduate student and a Jesuit seminarian at Marquette, I attended an “anti-war” protest against the Vietnam War. But Marquette officials and we all know that ‘protest’, prayer vigils and other nonviolent action we have taken in the last seven years have been anti ROTC and military training that teaches values contrary to Gospel values. One of our banners makes our message clear: “MU Teaches Killing” with a note where to find ROTC training in the student manual of courses.
The practice of using a scapegoat to ignore your own sins (See Marquette Sins) is an old one. But what gets me so mad is how I fell for it all these years, reacting against false accusation and misrepresentations just made me look like there was truth to them. As I have stated many a time there is always some truth to a stigma but some truth does not make it true. (See Stigma Stains the Soul).
I had a business partner once who also said the “best defense is an offensive.” By reacting to his offensive moves on our partnership cost me dearly in legal costs. But I must admit there is some truth to this tactic. It works not only in war but in nonviolence. In nonviolence we are taught not to react but to act nonviolent with love and good will.
The Aggressive Scapegoat Defense, in this legal case, involves taking the attack and turning it around to expose what Marquette is doing teaching reflexive killing, killing without conscience. With the help of friends, other so called “unapproved ant-war protestors” we can absorb the scapegoat of others yet aggressively turn it around and expose the violence of an institution that has military training on campus that violates its values. It will take the help of many to take the Aggressive Scapegoat Defense.
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