Stories of Peace & Justice

Dirk Willems

Dirk Saves His Enemy -- Read our favorite historical peace story from the 1500s. When Mennonites who work for peace are asked where they find their inspiration, they first say Jesus' life, and then refer to Dirk Willems."

It really works

by Lynn Miller, who with Linda, his wife, volunteered with MVS in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Well, it finally happened.

Linda and I were held up at gun-point as we were walking to the church. Just before we got there a guy came to us, pointed a gun at me, and said, "Give me your money or I'll shoot."

Now we had been warned that this might happen in this neighborhood, and I had practiced a number of ways to respond non-violently. I had practiced some great "alternative responses" like, "wow, neat gun. What caliber is it? How about selling it to me?" Or, "I must tell you, at this moment I am wearing boxer shorts, and I know how to use them!" But this happened so fast I didn't have time to think of any of them.

What I did do was tell him that I didn't have any money, but that if he would come with us to the church we would try to find something for him. He shouted again for me to give him "the money," and I repeated that I didn't have any but we could find something for him at the church.

Then Linda told him that we needed to go visit a woman whose mother had just died, and we both turned and started to walk down the narrow path that led to the back of the church. Half way there, I turned back and said, "Come on," and motioned for him to follow us. But he just stood there a minute, and then turned and ran away.

Most people here have since told us that we were either "lucky" or "crazy," and advised that we should carry a roll of bills just for this occasion, to be a "better victim."

But I think that giving the assailant an invitation that has his needs in mind is what made "it" work. So now I am practicing something different for these occasions. Instead of responses that are self-protecting and non-violent, now I am practicing responses that seek good for my assailant. For non-violent "self-defense" is still self-defense. And the work of Jesus is to find good for the other.

Peace Witness at the OK Corral

by Steve Carcaterra, Engle, Colorado

For the last couple of years, our small town, Glenwood Springs, Colorado, has held a reenactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral, which actually occurred in Tombstone, Arizona. Complete with old west music playing in the background, the Good Guys (Earp, Holliday, etc.) ride into town on horseback and square off against the Bad Guys (the Clanton Gang) and proceed to blow each other away in front of bleachers full of people (lots of children). Doc Holliday died in Glenwood Springs, a tuberculotic alcoholic.

I find it strange that in this age of daily shootings on our streets that such an enactment would be called family entertainment. So I staged a one-man peace witness with a folding chair and some homemade posters saying things like, "Real guns kill Real people," and "14,000 Americans died as a result of handgun violence."

My peace witness did not go unnoticed. It triggered a barrage of letters to the editor in our local paper both pro and con. I received many positive comments and a few negative ones. I saw one merchant come to my defense when another merchant was ruthless in his criticism of my peace position and my personhood in general.

My intent was to make people think about the appropriateness of this event and especially the promotion of it as a form of entertainment. I was successful.

Next year I will ask the organizers of the event to cease promoting a violent, murderous act as a form of entertainment. If they insist on holding the event, I will return, I hope with more people who would like to participate in this peace vigil.

On a personal level, I might add that this was a difficult thing to do. However, I feel I really had little choice, as my conscience allowed me no other option.

Peace Down the Street

by Phil Troyer, Goshen, Indiana

I have a fairly new snow blower that is fun to use. Three years ago I began to also blow our neighbor's drive on the east side of our house when I did mine. They were originally from California and he had previous heart problems and both had bad knees. So it was four more minutes.

Then two years ago Dave died two doors to the west. It only takes four or five minutes to do his wife Marge's drive. This fall the neighbor across the street filed a protection order for her safety from her still drinking violent alcoholic husband after 60 years of marriage and 60 years of binge drinking. Now that he is not living there that drive only takes another five.

Then there is Lee next door who leaves for work at 5:30 AM. What's another five minutes? Well guess what? I slept in until 8:30 AM last Thursday. The ground was white. But someone else had blown the two women's drives. And it couldn't have been either of them.

I think PEACE is coming down our street one snow and two drives at a time.

Aiding Enemies

by Jim Lehman, who included this story in his history, Sonnenberg: A Haven and a Heritage.

The time was 1917-18. Young men from the Sonnenberg (Ohio) Mennonite Church faced the draft. Earl Gerber, Aldis Gerber, Menas Nussbaum, and David Baumgartner were drafted on October 4, 1917. Earl and Aldis went to Camp Sherman where Earl was discharged several months later for physical reasons.

Not long after he was home he got a questionnaire from the draft board. Since he had already served and been discharged he ignored the questionnaire. To his surprise in late March 1918 Sheriff Miller came to take him to the Wayne County jail.

They had barely left home, gone over the railroad tracks and the bridge over Sugar Creek in that small valley, when they began to ascend the steep hill with the Model T Ford with which the sheriff had come to get Earl. In shifting from high gear to low gear the clutch slipped.

Much to the consternation of the sheriff the auto refused to continue. Farm-boy Earl recognized quickly what was wrong but said nothing. Sheriff Miller finally asked Earl, "Where is the nearest phone?"

Earl answered, "I guess the one at my home." When he saw they were about to go and call for a repairman to come and fix the auto, Earl piped up, "Do you have some tools? I'll see if I can fix it."

So they took the back seat out and fumbled for some tools. Finally finding a wrench and a pair of pliers, Earl took them and shortly had the clutch tightened. Then he looked at the sheriff and told him, "All right, she'll run now.

"Are you sure it will run?" asked the sheriff. "Go on, get in. It will run now," Earl reassured him. They restarted the Model T and up over the hill they went, and hauled Earl off to jail!

Ireland

Joe Campbell, MBM peace worker in Northern Ireland, recently received an urgent call from the police in Portadown, a small town outside of Belfast.

Summer is marching season there, and a group of Protestant loyalists were preparing to march through the Catholic community, beating drums to remind everyone within earshot of a 300-year-old battle in which a Protestant army defeated a Catholic one. These marches take place every year.

In Canada, the equivalent would be marching through Montreal every year to remember the defeat of the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

"Come quick," the police said. "The Catholics are preparing to riot."

So Joe called a friend and off they went, reviewing their mediation training in the car as they approached the site of the conflict. For hours they shuttled between the Catholic homeowners, the Protestant marchers and the police. Everyone was tense, but eventually a solution emerged.

The marchers would march, but they had to do so in silence. Everyone was relieved, said Joe. Better yet, everyone felt that they had won. The mediation had worked! Hope had proved itself stronger than violence.

Joe Campbell and his friend were praised in the Irish media for their role in helping to build a better future. One is possible - even in places where the darkness seems greatest.

Press for Peace

Reading Mennonite Weekly Review soon after the Jonesboro middle school shootings, Arden Ramseyer was impressed with the editorial about the science of killing. He wanted his neighbors to have the chance to read these ideas.

He called the MWR offices and asked permission to have the article reprinted in his local newspaper. Then he took a copy of the article and the permission information along to a gathering where he knew he would meet the publisher of the local paper. The publisher, who often prints editorials from others, used it.

"If he wouldn't have been willing to print it, I'd have sent it as a letter to the editor," Arden said, "but this way more of it was included."

{This editorial was based on a speech by David Grossman, which was later printed, with great editing by Richard Kauffman, in "Christianity Today."}

From a suppressed corner of 20th century history, here's a true story about the real possibilities of human solidarity across even the worst and bloodiest dividing lines.

"It is the basis for one of my favorite songs and children's books."
-- Susan Mark Landis

The song:
John McCutcheon's "Christmas in the Trenches" on "Winter Solstice," Rounder Records, 1985

The book:
(sigh--out of print, but maybe you can find it in your library system): "War Game" by Michael Foreman, CR 1993, ISBN 1-55970-242-7

THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE

On Christmas Day, 1914, in the first year of World War I, German, British, and French soldiers disobeyed their superiors and fraternized with "the enemy" along two-thirds of the Western Front. German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches with signs, "Merry Christmas." "You no shoot, we no shoot." Thousands of troops streamed across a no-man's land strewn with rotting corpses. They sang Christmas carols, exchanged photographs of loved ones back
home,shared rations, played football, even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced
men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before. They agreed to warn each other if the top brass forced them to fire their weapons, and to aim high.

A shudder ran through the high command on either side. Here was disaster in the making: soldiers declaring their brotherhood with each other and refusing to fight. Generals on both sides declared this spontaneous peacemaking to be treasonous and subject to court martial. By March, 1915 the fraternization movement had been eradicated and the killing machine put back in full operation. By the time of the armistice in 1918, fifteen million would be slaughtered.

Not many people have heard the story of the Christmas Truce. Military leaders have not gone out of their way to publicize it. On Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston Globe mentioned that a local FM radio host played "Christmas in the Trenches," a ballad about the Christmas Truce, several times and was startled by the effect. The song became the most requested recording during the holidays in Boston on several FM stations. "Even more startling than the number of requests I get is the reaction to the ballad afterward by callers who hadn't heard it
before," said the radio host. "They telephone me deeply moved, sometimes in tears, asking, `What the hell did I just hear?'"

I think I know why the callers were in tears. The Christmas Truce story goes against most of what we have been taught about people. It gives us a glimpse of the world as we wish it could be and says, "This really happened once." It reminds us of those thoughts we keep hidden away, out of range of the TV and newspaper stories that tell us how trivial and mean human life is. It is like hearing that our deepest wishes really are true: the world really could be different.

Excerpted from David G. Stratman,
We CAN Change the World: The Real Meaning of Everyday Life (New Democracy Books, 1991). Available for $3.00 from New Democracy Books, P.O. Box 427, Boston, MA 02130.

Links about Christmas in the Trenches:

http://www.folkmusic.com/record/r_water.htm#Christmas

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1082392,00.html

http://history1900s.about.com/library/weekly/aa122100a.htm?once=true

Stories of Hope for Countries

When Yeltzen declared himself no longer a communist, Soviet tanks surrounded the presidential palace. An unknown Russian woman phoned a dozen friends and asked them each to phone a dozen more. The square filled with women armed only with candy bars, cookies and cigarettes. One by one they knocked on the tanks and asked the frightened young drivers, "have you come to kill your mothers and sisters?" One by one the young drivers backed up their tanks and drove away into the night.

An East German pastor once a week invited his people to come to the church to protest the harsh communist rule. They sang hymns, read scripture and prayed. Each, armed only with a lighted candle, went to stand quietly outside the church, a handful at first, then dozens, then hundreds. They surrounded the church several times.Authorities sent others in to disperse the silent protestors. But those sent in refused to attack the worshipful candle bearers and the harsh East German rule was broken.

Some of these stories are included in Mennonite Media's CD, "Real People, Real Peace". Radio public service announcements on solving conflict from the Mennonite Churches.

Real People, Real Peace takes a look at the many ways violence manifests itself and then looks further -- to practical things we all can do to break the cycle. Your station can lead the way to a more peaceful world. All 16 spots have a tag indicating "from the Mennonite Church." Some spots also include tags with an 800# or web address to offer listeners additional resources.
Contact:
LoisH@mennomedia.org
or
http://www.thirdway.com

A level playing field with Israel?

see photos fo this event

Ten days ago, I was reminded of the story about Christmas Day in the trenches of World War I. The story tells about enemy soldiers coming together, as human beings, in no-man's land to celebrate Christmas and play football (soccer.)

I glimpsed such a moment on 20 July 2007.

Regular readers of our updates may recall the establishment of an Old City Football Team in February of this year, a joint venture between CPT, our neighbor Zleekha Muhtaseb and a Palestinian NGO.

It has been difficult to find a safe and suitable place to play, so, Zleekha suggested playing in the street outside the CPT apartment. Closures, curfews, and military occupation have driven all of the residents away; only CPT and Zleekha live here now. The street ends with a high metal fence, designed to prevent access from the Old City to Shuhada Street, where some Israeli settlers live. It seemed an ideal flat, open space where the children could train and play. There were some problems with settler children throwing stones over the fence, but we thought that finally we had a 'home ground' for our football team.

It was disappointing, therefore, when a patrol of soldiers came into the street on 20 July and said that the children, including older youth who were helping train the younger, could not play football there. The soldiers cited the two recent fires in the street, close to their military base, as a reason for banning the street football.

We protested, saying that children are less likely to set fires if they are involved in worthwhile activities like the football team. "You accuse us of teaching children terrorism. Here we are teaching them football, and you stop us!" Zleekha told the patrol leader.

The soldiers insisted they had their orders and suggested another area nearby. We continued to protest--the other area is smaller and sloping, not an even playing field. The soldiers told us, "The boys are willing to move."

I thought, "It is not an even playing field with heavily armed Israeli soldiers 'suggesting' to unarmed, teenage Palestinians that they move."

Then the Palestinian boys suggested a novel resolution: a football game between themselves and the Israeli soldiers. Already a few soldiers were kicking the ball around, laughing and jostling with the Palestinians teenagers who, after all, are only a few years younger than they are.

And, there it was. That brief moment when supposed enemies met as human beings.

The commander, looking down from the occupied rooftop above, refused to allow the match to go ahead, but, perhaps intrigued by what was happening below, came down to talk.

And so, a compromise was reached. The commander, who gave his name as Israel, agreed that the children can play football in the street from 4:00-7:00 each afternoon and the soldiers will prevent settler children from throwing stones.

It felt a little more like a level playing field.

FORT FRANCES, ON REFLECTION: Creating space

In the early 1990s, I joined with a group of six people who went to Miami, Florida where U.S. officials were holding Haitian boat people--refugees fleeing Haiti's military regime--in federal detention facilities.  The federal authorities denied our group entrance to the detention facility to speak with the refugees.

After two days of quiet vigils and building rapport with officials, we purchased several bottles of bubbles usually designed for children's play. The next day at our vigil, we alerted supporters and the press that we would be blowing bubbles into the prison facilities with sacred messages of freedom for Haitian boat people.

When we arrived to carry out our action, the guards took up their normal positions. We prayed, sang one song, and then began blowing bubbles towards the prison facility.

We explained to the guards that since we were prohibited from entering the facility, we were blowing bubbles carrying special messages for the release of Haitians held inside. We warned the guards that since these were blessed bubbles, they should not to try to touch or destroy the bubbles. The guards cooperated and their behavior suggested that we had found a thoughtful way to carry our message. Others who passed by were curious and we explained the meaning of the bubbles through leaflets and conversations.

Word of the bubbles spread. Unknown to us, another delegation was also at the prison attempting to interview Haitian detainees for a  national organization of lawyers. The group contacted us immediately when they saw the bubbles and joined in the action.

They had received permission to visit the prison but none of them spoke Creole, the Haitian language. One of our group was fluent and the authorities certified that person to join the lawyers on the following day for interviews.

Creating space in peacemaking involves fashioning a place in time where sights, sounds, feelings, hearings, words, or art are presented within the context of a nonviolent perspective. When this happens in a non-judgmental spirit, hardened minds become freer to reach for new possibilities. Something new can be born.

In the absence of this safe zone, a new reality is not possible, and positions harden. So for example, the judgments of Chiefs of States like Saddam Hussein and George Bush prevented each of them from considering other options than intransigence and war.