[Oe List ...] Our Bonhoeffer Moment

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Wednesday, October 3, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
<http://www.commondreams.org>  

Our Bonhoeffer Moment

by Jeff Leys

The Bonhoeffer Moment of nonviolent civil resistance and disobedience to the
world war being waged by the United States is clearly at hand. As Congress
considers an additional $190 billion to fund the Iraq - Afghanistan war
through September 2008 and as the threats of war against Iran become
increasingly loud, it is time for us to learn lessons from the German
resistance to Hitler, to the Nazi regime and to the war waged by the German
nation-state. We must engage in the Long Resistance to this current world
war, using every nonviolent means to bring about its end. I was set to be
tried on October 2 for an act of nonviolent civil resistance at the U.S.
Military Entrance Processing Command. The judge dismissed the charge the day
of the trial. Following is the closing statement I prepared for the jury
trial in Waukegan, Illinois.

Our Bonhoeffer Moment:

In 1942, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran theologian engaged in resistance
work to bring about an end to the Nazi regime, penned the following lines in
his letter "After Ten Years". He was in prison and under investigation when
he wrote:

"We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds; we have been drenched by many
storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretence; experience has
made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open;
intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical. Are we
still of any use? What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or
misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, straightforward men.
Will our inward power of resistance be strong enough, and our honesty with
ourselves remorseless enough, for us to find our way back to simplicity and
straightforwardness?"

Silence.

Silence is golden.

Silence is Death.

Silence in the face of our country waging a world war is complicity in the
war; is complicity in the deaths of thousands of U.S. soldiers and hundreds
of thousands of Iraqi citizens; is complicity in a crime against humanity.

I chose to break the silence at the U.S. Military Entrance Processing
Command (MEPCOM) on July 5, 2006. I choose to break the silence today.

I chose to act at MEPCOM last July for a number of reasons. MEPCOM is the
command headquarters for the system of Military Entrance Processing
Stations. Each person entering the military takes their oath of enlistment
at one of these stations. MEPCOM, as the command headquarters of this
system, is the focal point of injustice being done to those who serve in our
country's military.

I acted to oppose the injustice of stop-move orders which force service
members to extend their tour of duty beyond its scheduled end date.

I acted to oppose the injustice of stop-loss orders which force service
members to remain in the military beyond the agreed upon end of enlistment
date.

I acted to demand that our country provide the highest quality health care
for veterans and their families, as well as for all who live within the U.S.

I acted in solidarity with those members of the military who have chosen to
risk prison for refusing to comply with orders to deploy to Iraq to fight in
an unjust war.

I acted to demand that our country immediately withdraw from Iraq and
recommit itself to rebuilding the Common Good in Iraq and in the United
States-funding hospitals, health care clinics, schools, jobs programs and
the like rather than funding war, death and destruction.

I acted to engage in a conspiracy of Life with Iraqi citizens suffering over
these past 16 years of economic and military warfare and to act in a
conspiracy of Life with U.S. soldiers, citizens and others who are engaged
in nonviolent action to end the U.S. war in and occupation of Iraq.

Does this form of civilly disobedient action accomplish anything? I don't
know. I believe it does, but I simply don't know within the context of a
world war-the first world war begun by a democracy. For guidance, I look to
those German citizens who engaged in resistance work to bring an end to the
Nazi regime and to end the world war.

In 1943, German students formed the group the White Rose which advocated for
the overthrow of the Nazi regime and for an end to the war. Their simple,
yet profound, act was to distribute flyers advancing their positions calling
for resistance to Hitler and his regime. Once discovered and arrested, they
were executed by the German state. Yet 50 years later, everyone in Germany
would come to know of Hans and Sophie Scholl and their comrades in the
struggle to end the war and the regime.

In 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and many others were also executed by the
German state for engaging in resistance activities to overthrow Hitler.
Bonhoeffer, in 1939, had the option of remaining in the U.S. where he would
have been able to ride out the war in the safety of academia. Instead he
chose to return to Germany to participate in resistance work. Writing as a
Christian theologian about his country in which the Church was a willing
accomplice in crimes against humanity, Bonhoeffer stated his reason for
returning:

"Christians in Germany will face the terrible alternative of either willing
the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive,
or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our
civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose; but I cannot
make this choice in security."

Bonhoeffer knew what choice he had to make, he made it, and he paid the
price for it.

Let this be our Bonhoeffer Moment of resistance to our country's world war
in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere that the guns are being aimed.

The examples of Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl and Dietrich Bonhoeffer echo down
through the years. In 1983, German judges and prosecutors recalled the
example set by the German resistance efforts to Hitler and the Nazi regime
and crimes against humanity and determined that it was their obligation to
act to prevent nuclear genocide from occurring. German judges and
prosecutors actively blockaded the U.S. military bases to which Pershing
nuclear cruise missiles were being deployed. They acted to uphold
international law even though that meant violating national law.

So does an act of entering the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command do
any good? I don't know. I do know that my action did not stand alone on that
day. I do know that others are engaged in active nonviolent civil
disobedience to end the Iraq war. Since February 5 of this year, over 700
people have been arrested across the U.S. in actions to end the Iraq
war-with many more arrests to come.

I ask you today to join with us in this conspiracy of Life. You have the
opportunity today to find me guilty or not guilty. If you believe that the
war in Iraq is proper and just, you should find me guilty-regardless of what
the law says. If you believe the war in Iraq must be brought to an end
today, you should find me not guilty-regardless of what the law says.

The choice is clear and stark. Life or Death. Not guilty or guilty. The
future of the war is in your hands today. I urge you to follow your
conscience-regardless of the law.

Jeff Leys is Co-Coordinator of Voices <http://www.vcnv.org>  for Creative
Nonviolence and a national organizer with Seasons of Discontent: A
<http://vcnv.org/sodapop>  Presidential Occupation Project as well as the
Occupation Project
<http://vcnv.org/the-occupation-project-a-campaign-of-sustained-nonviolent-c
ivil-> . He can be contacted via email, jeffleys at vcnv.org.

Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org 

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/03/4286/

 

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