[Peace-discuss] News From Kathy Kelly

[Jan & Durl Kruse]

August 9, 2008

Greetings,
Two items in today's e-mail:

1) THE BIG VOICE BY KATHY KELLY
2) WITNESS AGAINST WAR 2008 WEBSITE LINKS

----------

1) THE BIG VOICE

By Kathy Kelly
August 9, 2008

About six months ago, Dan Pearson, co-coordinator of Voices for
Creative Nonviolence, swiveled around in his office chair in our tiny
"headquarters" to ask what we thought about organizing a walk from
Chicago to St. Paul, arriving just before the Republican National
Convention. Our dedicated group of volunteers joined Dan to plan a
project, which, to me, is one of the best organized efforts I've ever
encountered, all aimed at voicing a witness against war, which
particularly in Wisconsin, where 3,500 National Guard troops are on
alert for a call-up to combat duty, in Iraq, in 2009. Generally, three
to five "day walkers" will join our core group of nine walkers. We
walk about fifteen miles each day carrying signs that call for an end
to the war and for keeping Wisconsin National Guard troops home. The
sign I carry on this walk reads "Rebuild Iraq, rebuild the U.S."
Another of our signs, decorated with the obligatory elephant and
donkey, reads "We hold both parties responsible." We began walking on
July 12, 2008 and will arrive in St. Paul Minnesota on August 30th.

Our "Witness Against War" walk is in Wisconsin, traversing traditional
land of the Ho- Chunk Nation, also known in English translation as
"People of the Big Voice." In 1836, U.S. settlers, including farmers
and miners, coveted this lush farmland and its rich mining resources
and forced the Ho-Chunk to sell it all for a pittance. The US
government imposed repeated roundups and "removals" on them,
resettling them from Wisconsin to Iowa, from Iowa to Minnesota, then
to South Dakota and onward, in dangerous, and for some deadly forced
transports. "In the winter of 1873, many Ho Chunk people were removed
to the Nebraska reservation from Wisconsin, traveling in cattle cars
on trains," according to the Nation's website
(http://www.ho-chunknation.com/). "This was a horrific experience for
the people, as many elders, women and children suffered and died."
Some of the transports were imposed to remove the Ho-Chunk people from
conflicts with other nations - conflicts created by previous forced
transports. But after the removals by train, they walked back on foot
to Wisconsin, to reclaim their former homes, It's a tale of
immeasurable suffering, but because of these walks back they are still
here, as the "Ho-Chunk Nation" in this beautiful Wisconsin land where
their ancestors were buried.

And we're here too, walking on behalf of people in Iraq who've been
made refugees to escape U.S. violence, and also the sectarian violence
made inevitable by the U.S. government's wholesale dismantling of
their country, whether achieved deliberately or through incompetence
we can't know. We're walking for people who, like the Ho-Chunk people,
were told that if they didn't cooperate with a U.S. project to seize
their precious and irreplaceable resources, we would kill them.

The name of the "Ho-Chunk" nation means "People of the Sacred
Language," or "People of the Big Voice." And when no-one was listening
to them, they spoke to each other and chose to return, and
strengthened each other for the return here where their action spoke
louder than words and they eventually, after eleven removals and five
weary returns, were ceded parts of their original land.

I and my companions here think of deliberate nonviolent action as a
sacred language. Tomorrow we're crossing the line into Fort McCoy to
protest the cynical use of our young men and women, many of them
seeking opportunities denied them in their communities, to kill and
dispossess members of the Iraqi nation, to drive them into refuge in
Jordan and Syria, to drive them into conflict the one against the
other arming first this faction and then that with more and more
weapons in the name of establishing "security forces", so that we will
have an excuse to occupy this oil-rich region for ages to come,
whatever platitudes our leaders may offer now about eagerness some day
to withdraw. Several of us may face several months in jail. Our
leaders will continue to use these lands for wrongful purposes and we
will keep walking back, until enough of our fellows join us that we
are allowed to reclaim these lands, and our resources, to be the
refuge and the comfort of all.

The United States is called a democracy. That means "People of the Big
Voice." A sacred language. But we as a nation are not yet ready to use
our voices loud enough to be heard, or to use our feet, when our
voices are ignored, in the sacred language of nonviolent direct
action, in resistance to the greedy powerful few who would limit our
choices to choices of war and claim all lands, heedless of the voices
of the people living in them, for the purposes of greed. The world
looks to us, much of it in genuine pain and anguish, asking when are
we going to rescue them from our government, by expressing our wish
for peace at long last in the Big Voice we have always claimed as our
heritage?

Kathy Kelly (kathy at vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative 
Nonviolence.

----------

2) WITNESS AGAINST WAR 2008 WEBSITE LINKS

Witness Against War is a walk from Chicago to St. Paul intended to
challenge and end the U.S. war in and occupation of Iraq. The walk
will leave Tunnel City, WI tomorrow.

THE HOMEPAGE FEATURES WALK UPDATES
http://vcnv.org

WITNESS AGAINST WAR PROJECT PAGE
This page includes all relevant project information including a
listing of the regular blog entries from the walk.
http://vcnv.org/witness-against-war

MAP OF ROUTE / DATES
http://vcnv.org/witness-against-war-2008-map

RESOURCES
http://vcnv.org/witness-against-war/resources

If you would like to participate or have questions, please email the
Witness Against War campaign, witnessagainstwar at vcnv.org or call
773-878-3815.

---
Voices for Creative Nonviolence
1249 W Argyle Street #2, Chicago, IL 60640
Phone: (773) 878-3815
E-mail: info at vcnv.org
web: www.vcnv.org