[Peace-discuss] arrested at West Point

[E. Wayne Johnson]

Go IVAW!!!

These Guys have got Resolve.


On 12/3/2009 12:19 PM, Karen Medina wrote:
> [ There were arrests at West Point as people protested the troop
> surge. Matthis Chiroux, one who refused to go back, was one of those
> protesting and was arrested. Below is a note from him. -karen medina ]
>
> --------------------
> Subject: Account of my arrest in response to Afghan War escalation: WE
> WILL BE YOUR INSURGENCY
>
> Hi folks. Just want to send out an account of my arrest last night at
> West Point in protest of Obama's escalation of the war in Afghanistan
> that he was announcing inside. Very successful action with many people
> participating and what's sure to be a few fun court dates to come! I
> feel fine and really appreciate being able to put down my thoughts
> about experiences like this and send them out to share with people to
> be shared with others. Hope ya'll find the time to read and pass
> around.
>
> Peace and Solidarity,
>
> Matthis
>
> -------------------------------
>
> We will be your insurgency
>
> So it’s come to this. Obama’s gotta wage his war, and I gotta sit in the street.
>
> It’s not that I like blocking traffic or getting arrested or dealing
> with the fall-out when I could be reading a book. It’s that I can’t
> live with endless war and I must end it or surely die.
>
> I’m not leaving this country. This is my mess, so help me, and I’ll
> scrub it till my fingers bleed. I will not compromise with genocide. I
> will not run from those behind it.
>
> Endless war is the promise of our time, signed in blood and sealed
> with death’s own kiss. Its stench hangs around us heavy smog. While I
> dare not breath for fear of intoxication, I cannot hold much longer.
>
> This is the American nightmare, and it’s shattering my heart like glass.
>
> As I stepped to the microphone outside West Point Military Academy
> Tuesday, all I wanted was to go home, honestly. Good lord, don’t let
> me cry in front of these people, I thought. Why must I play out this
> misery for all to see?
>
> Obama’s only doing exactly what he said he’d do, but still, I’m
> heartbroken. I can’t go on like this.
>
> I’ve been a mess. When I try to imagine the future of this country, I
> see nothing. I have no faith that good always triumphs anymore. I
> think where there’s a will to change there’s a way to subvert it. I
> taste the world I am to inherit, and it makes me sick to my stomach.
>
> But as I admitted to the crowd my feelings of hopelessness and
> despondency, I realized once again, that I am not alone. People stared
> into my eyes with equally heavy brows and clenching teeth. When they
> came close, I saw tears in their eyes as well, and they seemed
> thankful to see them in mine.
>
> Our suffering is one. We are the disenfranchised. In our lives, our
> jobs, our  politics; we have been denigrated to utter impotence.
> People are not meant to live this way, and we cry out in one voice
> through history for liberation. Again and again, we’ve had our voices
> ignored and our mutual bonds dissolved by paranoia and fury.
>
> But I couldn’t let him get away with it. They think his slick speeches
> and skin color will keep the left at home. Someone had to go down for
> this, even if it was me.
>
> We marched to the installation gate where a line of cops and troops
> were waiting. When we sat down in front of the barricades, they didn’t
> seem all that concerned. Young and old alike joined us on the
> pavement. I was left awestruck by the singular dedication of the
> burgeoning crowd to ending our Global War of Lies and Terror.
>
> For 30 minutes, the hundreds of us shouted down the full winter moon.
> We chanted our opposition to escalation. We lamented the change we
> were promised and denied. The message was loud and in no unmistakable
> terms: Obama, this is the death of your presidency!
>
> When we moved into the traffic lane after he started his speech, I
> felt a great warmth from within for the first time in weeks. While
> through my head streamed images of Satyagrahas past, my heart pounded
> reassurance, for it knew I was there for a reason.
>
> This government refuses to respond to the needs and demands of its
> people. It’s come to this. I refuse to be ignored. I pledge to be
> peacefully ungovernable.
>
> The police carried my crutches while I limped to the car in
> hand-cuffs. A sense of satisfaction settled in as I waited in the back
> and counted those who’d be joining me ‘downtown.’ Six of us in total.
> We’d done it. At least to us, Obama had not gotten away with it.
>
> Not an hour later, we were released. The officers who I dealt with
> were beyond respectful to us and our cause. While I didn’t make any
> friends, I didn’t find any enemies. At some point during the evening,
> I cut my finger on the pavement, but beyond that, we walked away with
> little more than disorderly conduct charges and a notice to appear
> Dec. 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Town Court at 254 Main St. Highland Falls,
> NY 10928. (Come join us!)
>
> As we left the station, I was thrilled to see a sidewalk full of
> activists waiting and to find a prominent lawyer in town already
> representing us. While Obama had shattered our dreams of peace, we
> felt we’d won the day. Even with the impending escalation, we found
> the strength to joyously declare the birth of a new peace movement!
>
> The government won this round. 30,000 more troops is a clear loss for
> us and more importantly the people of Afghanistan. But from what I
> saw, we are ready to rededicate ourselves to unwavering resistence
> from within. In the words of our former dictator, “fool me once, shame
> on you. Fool me twice...see, you can’t get fooled again.”
>
> Obama is a war president and we are a peace movement. As long as we’re
> moving, Obama, and you refuse to be governed, we’ll refuse to be
> governed. Your racist wars will end and this world will know peace in
> our lifetimes. Until that day, rest assured that WE WILL BE YOUR
> INSURGENCY!
> --------------------
>
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