Janice Sevre-Duszynska, ARCWP, at Peace Demonstration |
September 21-27, 2014 is Pace e Bene's Campaign
Nonviolence Week with over 240 actions taking place in the U.S. and world.
On Sunday after Eucharist at St. Ben's in
Milwaukee we gathered to share with Maria Luisa Rosal, Field Organizer for
the School of the Americas Watch and to talk about the upcoming SOA Watch Vigil
in Columbus, GA Nov. 21-23. Born in Guatemala 31 years ago, when she was
2, she told us her father was disappeared by the military whose officers were
trained by the SOA during the bloodbath there, Salvador, and Honduras. I spoke
about the torture of young activists, their teachers, union workers, etc. in
Uruguay and Argentina during the dirty wars and the connection with the SOA --
which I learned from my recent visit as part of the delegation on the Task
Force on the Americas. Other issues included immigrants, the border
children, economic and military bullying by the U.S. Later some of us
Former Prisoners of Conscience (POCs) of SOA Watch were invited to lunch at POC
Joyce Ellwanger's home and the topic was solidarity with our Latin American
sisters and brothers.
Yesterday, Sept. 24, 2014 Milwaukee area
peacemakers, including Franciscan Fr. Jerry Zawada and I, gathered at a Rally
to End Militarism at Marquette University. The rally was part of 240 actions
held across the U.S. and world through Pace e Bene's Campaign Nonviolence
Week. I was invited to give an opening prayer (below) Organizer and peacemaker
Bob Graf of the Milwaukee 14 burned 10,000 draft cards in 1968 to protest the
Vietnam War. During our action we burned brochures from Marquette's ROTC
program which includes Reflexive Killing as part of its training. Later, Bob,
Catholic Worker Don Timmerman and I tried to deliver our letter to end the ROTC
program to the office of the new president of Marquette. We were stopped upon
entering the building by the security police officer and denied access to the
president's office. After much discussion, we gave the security officer the
letter to give to Marquette's new president. Later that afternoon we watched
the newly released classic documentary "Hit and Stay," about
Catholics who protested the Vietnam War, which included the Milwaukee 14 and
protests led by priests including brothers Dan and Phil Berrigan. I
highly recommend it.
Morning Prayer for Peace
Good Morning. My name is Janice Sevre-Duszynska
and I am a Roman Catholic Priest. I was born on Milwaukee’s south side and my
Busia and Dzia Dzia (grandma and grandpa came from
Poland). Milwaukee is still an ethnic city of immigrants by The
Lake.
Would you bow your heads with me now and
remember our good friend, Jesuit Father Bill Brennan, who left us in August.
Fr. Bill witnessed alongside you all for years to close the ROTC program here
at Marquette. We miss you, Bill. We feel your presence.
Let us pray.
Loving God who encourages us to build
life-giving community, we ask that this Catholic Jesuit school end its ROTC
program which is the antithesis of our faith.
For it is here that ROTC students learn how to
bury their conscience -- to destroy human lives. Here, they begin to deny Your
voice echoing through their souls.
Someday, when they leave here, will they press
the button that murders a village full of someone else’s parents, of someone
else’s children?
What will it feel like when these well-trained
ROTC killers forget their humanity? What will it feel like when they remember
they are your sons and daughters, Loving God? Help their parents to become
advocates to end this program. May our taxpayer dollars provide free
education for all of our children without turning them into killers. May our
taxpayer dollars be used to teach peace.
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