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San Francisco, Thursday April 23, 1987 10 a.m.
My first stop on the tour was at the Peace Resource Center
in Santa Barbara where
I talked briefly with the Director Michael
Lindemann and Greg Cross
about the Peace by 2000 Campaign.
The
Director wants to talk with me after the tour,
and PRC may sponsor
me to speak in late November 1987.
All their events are now planned
at least 3 months ahead.
In San Luis Obispo I made a phone contact with June von Ruden
of Mothers for Peace.
I left petition materials for her at the
Democratic Headquarters.
Monday night I had dinner and stayed with Betty St. George
in Paso Robles.
She gave me the royal treatment and told me about
Joel Goldsmith and the infinite way.
As a hard-core Republican,
she would not sign the petitions.
I have got about one hundred
people to sign, and so far she is the only one who refused.
I arrived in San Francisco at the office for the Mobilization
for Peace, Jobs, and Justice about noon on Tuesday.
Robbie asked
me to be on the radio that night on the Electronic Townhall Forum
with Russ Coughlin.
As he was very busy, I offered to call people
to come and speak into the open microphones.
I called the main
organizations he gave me plus many on my list.
Then I worked on
the monitor arm bands and signs
where I met Paul Colvin, a Trotskyist
socialist.
He said I could stay with him, and he drove me to Pier
39
where the radio show was to be at the Experience Theatre.
We went to a seafood restaurant where we could see ships in
the harbor
and the setting sun just above the hills of Marin.
Paul has no confidence in the Democratic Party
and wants to see
a labor party arise in this country.
I explained that I believe
there is a better chance for a third party to develop by running
candidates in democratic primaries so that some could get elected
in a Rainbow Coalition.
Then eventually as the Republican Party
waned, the Democrats might split
between the traditional ones
and what I see as Green Democrats.
He told me a lot about Trotskyism.
At the radio show from 8 to 10 I got a chance to talk for about
five minutes
to a listening audience of about 22,000.
Coughlin
loves to play devil's advocate and pretty much represents
the
establishment's positions and skepticism of anything different.
He has been in radio for 45 years.
He lets people air their views
but challenges their credibility and fails to acknowledge
the
lessons of Vietnam, the atrocities in Central America,
or how
the arms race is damaging the economy.
At the end a lovely young
woman from South Africa
who co-founded the mine workers union
spoke.
When he finally asked her what they wanted us to do there,
she replied succinctly, "Pull out."
He could not understand
how that could help black South Africans.
I checked with her if
it was true and then told him that it is because they are willing
to sacrifice for a while in order to gain their freedom.
I also met Carl Finamore, the Executive Director of the Mobilization.
Carl, who is 40, said he grew up in a working-class Catholic family
in Chicago.
Street influences were violent though his father never
hit him.
When he got thrown in jail like his older brother, his
parents were devastated.
He decided to leave that environment
so that he wouldn't hurt his parents.
He wanted to end poverty,
not just for himself
by becoming a doctor or lawyer, but for everyone.
He traveled and was influenced by the civil rights movement and
Europe.
He became a socialist.
He is very intelligent and began
to read, especially history.
On Wednesday a photographer from USA Today took shots
at the office for a color picture for the front page.
I met Dolores Huerta, whom Robbie called one of the six greatest women in history.
She is Vice President of the United Farm Workers.
I told her I roomed for a year with Venustiano Olguin
who worked closely with Cesar Chavez in the 60s.
She said he lives in Berkeley.
She was very open and interested in the Peace by 2000 campaign.
Also another Dolores offered to send my materials to her friends in Milwaukee.
I spent most of the day with Paul printing MONITOR on the arms bands with a stencil.
I've promised Carl I will sleep in a van the night before the rally
to help watch over the equipment.
San Francisco, Sunday April 26 4 p.m.
Thursday I met a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln brigade during
the Spanish Civil War,
also a young man from Sao Paulo named Joe
who likes my writings and helped me
with my table at the rally
on Saturday.
He is traveling around the world to see if it is
going to survive.
Thursday night Paul and I had Hakkha Chinese
food.
On Friday I managed to wholesale one copy of THE WAY TO PEACE
to Roberta at the Communist bookstore.
A woman's bookstore only would have taken it on consignment after reading it.
I don't think I could sell enough books directly to bookstores to make it worth my while
to try them—unless they are specifically dedicated to peace.
I helped load the 4,000 signs for the rally and then slept
in my car at the civic center where
the building of a large stage
was completed about 1 a.m.
I was there to watch over the equipment.
I can barely stretch out from corner to corner in my Toyota stationwagon,
but I did manage to get some sleep.
I was hoping to sell many books on Saturday, but I only sold 5 copies of the
THE WAY TO PEACE and 3 of IRENE.
I got about twenty or so signatures on each of the petitions and a couple of people
took them with addresses of the Presidential candidates to circulate them.
News reports estimated the crowd at 30,000, quite a bit less than the 100,000
we were hoping for, although there were 150,000 in the rain in Washington.
It was a glorious day with a little wind, and I got rather sunburned.
I met Bob Cooney, who co-authored
POWER OF THE PEOPLE: Nonviolence in America.
He said it sold 13,000 and has been just updated and reprinted.
Last night and today I am resting staying home in Paul's apartment
in solitude.
Although a few people encouraged me in my tour,
I
cannot help but feel disappointed and frustrated.
Like the Great
Peace March, efforts like this seem to be reduced to a struggle
to survive.
I suppose there is poetic significance in that
since
we are trying to help our civilization to survive.
Yet it is ironic
and pathetic when most of our society operating out of selfishness
and greed with superficial values seems to be rather prosperous.
Even the head of the AFL-CIO, Lane Kirkland, condemned the Mobilization
with red-baiting.
If our society does not respond better to bring
about the needed changes,
I'm afraid things are going to get much
worse before they really improve.
I've seen quite a few homeless
people.
Part of the problem in selling my books is that most people
who are for peace don't have much money.
I am reading Trotsky's autobiography MY LIFE, which is very well written.
There are many people in this Bay area who feel that economic revolution is the best solution.
Berkeley, Saturday May 2 11 a.m.
Monday I began my rounds to peace groups and developed
a little
"sales pitch" about the Peace by 2000 campaign.
Most
people I talked with were receptive and encouraging.
I went to
3 or 4 key buildings in San Francisco where there are more than
one organization.
I stopped by the Mobilization office.
Carl said
he thought there had been between 75,000
and 100,000 in San Francisco
at the rally.
I also went to the Zen Center and meditated with
them,
though I didn't conform to their ritual way of walking with
the hands folded in front.
In the evening I attended a little
meeting of people working for a nuclear test ban,
where I met
David Martinez of the Golden Gate Alliance.
They are planning
a civil disobedience action at Senator Pete Wilson's office in
June.
Tuesday I sold some books to the AFSC bookstore and then went
to a demonstration
at the federal building for the Palestinians
who
are being threatened with deportation from Los Angeles.
There
I ran into Michael Poulin who said I could stay with him in Oakland.
I had stayed with him in 1983 once after a Vandenberg meeting.
He and Marianne Torres are working hard on the Palestinian issues.
Michael said he likes to help the underdog.
I went to two of their
classes on the Berkeley campus on the Palestinians;
it is part
of the Dept. of Peace and Conflict Studies, which is allowed to
offer classes
but has no University money to pay teachers.
Nevertheless
top people have come from all over for the opportunity to address
the issue
which is so repressed in this country because of Jewish
pressures.
I heard Sadowsky, a very popular lecturer, and then
a highly educated Palestinian woman.
The typical American image
of Palestinians as nothing but fanatical terrorists
is a very
distorted caricature.
They are generally hard-working, well-educated
people who are trying every democratic
means available to secure
their rights and some territory that was stolen from them,
occasionally
fighting back against the violence perpetrated
against their efforts
for self-determination.
I visited a peace center in Walnut Creek that has been operating
since 1969 next to the Unitarian Church.
I talked with Cynthia
Kopp at John F. Kennedy University in the Liberal Arts School
and am now considering very seriously applying to teach there.
It has been growing steadily.
The Woman's Peace Center in Berkeley
has been working since 1961
and is connected to Women Strike for
Peace.
On Friday I heard and saw a lecture and slide show on Vietnam
by a Trotskyist Spartacus
speaker who had just been in Vietnam.
He supports enthusiastically Vietnamese success with a workers'
revolution and unlike
other Trotskyists supports the Soviet Union
while calling for reforms.
He considers China's attacks on Vietnam
"the cat's paw" of American imperialism in Asia
He
contrasted the authenticity of Vietnam's government (They earn
less than workers.)
to the corruption (They make twelve times
as much as workers.)
and xenophobia of the Chinese.
Most western
literature is banned in China, while Vietnamese
are well educated
and read many western authors in translation.
The country is still
relatively poor and suffers the effects from agent orange
and
drug use in the south, but the people are generally happy.
There
are few police, and he traveled completely freely.
He complained
that the U.S. is still trying to strangle them economically and
bragged about
their victory over U.S. imperialism in the war.
He wants revolution in the industrial nations to help workers
throughout the world.
I asked about the elections he said he witnessed.
Opposition candidates are allowed, but the Communists
picked from
above tend to dominate the parliament.
I also stopped by the Graduate Theological Union,
where I also
may be able to teach part-time.
This weekend I am staying with
Leonard and Rauha Cole who are Theosophists.
Usually they do not
even eat dairy products or eggs.
They are very hospitable.
Last
week I found out that Augusto Sandino was a theosophist.
San Francisco, Monday May 11 5 p.m.
Last Sunday I went to the large Unitarian Church in Berkeley
with a beautiful choir and
an unusual program on "Laughter;"
the closing hymn was about "coffee, coffee, coffee"
to the tune of "Holy, holy, holy," and the young preacher
talked about
Norman Cousins' healing techniques using humor.
With
the Coles I went to a small gathering of Theosophists in Oakland
where a man talked
about the characteristics of cosmic consciousness
and enlightenment and how Krishnamurti
gave up organized spiritual
endeavor for the "pathless land" of truth independently
experienced.
I shared my concepts of the divine principles.
That evening about ten people were invited to dinner at Michael
and Marianne's.
I talked at length with Johanna that night and
visited her the next day.
It turns out that we went to the same
grammar school.
She is studying at J.F.K. University to be a counselor.
I also was introduced to Joseph Mutti from San Jose and his "wards"
Hideki,
a Japanese exchange student, and Selvine, a refugee from
El Salvador who is alcoholic.
While leaving, Nada Rakovich, a
young Yugoslavian woman, gave me her card
and said I could stay
with her in San Francisco if I ever needed to.
On Monday I went to the San Jose Peace Center, met "Shorty"
Collins, a 95-year-old activist,
who told me that during the entire
Vietnam War they held a one-hour vigil once a week,
and it never
rained at all during that hour.
The young man at the Peace Center
had disdained the petition campaign in favor of
more "empowering"
direct action, but Shorty said, "Why not do both?"
and
signed them all with the help of a machine that magnified the
paper onto a TV screen.
I stayed that evening with an elder couple
of Friends, Steve and Elizabeth Jones.
They played a tape from
the Christic Institute about their investigation of the Iran-contra
scandal that revealed a secret team for covert action in foreign
policy commanded by
Theodore Shackly and going all the way back
to 1959 when V.P. Richard Nixon set it up
to assassinate Fidel
and Raul Castro and Che Gueverra.
They were responsible for killing
60,000 civilians in Vietnam
and supplying the contra's war against
Nicaragua for many years.
The next morning Steve and I went to
an interfaith meeting where he played the tape again,
and I gave
out my petitions for Peace by 2000.
I went to Santa Cruz and met Frances Wright of Witness for
Peace,
Shelley at the Resource Center for Nonviolence, and Terry
Teitlebaum at the Freeze.
Frances was the first to respond to
my mailing and gave me dinner
and a gathering of about six people.
We had an interesting discussion.
Ron Swenson suggested that the
peace movement needs to be economically self-sustaining.
Buryl
Payne shared his research on the correlation between high solar
activity and wars
and between group meditations and a lessening
of solar activity.
He suggests people meditate at the same time
at the beginning of each season.
He pointed out a startling alignment
of the sun, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Saturn, Uranus,
and Neptune
with the galactic center near the end of Sagittarius from June
13 to 21, 1988.
I attended a vigil on Wednesday afternoon for nuclear disarmament
with Robert Hahn.
He put gas in my car and took me to dinner where
seniors gather each week.
Most of those there signed the Peace
by 2000 petitions.
That night I stayed with Joseph Mutti and his
friend Trevor in the Santa Cruz mountains.
In Palo Alto I went
to the Beyond War office and told them what I was doing.
Richard
Rathbun was away in Central America.
An intern told me he was
answering letters explaining why Beyond War is
not a "peace
group," something about it dealing with "larger"
issues.
Two women researchers seemed interested in my ideas and
bought my books.
At the Mid-Peninsula Peace Center I met with
Joan Bazar.
I went to the Stanford campus and caught most of a
Peace Studies class where
Bart Bernstein was lecturing on the
Cuban missile crisis and deterrence.
He was equal to Sadowsky
in his spontaneous flow of ideas.
I drove to San Francisco not
knowing where I was going to stay.
I tried to call Adam Wood about
San Francisco State's peace group meeting that night.
Eugene, OR, Thursday May 21 9 a.m.
It's been ten days since I've taken the chance to write.
To
continue, in San Francisco I called Nada, and we went to a movie
with a gay friend of hers.
The extra week I had in the Bay area
was spent with her learning about Yugoslavia,
each other, and
discussing higher consciousness.
On Saturday we went to a concert
pot-luck sponsored by the Greens,
and I traded my book for Mark
Levy's latest tape.
He had handed me a flyer about his concert,
and I said, "I know him.
I went to one of his concerts."
He said, "I'm Mark Levy." He had cut his hair short.
Nada played Yugoslavian rock music and translated the words
for me, beautifully
expressing their patriotism for having fought
the Nazis and becoming independent
with Tito's socialist self-management.
I read a little book by Tito about the Communist movement
from
World War I through World War II
I was so enchanted with her
that I almost skipped Stockton
and Sacramento to have three more
days with her.
But at 6 a.m. on Thursday I suddenly decided to
go to Stockton.
In two hours I talked with about four people in peace work
in Stockton,
including the Chaplain at the University of the Pacific.
Then I went to Sacramento where I also made excellent contacts
in a short time.
Particularly interesting was Barbara Wiedner
who started Grandmothers for Peace
and had just got back from
being arrested at the Nevada nuclear test site on Mother's Day.
She has an offer to make a TV movie of her story.
She is going
to Moscow for a women's conference in June sponsored by the
Women's
International Democratic Federation on the theme of achieving
disarmament
of all nuclear weapons by the year 2000.
I also had
a long phone conversation with Dr. Matania Ginosar who is a scientist
who
quit defense work in 1981 to start the Nuclear Disarmament
Task Force.
They hire people to go into about 140 congressional
districts that are swing votes to
educate at least one thousand
people and organize letter-writing campaigns.
He wanted me to
know that they are looking for people to hire to do this work.
I also went to a potluck meeting of a Central America group and
met a man who
had his camera damaged and rolls of film ruined
from the point
where he took a picture of a ritual in which photographing
was forbidden.
The next day I went back to Berkeley to contact some bookstores
and hoping to visit Nada.
However, she was in emotional turmoil
and busy
with all the work she had put off the previous week.
I went to Santa Rosa for a potluck birthday party for my musician
friend Brock Travis.
There I met several people from Ojai and
was
especially attracted to Annelle and Kathleen Cochrane.
I spent
three days with Kathleen and her 3-year-old son Aaron.
On Sunday Marge Cerletti took me to the Unitarian Church, champagne breakfast
at the Good Earth, to hear a children's choir at Friends House,
and to the potluck gathering to hear me talk.
Her organizing made Santa Rosa the highlight of my trip so far.
We had an excellent discussion, and I sold several books.
She was the "grandmother of the Great Peace March" last year
and walked a thousand miles at age 74.
On Monday I had an excellent conversation with Andy at the Freeze who told me
about Seymour Melman's National Peace Platform and Ted Weiss's bill on conversion.
We talked about massive civil disobedience as a strategy.
I was interviewed by a friend of Kathleen's (Ann) for Macrobiotics Today.
Tuesday I stopped in Ukiah and heard about a Nurse named Sunshine
who spilled her blood at Remco where they make MX parts.
She had
been sentenced to 90 days and was fasting in jail; it was two
weeks so far.
I left copies of my books for her, then visited
the Plowshares Center
where they were feeding about a hundred
poor people.
I arrived in Arcata about 3 and met several peace activists.
Matt Nicodemus remembered me from the Nonviolence Conference in
Santa Cruz a year ago.
At Humboldt State he started a pledge idea
where senior students agree
to consider the social responsibilities
of any job offers they receive.
They are hoping this idea will
spread to all universities.
Seattle, Friday May 29 10 a.m.
The long drive from Arcata to Eugene through the forests of
redwood and Douglas fir was a beautiful experience.
I thought
about the wonderful people I've met and got the idea to start
a peace community
east of Berkeley perhaps near the Concord Naval
Weapons Station where nuclear weapons
are stored and six box-cars
full of weapons and military equipment
go out every day to El
Salvador.
I also thought about having the peace movement gather
in a national or regional conventions
to work on influencing the
1988 elections.
In Eugene I was talking to Gary Kutcher, and he
said that many small peace groups
in Oregon are planning to dissolve
and form Oregon Peaceworks.
He suggested statewide conventions
so that more activists could attend.
I liked the idea and recommended
that each state
could meet one month before its primary elections.
We set aside Friday to work on this idea.
On Thursday I went to Corvallis to Westminster House and also
talked with Stan Shively
who teaches Peace Studies at Oregon State
University.
He liked the idea of the peace conventions and when
I mentioned the possibility of massive
and continuous civil disobedience
if the elections fail,
he looked right at me and said, "I'm
ready."
From Corvallis I went to Salem to their peace center
and talked with Petra
who was very friendly and receptive.
She
gave me a black flag with a mushroom cloud on it
to display whenever
a nuclear test is scheduled.
Then I drove back to Eugene and gave
the flag to Gary.
Friday morning I wrote a draft calling for statewide
peace conventions,
and Gary suggested adding some broader issues
such as
respect for the environment to our suggested policy goals.
He wrote a letter which he is going to send to national peace
organizations.
I am taking around a sign-up sheet for each state
for activists who would like to help organize
a peace convention,
and I am giving out copies of the Call when I meet with people.
During my three nights in Eugene I slept in a tree house in Gary's
backyard.
In Portland I stayed with Lou Stagnitto whom I knew from Ventura;
he moved to Portland to be director of the SANE office.
On Sunday
I went to Tom Kinzie's Peace Church of the Brethren
and got many
petitions signed.
Then I had a long talk (95% listening to her)
with Betsy Dana
about her Federalist Caucus Registry.
She registered
me for life in exchange for my book.
She liked the fact that I
am working for ways
to "institute" peace and justice
through world law.
On Monday I talked with John Schwiebert who is a minister and
formed a peace house
to avoid paying the taxes he has withheld
from the U.S. Government
because of military spending.
Three families
are sharing a beautiful house and their incomes.
Then I went to
see Paulette Wittwer of the AFSC.
She told me about the Palau
issue.
She works with many Palauans, and they are again being
forced by the U.S. to vote
on changing their nuclear-free constitution
in June.
She also told me about the coup in Fiji after the election
of a leftist coalition of Fijians
and Indians, in which she suspects
the CIA played a role.
That night I stayed with Lance Scott who
was putting out a 16-page newspaper
with three different editions
called the Alliance for Social Change.
His work was very conscientiously
done.
Tuesday morning I was interviewed for 15 minutes by Ross Reynolds
live on KBOO,
an independent non-commercial FM station in Portland.
In Olympia I stayed with Trace Dreyer at the Evergreen State College,
a beautiful campus
with innovative educational programs and active
students.
He taped an interview with me to play on the college
radio station KAOS.
Before I left Olympia I met with Bonnie Jacobs of Beyond War
and Glen Anderson of FOR.
Bonnie told me that Beyond War is focusing
on spreading
the concept that war is not working anymore.
They
are planning major efforts in New Hampshire and Iowa to influence
the early primaries.
Massachusetts people are going to finance
New Hampshire
and people in the Los Angeles area Iowa.
Glen Anderson
puts out the best newsletter in Olympia and is very active.
In Tacoma I had a long talk with Frank Seal of Sixth Sense
about nonviolent alternatives
to military security as important
for the peace movement to offer.
He suggested I write a one-page
article for their newsletter about my tour
that I could give out
to groups along the way.
He showed me how to use their computer,
and I also was able to type it up nicely.
I also met with a minister,
Milt Andrews, and the co-chair of the local WILPF group.
Both
said they would get their members to sign petitions.
Wednesday night I attended the weekly meeting at the Ground
Zero community in Poulsbo
right next to the Trident submarine
base.
A woman named Linda spoke of her experiences
working with
the dying in their homes as hospice.
She described how the dying's
wishes are granted—
to die with or without certain people present.
On more than one occasion she received accurate messages from
the "dead" in her dreams.
As the community center was
deserted the next day except for a Buddhist woman
working on a
pagoda, I drove to the ferry and was the last car on the boat
to Seattle.
After a couple of stops downtown I found my way to "peace
alley"
near the University of Washington.
There I ran into
Rich Wood who remembered me from the Lompoc gym we were in
while
arrested at Vandenberg AFB in 1983 to protest MX missiles.
Rich
works with the Conscience and Military Tax Campaign.
He said I
could stay at his house full of activists.
I talked with Carol
Goldenberg of the UNA, Jane Cadwell of the Freeze
(She was going
to give my information to her husband who is going to a
SANE-Freeze
merger meeting in June.), Abe Keller of ESR,
Sonia of PSR, and
Vernon who has worked for SANE.
I'm finding that Seattle is highly
activated.
Vernon took me over to the Church Council offices where I met
with Beth Brunton
of the Central American Task Force, Paul Reilly
who invited me to a potluck on Advocac
led by Tina Clarke of
the Coalition for a New Foreign Policy
whom I had met at a workshop
in Los Angeles.
I also met with the National War Tax Resistance
group that just moved to Seattle.
After the evening meeting Paul
guided me to Rich's house where several people were
making signs
and a banner saying "Stop your silence"
for a Guatemala
demonstration on Monday.
Salt Lake City, Sunday June 7 2 p.m.
In Seattle I met with SANE which has some 26,000 members in
the area.
I also had a good talk with Nan MacMurray and John Bartlett
who are working on Central America.
Friday night I heard a lecture
on the campus at the University of Washington
on the Latin American
debt crisis.
The high-interest loans are unpayable by the devastated
economies which are suffering
what a labor leader in Brazil called
a third world war that destroys
children, health care, and schools
instead of soldiers.
Unemployment is 50% and inflation 100% in
Latin America.
Attempts to pay the interest rob the people and
even hurt the U.S. economy,
because imports are severely reduced.
According to the lecturer repudiation of the debt is the best
practical solution,
and a new economic order, as recommended by
Castro, is needed.
On Saturday I went to a meeting to plan the citizens train
from Seattle to Washington D.C.
in March 1988 for people to lobby
for a better federal budget.
I visited El Centro, a community
center which took over
an old school and offers various services.
Wendy told me about their work with the Rainbow Coalition.
I had
been talking about Jesse Jackson leading people toward peace and
justice.
Although it is unlikely for him to be elected President
in 1988,
I said he would be a good Vice President.
The next day
I discovered that he said he would accept nomination as V.P.
I went with Rich, John, Vivian, and Suzanne to see the movie
"Amazing Grace and Chuck"
about athletes who give up
sports until there is nuclear disarmament—
a powerful message
if unrealistically presented.
I recalled Gary Kutcher telling
me he dreamed that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar quit basketball
until nuclear
disarmament was achieved.
I'm sure if he had known about the upcoming
movie, he would have mentioned it.
On Sunday I went to a discussion led by Rob Leavitt from the
Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies on alternate defense
systems.
Unfortunately the discussion was not very focused, and
we did not get into substantive issues.
A man called Fire told
me how I could hook up with the computer network called Peacenet.
In Spokane I talked with Diane Jhueck and Barbara Cowan.
Then
I stayed with a Mennonite group, Gary, Nancy and Rusty Nelson
and two children.
I am constantly amazed at how we can become
good friends in such a short time
when our ideals and aspirations
are so harmonious.
Thanks to the organizing work of Esther Belgum in Great Falls
and coordinators
she found in Missoula (Robin Wall) and Helena
(Frank Kromkowski),
Montana was well prepared for my visit.
In
Missoula I talked to about 25 people and met Alice Wiser of Vermont
and
Gertrude Kauderer from West Germany who are on a
peace caravan
talking to groups and schools.
Connie Skowson told me of efforts
to name their new peace resource center after
Jeannette Rankin,
the first woman in the U.S. Congress
who voted against both World
War I and II.
I also met Butch Turk and Jim Ranney who
teaches
peace courses at the University of Montana.
In Great Falls I was interviewed by the local ABC affiliate
and was on the 5:30 news
talking about how military spending creates
fewer jobs than other expenditures.
Before my talk I went around
and talked with the people
at the 22 tables for the local peace
groups.
A woman sang St. Francis' famous prayer and then Rev.
Joe Belgum
gave me a spirited introduction.
I talked and answered
questions for an hour and a half, and it was all videotaped.
Esther,
Joe, their friend Paul, and I discussed many peace issues
including
the efforts of Beyond War.
Frank Kromkowski gave me a guided tour of Helena
as he told
me what they've been working on there.
I spoke to a small group
which was most interested in suggestions for better effectiveness.
I discussed the power of personal example
and direct communication,
altenative media, and creativity.
I drove to Idaho Falls where I talked with Joan Tomsic and
her mother
who share a similar spiritual philosophy to mine.
Joan
said she felt the need to work on herself for a while
but now
feels more ready to move out into social action.
I went to Salt
Lake City the same day to stay
the weekend with the son of a very
good friend.
Boulder, Saturday June 13 4 p.m.
In Salt Lake City I mostly rested after such a busy week and
a drive of 500 miles on Friday.
Sunday morning I attended a Friends
meeting where we sat in silence for 45 minutes.
Sunday night I
babysat for two little girls where I was staying.
The next day
I met with Grady Walker, personally visited three other peace
activists
and got my car fixed by Tom Stokes who also happened
to be
staying in the same house on his way to Chicago.
Although there was only one peace group on my list for Grand
Junction, Colorado,
they responded to my mailing and scheduled
their monthly meeting for the night I was there.
Lance Oswald
and his family offered me hospitality.
That day they had taken
a poll asking 50 people on Main Street questions about
nuclear
testing and found that 90% were in favor of a comprehensive test
ban.
Lance invited the news media to the evening meeting which
was held outdoors at a park.
As a result I was on the evening
news briefly
and also got to talk to their group of about fifteen
enthusiastic people.
After having fresh mulberries with breakfast, the drive across
the Rocky Mountains
and along the Arkansas River to Colorado Springs
was very beautiful.
At the Pike's Peak Justice and Peace Commission
office I met Geoff who described
the military activities in the
area which include the Air Force Academy, NORAD,
and the main
research for "star wars."
He showed me their excellent
little newspaper.
I was invited to stay at the peace house where
their co-director,
Joan Brown, operates a community for women.
I went to Denver and was informed about activities there by
AFSC staffer Tom Rauch.
They had done some educational programs
on the Soviet Union.
At the World Constitution and Parliament
Association I talked with Ken Almand
who told me about their upcoming
Provisional World Parliament in Florida.
Before meeting with the Colorado Coalition for the Prevention
of Nuclear War,
I drove to Boulder to pick up a shipment of books.
Coming back the sky was diversely beautiful from gray pastels
and dark rain clouds
over Denver to glowing white clouds over
the western snow-capped mountains.
I thought of how we are going
to change the corporate warfare state
to a community welfare state.
I was also excited about Rep. Patricia Schroeder running for President.
At the Coalition meeting I explained my hopes and suggested strategies
for
bringing about major changes in the '88 elections.
Several
people representing different organizations signed up
to work
on a statewide peace convention.
Then John Chanin spoke about
the Shut Down Rocky Flats actions planned for August 3-9.
Joe
Tempel and Deb Angulski invited me to stay with them.
In the morning
I visited the Denver Justice and Peace Center which is working
to make
Denver officially a sanctuary city for Central American
refugees.
Most of the peace activists in Boulder were either in
Washington
D.C. or San Francisco for meetings.
I did talk with Bianca, Dan,
Kacie Cavanaugh, and Steve Perry who all work
on Freeze Voter
and other things.
Kacie told me about the statewide Colorado Peace
Mission which lobbies
Congress personally on a regular basis.
Steve and I discussed long-term strategies, and he expressed that
my trip would make me
a valuable resource as to what is going
on in the peace movement
and asked me to make this knowledge available.
I was also interviewed for 20 minutes on Boulder's
public radio
station KGNU by Laura Marshall on Saturday.
Little Rock, Monday June 22 10 a.m.
Before leaving the Denver-Boulder area, I attended the weekly
prayer vigil at Rocky Flats,
which makes all the plutonium triggers
for nuclear weapons.
When I arrived at the gate, it was raining
a little and windy.
Alex was watering the peace flower garden
when the wind
blew his hat across the highway and past the gate.
The guard who was closing the gate because of the vigil would
not let either of us retrieve it.
Alex was ready to get arrested,
but the guard finally went and got it.
About a dozen of us prayed
there,
where I felt the intense energies of spiritual light and
dark meeting.
In Fort Collins I went to the Foothills Peace Center and met
David Lipp.
Mary and Paul Bates took me to a park for a picnic
lunch.
Mary ran for Congress in 1984, and Paul is working on peace
education.
Then I visited Joe Stern who tried to arrange interviews
and an evening gathering without much success.
He is a lawyer
from New York who uses wit and satire in his activism.
I typed
a long letter for him to Warren Air Force Base where he and a
hundred others
had been banned and barred recently.
I stayed the
night at the home of John Kefalas and Beth
who are both very active
at the Peace Center.
The next morning I talked with Vietnam veteran
Steve Slaton
who is thinking of running for Congress.
I drove to Laramie and talked with Willis Ludlow and Lorna
Johnson of the AFSC
and then John Hill who writes a witty newsletter.
I didn't stay in Laramie but went right on to Cheyenne where Peter
and Lorraine Holcomb
told me their group was meeting the next
night to hear me speak,
thanks to the Unitarians and the response
of Al and Annette Aldridge
I spoke to their group of about fifteen
and at length with Peter, Lorraine, and Ed Warsaw.
They are actively
working against the MX missile,
because Wyoming is the only state
which accepts it.
They were going to a statewide meeting in Caspar
that weekend and
were taking along my suggestion for a statewide
peace convention.
Driving past Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills, I noticed there
is more room on the mountain
for the heads of those who would
lead this nation and the world toward peace and justice.
I wasn't
able to reach anyone in Rapid City but met with a dozen people
who had arrived early for the National Nonviolence Conference.
I helped Clark Hanjiar and others set up the encampment on the
land of Marvin Kammerer,
who is in Ranchers for Peace.
I stayed
in a tent with Tom from the Catskills during a thunderstorm.
The
sun rose at 4:30, and I got an early start and drove across South
Dakota to Sioux Falls.
There I received hospitality from Rev.
Duane Addison and his family.
His son Richard helped me to connect
with PeaceNet
and put my July schedule on the calendar.
Before reaching Omaha I knew that a statewide meeting was being
held that day in Carney.
However, I discovered a conference on
"Following the Nonviolent Jesus"
at Creighton University
and was invited to attend.
I heard talks by Gerry Vanderhaas from
Memphis and Mary Evelyn Jegen of Pax Christi.
I stayed at a peace
community of Tom Cordarro, Bridget, and a Salvadoran refugee.
I left early to drive 580 miles through Kansas City and Springfield,
Missouri,
and the beautiful Ozarks of northern Arkansas to Little
Rock.
I called on Maggie Fisher of the Arkansas Peace Center.
She was very upset and felt she had been pushed out of the work
for two weeks.
Yet she did put me in contact with some people.
First Father Joe Biltz offered me a room at the seminary.
He told
me about his experience working for civil rights for thirty years
from Little Rock
to the United Farm Workers in Oregon to Kent
State in 1970.
When I called Chris Kupper and Tim Coe, I found
I could stay at Chris's house
for the week of the Unitarian Conference
which was to begin the next day.
Oklahoma City, Wednesday July 1 8 a.m.
I had to wait several hours on Monday and again on Tuesday
to get the table I had reserved
as part of the Peace Network,
because Steve Schick and Karen Boucek said my materials
had arrived
too late (on the day of the deadline March 16) for them to evaluate
them.
If I had known there was a problem,
I would have stayed at
the Nonviolence Conference in South Dakota.
However, since I had
heard nothing and insisted on a table, they finally put one up
for me.
I talked with Charlie Clements and heard him speak twice.
I was surprised to learn that the contra-aid vote is still likely
to be close in the fall.
Politicians can be slow learners.
Sue
Nichols of the U. U. United Nations Office gave a workshop and
said
I could attend the special U. N. conference on the relationship
between disarmament
and development when I am in New York in September.
I got about 60 names on each Presidential candidate's petitions
and heard very favorable
comments about Michael Dukakis and Paul
Simon
from the people in Massachusetts and Illinois.
I heard Bill
Davis of the Christic Institute speak about their case
against
the secret team and the "Contragate" scandal.
Matthew
Fox gave a great talk on creation-based spirituality and creative
mysticism.
I hope to teach at his college in Oakland next year.
The special Ware lecture by Anthony Lewis about civil rights,
problems of race relations,
and the rule of law in regard to the
scandal was good, but its intellectual liberalism without
much
action did not especially move me.
On the next day the Unitarian
Universalist General Assembly passed a resolution of
immediate
witness calling for impeachment proceedings
against the President
and Vice President.
I was glad to see that efforts to remove the
word "impeachment" were defeated.
On the last night in Little Rock I went to a small informal
universal worship
with Chris Kupper and his friend Linda.
The
service included the Hindu, Judeo-Christian, Buddhist,
native
American, Islamic, pagan, and Sufi traditions.
Monday I went to Tulsa and stayed with the family of Pam and
Herb Neumann,
who are very active working on a piece of land opposite
Pantex in Amarillo.
I also talked with Jean and Harold Dunlap
who work on political influence.
At Leslie Chestnut's I met some
people who were preparing a newsletter for mailing.
The next morning
Pam and I went to Osage Monastery and talked with Carol Potter
who is writing a book, GLOBAL PRO BONO,
to encourage lawyers to
help on civil disobedience trials.
In Oklahoma City I met Sister Leona and Nathaniel Batchelder
and was put to work
for the rest of the day getting the "Oklahoma
Peace Strategy" newspapers ready to be mailed.
Kansas City, Sunday July 5 noon.
I stayed two nights with "Batch" at the Benedictine
Peace House.
Wednesday morning we met with two members of Physicians
for Social Responsibility
to preview four short videos and plan
a public meeting for Hiroshima day.
At noon I went with Sister
Leona to a one-hour silent vigil of concern
and sorrow about what
is happening in Central America.
A young man in a suit came by
saying, "No exchange of views?"
I said, "I'll talk
to you," but he replied, "There's no time;
I'm in a
hurry;" and he quickly walked away.
I just laughed.
The standing
prayer was a powerful experience.
In the afternoon I helped Batch
get out forty press releases about a press conference
by some
Oklahoma City lawyers on the Christic Institute's legal case against
the
"secret team" and challenging Sen. Boran to widen
the investigations.
Then we went to a busy intersection and held
up signs for an hour to the rush-hour traffic.
After a nice dinner
with the Benedictine sisters, someone called to tell us
of the
TV debate between the Democratic candidates, which we watched.
In Wichita I met with Annabelle Haupt and later talked with
Dick Williams,
but I spent most of my time with Mary Harren, whose
daughter I had met in Omaha.
Mary helped to organize the first
major civil disobedience action
at a military base in Kansas where
69 people were arrested.
I got to Kansas City on the first day of the 3-day fourth of
July weekend,
but I managed to talk with Father Dick Wempe at
the Shalom Catholic Worker
and to Susan Rieger at the KC Freeze
Coalition office.
She told me they had tried to circulate petitions
at the Kansas City Spirit Festival
last 4th of July but were restricted
to doing it outside.
After finding hospitality at the Holy Family
House Catholic Worker and a long
conversation with Charles Bebb
and Linda McNichols of the Freeze,
I went to the Spirit Fesitival
and managed to pass out some brochures inside.
I helped the Catholic
Worker people serve about a hundred people dinner.
It was their
slowest night in months, because of the holiday
and because early
in the month people have more money.
Dubuque, Sunday July 12 9 a.m.
On Sunday in Kansas City I read Eugene McCarthy's book THE YEAR OF THE PEOPLE
about his run for the Presidency in 1968.
I see many analogies to this year in his challenge to the Vietnam War policies.
Even though that year was tragic with the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and
Robert Kennedy and the nomination of Hubert Humphrey without his winning a single primary.
I hope that the democratic reforms that McCarthy's efforts stimulated will help us this year.
So far Jesse Jackson is the only one showing definite leadership on peace and justice issues,
and I believe that the candidate who takes strong leadership on nuclear disarmament
and peace in Central America among the others will have
the best chance of winning the nomination.
When I left Holy Family House, they gave me the generous contribution of $50.
I had a very good day in Columbia where Missouri University
is located.
I talked with Mark Haim of the Freeze, Robbie Lieberman
who teaches Peace Studies
at the University, Jennifer Wax of WAND,
Susie Morse of Parenting for Peace and Justice,
Marc Drye of the
Shantytown Activists who showed me their anti-apartheid shanties
in the campus quad and described for me their nonviolent actions,
and finally I stayed at St. Francis house and had a long discussion
with long-time activists Lana and Steve Jacobs.
In St. Louis I also met with several organizers including Anna
Ginsberg of the Freeze,
Bill Ramsey of AFSC, and Florence Johnson
of WILPF.
For two days I enjoyed the generous hospitality of Unitarian
Roy Bohn,
but one day I was accidentally locked in the apartment
by two wall plasterers
and spent the day watching Col. Oliver
North testifying and the videotape
of the Christic Institute's
Dan Sheehan.
In the evening Roy and I went to a WILPF planning
meeting for a Hiroshima event
that was well facilitated by Eldora
Spiegelberg.
After crossing to the east of the Mississippi River for the
first time in my life,
I drove to Springfield, Illinois.
There
I had good discussions with Suzanne Brown of Citizens for Peace
in Central America
and Diane Hughes of the Springfield Peace Action
Network.
I stayed at the Catholic Worker house in Rock Island where
I talked for several hours
with Chuck Trapkus who told me about
their actions concerning the arsenal which
manufactures so many
weapons and explained to me his Christian anarchism
and reluctance
to participate in politics.
In the evening we met some other folks
and saw two films
about Hiroshima and Nagasaki—very painful to
watch.
I did not succeed in making other contacts in Davenport
and was frustrated to discover
that evening that candidate Paul
Simon had spoken there that afternoon on arms control;
yet the
article in the local paper the next day said practically nothing
about his views.
Thus I was pleased to discover when I arrived in Dubuque and
talked with Francine
and Jim Banwarth that Mike Dukakis was speaking
there in the afternoon.
Francine is very active on a campaign
to get some fifty Iowa city councils
to pass a test-ban resolution.
Francine gave me her negative impressions of Joseph Biden whom
she met and talked with.
She said he supported all 20 Trident
submarines as necessary for security and foresaw
nothing but the
defense budget leveling off at $300 billion.
Later someone told
me that Biden said he would not accept Jackson for Vice President.
He sounds worse and worse.
I got a chance to talk with Mike Dukakis for a while, because even he went around
to meet everyone there; he spoke to the crowd for only ten minutes about how he is
for full employment, and there were only about a hundred people there.
I gave him the petitions that were signed for him in Little Rock with a copy of my article,
schedule, press release, peace conventions idea, and IRENE.
When I expressed my views about the need for a candidate to lead on peace
and disarmament, he replied that I was talking to the converted.
He said he opposed SDI funding and favored a test-ban.
I showed him my ten-year plan for complete nuclear disarmament by the year 2000
and asked him to write me if he supported it or to give his views and that I would tell
peace activists all across this country what his position is.
I told him that if the next President does not work for disarmament,
there would be massive civil disobedience, because we cannot wait any longer.
I said that to balance the budget, defense has to be cut, and for defense to be cut
we need a disarmament treaty.
Peter Whitis of PSR and Beyond War and I both asked him
about Central America and Contadora.
He replied that he recently had read a draft of the treaty and was impressed.
Finally I asked him if he would seriously consider Jackson for Vice President.
He replied that he would consider everyone but that he had to get the nomination first.
As he left, I said, "Many blessings to you."
I am staying at the Catholic Worker House here and last night
with Marcia Davis
and Paul Fuerst saw Kubrick's movie "Full
Metal Jacket"—a very strong statement
against military
training and the Vietnam War.
I thought it was unrealistic that
a disgruntled grunt murdered the drill instructor
until Marcia
told me that her brother stepped out of the way
when someone tried
to kill the DI with a bayonet.
St. Paul, Sunday July 19 5 p.m.
On Sunday in Dubuque I went to a church popular with the Catholic
Workers
where we discussed the parable of the sower, and I compared
it to peacemaking,
many falling away or frightened by anti-Communist
propaganda and even more
distracted by money and material pleasures.
Marcia took me to meet two nuns active for peace,
including a
Hennessey whose sister I met in Des Moines.
I stopped in Cedar Rapids on Monday at the Catholic Worker
and then had to get the alternator in my car replaced.
In Iowa
City I talked with networker Jay Robinson
and a Pananamian woman
who is working for Jackson.
Discovering from Jay that Joseph Biden was to speak in Des
Moines that evening,
I drove the 115 miles and arrived just in
time for the Stop the Arms Race (STARPAC) forum.
Biden ridiculed
several Reagan myths about foreign policy but then presented his
own
modified positions based on similar anti-Communist attitudes.
He stayed around after his talk to meet people, and I had a chance
to ask him
several questions to clarify that he is not for all
the Trident submarines,
that he was against flight testing of
the D-5, and that his vote for "humanitarian" aid
to
the contras was a compromise.
I told him also that if the next
President does not make major progress on disarmament,
there will
be massive civil disobedience.
When I asked him if it was true
that he would not accept Jackson as V.P., he said yes,
that he
would be honest with me, because he didn't think he has the experience.
I said I would be honest and admitted that the best I could hope
for
is a Dukakis-Jackson ticket.
He replied, "When I am elected,
you'll be in trouble."
Then realizing what he said, he quickly
reassured me, "No, you'll be fine."
I said to those
standing around, "I think I'll be in jail."
That night I stayed in the firehouse apartment of Chet Guinn
and the next morning
talked with STARPAC Director Chuck Day and
saw their video.
Then I met with Ed Fallon of the Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament,
had lunch with Kari Fisher at the Catholic
Worker, met Gwen Hennessey,
then Mikel Johnson and Gene Jones
of AFSC
and finally Kim Hill Smith of the Iowa Peace Network.
The next two nights I stayed with Jeff and Amy Couch.
At the
Art Center I saw Edward Hicks' paintings of "The Peaceable
Kingdom"
and "Penn signs a Treaty with the Indians."
I also attended a breakfast meeting of STARPAC's committee planning
the
September forum for all the Presidential candidates.
I urged
Chuck Day to send the lessons of their experience to Gary Kutcher
in Eugene, Oregon so that peace organizers in other states
could
benefit from their experience and leadership.
Arriving in Minneapolis on Thursday afternoon I met Tom Houts
of the Central American
Resource Center and Jim Fournier at the
Newman Center and then several groups
at the new location of the
Twin Cities Peace and Justice Coalition.
Richard Seymour told
me about their numerous actions at Honeywell,
their generally
light sentences but recent punishments of forty days.
I sat in
a Freeze meeting where an idea to honk horns once a week was mixed,
but a brochure on the holocaust theme was accepted.
Mel Duncan
of Jobs with Peace said I could stay with him.
He told me of their
state-funded conversion program and how their only client, Phillips,
which was ready to convert from land mines to three-ring binders
and increase their jobs,
was bought off by a more lucrative offer
from Honeywell.
This was after the commissioner of the state department
was taken out to lunch
by the Honeywell V. P. and decided to cancel
the program.
However, the program was shifted to another department.
Friday I went to Women Against Military Madness, Friends for
a Nonviolent World
and also talked with Deborah Nankivell of
Common Cause
and Jonathan Specktor of Ground Zero.
The latter
is planning a fall forum for the candidates as it did in 1984
and 1986
but needs to coordinate with the Freeze which jumped
in early and set a date.
That sweltering evening I saw the 3-hour
film on the CIA called "On Company Business"
at the
radical May Day bookstore and then slept at the Catholic Worker.
Saturday morning I walked around Lake Harriet with people
who
are supportive of Nicaragua.
Then I went to a WILPF picnic to
hear a report about
the European peace movement and the INF talks.
The rest of the weekend I stayed with Phyllis Carlson and
went
with her to a Self Realization Fellowship meditation.
Chicago, Sunday July 26 9 p.m.
In La Crosse, Wisconsin I was led to Sister Cecilia Corcoran
and then to Peg Nolan at the co-op.
Peggy Baumgaertner told me
all about the International Peace Lantern Exchange Project.
In
the evening I went with Peg's roommates to the Earth First film
where co-producer
John Seed talked about the councils of all living
things, rituals and song.
They are involved in direct action to
prevent destruction of rain forests.
I met with various groups in Madison and stayed at Link House
and attended a "contra-buster" meeting with Marc Zoilo.
They are showing the Christic Institute video of Dan Sheehan every
week,
and each week more people come.
Steve Kokette showed me
some videos he is
distributing on "Star Wars" and the
"Contra War."
I was also interviewed on the breakfast
show of community radio WORT.
I sold so few books in the twin cities and Madison that I was feeling like quitting my tour.
The stifling heat wasn't helping.
However, in Milwaukee I sold eight copies of THE WAY TO PEACE in one day
and got help for my car at the Catholic Worker.
I went with Don Timmerman to a benefit for the Pledge of Resistance.
I also met with Jobs with Peace, John Gilman, Mobilization for Survival,
Bettie Eisendrath, and Jackie Haessly.
In Chicago I ran into the cold war attitudes of Bob Woito at
the World Without War Council
and then briefly visited Jo Patton
of PSR, ESR, Maureen Barry of the Chicago Peace Council,
and Oswaldo
Alfaro at the AFSC offices.
I stayed with Ron and Karla Chew's
family.
Saturday I went to a meeting of People United Serving
Humanity (PUSH)
which was 98% black.
Mayor Harold Washington spoke
about the housing crisis and challenged the federal HUD.
From
there I went to an excellent conference on Namibia and heard from
the
Secretary-General of the South West Africa Peoples Organization
(SWAPO)
and Rep. John Conyers.
I met several women from Namibia
and a man from Cameroon.
Namibians are suffering apartheid and
military domination by South Africa.
On Sunday morning I spoke to the people at the First Unitarian
Church
and then went to the Chicago Peace Museum with Ron Chew.
Fort Wayne, Sunday August 2 1 p.m.
While getting my car serviced on Monday I took the el train
into downtown Chicago to meet
with the Freeze and CALC, where
Ron Chew works.
In the evening we went to a local peace group
meeting in Oak Park.
In Grand Rapids I had enthusiastic conversations with Ed Prong
at the
Institute for Global Education, long-time activists Walter
and Betsy Bergman,
Tim Pieri, and Phil Jung of ESR.
Sister Mary
Pat Beatty invited me for dinner and to stay at their House of
Prayer,
and she introduced me to Jackie Hudson.
At Lansing I spent
most of my time talking with Bruce Roth at the Peace Education
Center.
I discussed civilian-based defense and other topics at length
with John Mecartney in Detroit.
Mary Hollens and others at the
Freeze office were generous in buying my books
and gave me a T-shirt
and a book.
I also visited the Peace Studies Center at Wayne State
and WILPF.
I decided to go to Ann Arbor instead of spending a
second day in Detroit.
When I arrived my car was behaving very
badly, but I managed to find a place that specializes
in Japanese
cars to do the repairs and correct the errors
made in the tune-up
done before my trip.
Jim Ringold, the canvas director at SANE,
was enthusiastic about my visit
and had me speak to the dozen
canvasers at their afternoon briefing.
Some of them mentioned
that I helped to inspire them and alleviate their discouragement.
I also talked with Jeff, an environmentalist, and Rich Ahern,
an architect who admires Thomas Jefferson.
I'm staying in Fort Wayne with Jim and Marian Goetsch who head
up
the Friends of the Third World stores.
Visiting intern and
social-work student, Andrew Paris, has told me much about
his
country Switzerland and how their politics works by direct democracy.
I met Bahai Judi Russell who took me to speak to a spiritual peace
group on Sunday morning.
I am now half way on my 30-week journey.
I feel the most important
aspect of my work is the personal communication
I am establishing
with key peace activists in each city.
It is very difficult to
report these conversations, because I do not have
the time nor
energy to spend writing detailed accounts.
I am getting along
very well with almost everyone who takes the time to talk with
me.
Their various interests help me to round out my understanding
of the whole situation.
People are glad to know that I will be
mailing to them next year.
I often get tired and have to rest, but energy is always there when I need it.
Thus far I have stayed in 58 different places and never have had a serious problem
in finding somewhere for the night.
I have had a shower or bath every day except once or twice.
The sale of books is covering my expenses for gas, food, and car repairs.
My car is now in good shape, and my new book LIFE AS A WHOLE
should finally be sent to me next week.
Even though I rarely speak to more than two or three people at a time,
many people have impressed me with the importance of my networking effort
and have encouraged me to keep going.
By completing my nationwide tour, this personal peace network will at least
be geographically widespread in the U.S. if not comprehensive and complete.
Cincinnati, Sunday August 9 9 p.m.
In Indianapolis I met with Jimmy Ilachild at the Peace Center,
Judy Dunson at the
Indiana Council of Churches, Garnett Day of
the Disciples Peace Fellowship,
Debbie Wyeth at the Freeze, and
Bahai Hamilton Niss.
I stayed two days with Ernie Hodel and met
Central American activist Willie Ney,
his mother, and others at
a meeting planning a reception for
the Nicaraguan baseball team
at the Pan American Games.
I went to the Quaker-sponsored Earlham College in Richmond
and met Peace Studies Director Pat Washburn.
Phil Park-Thomas
took me around to meet Wayne Copenhaver of the Neighbors
East
and West Project, which is establishing Richmond with a sister
city in the Soviet Union,
and to talk with key activist and tax
resister Cathy Flick.
I found that several people were on vacation in Dayton
but
talked with Julie Ramsey and Victor Coleman at the AFSC.
Then
I went to a Hiroshima Day vigil at Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base.
There I met several people from Wilmington and decided to
go talk with Helen Redding
at their Peace Resource Center and
to attend the Friends Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting.
I met the people
at the Volunteer House and led a
discussion for the teenagers
at the yearly meeting.
When I arrived at the Freeze office in Columbus, Barbara Fitzgerald
greeted me warmly,
and we went together to staff the Freeze booth
at the Ohio State Fair Peace Pavilion,
a result of the peace interests
of Gov. Dick Celeste and his wife.
There I talked with Jim Ross
about encouraging Celeste to run as a peace candidate.
On Saturday I drove to Cincinnati and met with Steve Schumacher
at the Center for Peace Education.
I also talked with Joel Rosenblit
of New Jewish Agenda and then went to the
Friends Meeting House
where I received the kind hospitality
of activists Polly and Amos
Brokaw.
I also talked with Deborah Jordan of the Freeze and Bob
Moore.
After the Sunday Friends meeting I went to the Nagasaki
commemoration downtown
where I was allowed to speak for five munites
after long-time activist Rev. McCrackin.
Then we went to a vigil
at Fernald where uranium is enriched to make bombs.
Polly had
people wearing vulture outfits and carrying a sign that read
"FERNALD
MEANS DEATH."
The silent vigil ended; the black costumes
and sign were put aside;
and we sang songs until it began to pour
down rain.
I got a ride with David Little who is going to work
for Dukakis.
The local news covered both the rally and the vigil
even though
our numbers were rather few—maybe a hundred.
Cleveland Sunday August 16 4 p.m.
My first stop in Louisville was the Mercy Convent where
Sister
Mary Schmuck invited me for lunch.
Then I met with Judy Schroeder
of the Peace Education Program, Patricia McCullough
at the Council
of Peacemaking and Religion, and Eileen Blanton
at the Catholic
Archdiocese Peace and Justice Center.
After talking with John Bush, Betsy Neale, and Ellen Frost
in Lexington
I spent most of my time with Quaker Doris Ferm; we
went to a meeting to plan the
Central America lobbying campaign
and discussed
the new Arias agreement signed in Guatemala City.
I drove through the lovely hills of West Virginia to Charleston
and met Freeze and
Common Cause workers Sharon Mayes and Bob Hall.
I stayed with Peggy Burkhardt, a friend of Betsy Neale's, and
we went to a T'ai Chi class
where the black instructors enthusiastically
let me describe my "mission."
I went directly to the Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh and
was glad to meet and talk
with Molly Rush of the Plowshares 8
fame; Molly has been working on a campaign
to get Westinghouse
to consider the ethical consequences of their nuclear weapons
programs.
I met Gail Britanik who introduced me to John Kromkow
who is in the Arizona legislature;
he does not have much respect
for Bruce Babbit.
If Babbit gets any delegates, it would be unlikely
for him
to throw them to a progressive candidate.
At the Pittsburgh
Peace Institute I talked with Liane Norman.
Then I went to a potluck
sponsored by World Federalist Tim Barner.
A man name Tom Hudgens
sat next to me, and I said, "You're the man who wrote
LET'S
ABOLISH WAR, and he knew me from my mailing and regretted that
he had been out of town when I was in Colorado.
We listened to
two representatives of the Soviet Peace Committee who spoke good
English.
They gave examples of how their peace activities have
influenced Soviet policies,
such as the "delinking"
of star wars from intermediate nuclear missiles.
Afterwards Tim,
Tom, and I talked.
Tom said how he is trying to reach more moderate
and conservative people.
As we were discussing the Arias plan,
I was concerned about
the U.S. military aid to the governments
of El Salvador and Guatemala.
Tom put his hand on my shoulder
and asked me if I was so naive to think that the rebels
in El
Salvador could overcome an unaided government without Cuban or
Nicaraguan arms.
However, Tim put him straight that they have
not been getting such arms
and that U.S. military aid is needed
to prevent their takeover.
Having had a good day in Pittsburgh, I went to Cleveland a
day early and met with
Monica Green, Mick, and Chris Ball at the
Freeze as well as Bob Begin, Jane Pank,
George Hrbek, and Harold
Barton at four other offices.
In the evening I went with Chris
and Mick to a great concert by Collective Vision,
a rock group
that formed on the Great Peace March and had just been on the
Leningrad to Moscow march and played at the
unprecedented rock
concert in Moscow at a large stadium.
During the Harmonic Convergence weekend I stayed with peace
marcher Chris Ball
at his grandfather's large estate on Lake Erie.
We went to the sunrise celebration at Edgewood Park on the beach.
I read where a World Peace Congress is being called by the Dalai
Lama and others
for the summer of 1989 to implement a peace plan.
This is amazingly in line with the plan I suggest in the article
I am giving out all around the country.
Concord, N.H. Sunday August 23 8 a.m.
When I arrived in Buffalo, the staff of the
Western New York
Peace Center was all on vacation.
I talked with Sister Maureen
O'Leary at the Center for Justice,
and then stayed with Marek
Parker, a young peace marcher.
In Rochester I met Pat Mannix at the Peace and Justice Education
Center,
Robert Sandgrund, Maria Scipione, and Sally McCoy at Metro-Act,
Ken Mahar at the Catholic Diocese, Bill Anderson at the Zen Center,
and Dennis Lehmann of the Disarmament Task Force.
At St. Joseph's
Catholic Worker House I talked with Mike Affleck of the
Nevada
Desert Experience about nonviolence guidelines and political strategies.
He told me how they worked hard to elect a liberal woman to replace
a Reaganite
in the Congress, showing the effectiveness of grassroots
politics;
now they don't have to worry about how she votes.
I discovered that the Syracuse Peace Council is the oldest
local peace group,
having been going for fifty years.
Key people
I met in Syracuse are Andy Major, Alan Pike, Kathleen Rumpf,
Peter
Wirth, and Mary and Dick Keough.
At an evening class we discussed
the relationships between militarism, poverty,
and racism and
also the uses of prayer.
In the morning I went to a vigil for
peace in Nicaragua.
After buying a new battery for my car, I drove to Albany where
I hoped Susan Hesse
would meet me; however, she had moved.
I talked
with David Easter about Korea, Carolyn Mow of the Knolls Action
Project,
Laura Letendre at the Diocese, Pearl Campbell, Steve
Segore at the Freeze,
and Patricia Beetle who is active on many
issues.
In Burlington, Vermont I went to the Peace and Justice Center
and talked with Bob Fisher and Deborah.
I also visited Howard
Stearns, national chair of United Church of Christ FOR,
and Arnold
Golodetz who is active in Beyond War.
Robin Lloyd let me stay
at her house even though she was going out of town overnight.
When I arrived in Concord, New Hampshire, I was not able to
find anyone at first.
I spent a couple hours in the Gephardt for
President office
talking with the campaign workers there.
I was
waiting for Patricia Bass who was very apologetic and helpful.
She told me about their project to have people ask the Presidential
candidates questions
and then report their answers.
I gave her
some specific questions I had written in Columbus which she liked
very much.
She put me in touch with the director of the project,
Marjorie Percival, for a place to stay.
Marjorie and I had excellent
talks on the relation
between inner peace and effective social
action.
She is a medical researcher and feels that the
solving
of the AIDS virus will greatly help cancer research.
Farmingdale, NY, Thursday September 3 5 p.m.
I stayed in Concord, New Hampshire on Sunday instead of going
to Portland, Maine.
Marjorie and I attended the Friends meeting
where I met Tom Wall of the Nashua Peace Center.
On Monday I drove
to Portland and could only find Bob Stein of the Freeze.
Then
I went to Cambridge and met with some groups before going to Concord,
Massachusetts where a family related to a Unitarian associate
from Ojai, the Reisners,
gave me excellent hospitality and dinners
for four nights.
I had a difficult time in Cambridge also and
for four days I didn't sell a book.
I did talk with Lester Arond
at the Freeze, Kevin O'Connell of the SANE canvass,
and Calien
Lewis, the new director of WAND, among others.
Wednesday I walked
up Beacon Hill past the Statehouse
and met with two different
Lawyers groups.
At the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies
I talked with Rob Leavitt about
peace activists' efforts to influence
the Dukakis campaign.
They had withdrawn a vague foreign policy
statement to revise it
hoping to get more peace-group support.
Since they were working on a third draft I decided to submit something
they might want to use, based on "American" values of
freedom and justice for all,
showing that prosperity here and
abroad depends on demilitarization.
I took it in the rain and
gave a copy to Rob for their group of peace activists
and mailed
it to the Dukakis campaign.
Friday I drove in the rain to Providence and met with Women
for a Non-nuclear Future,
since Carol Bragg of AFSC did not have
time to talk with me—
not even two minutes in an entire day,
I decided to go on to Hartford,
and after using a men's room in
what looked like a bar, a man threatened to
"put a bullet
through my head" if I ever came back there.
After receiving
numerous intense threats, I got in my car and drove
until I saw
a sign for the World Affairs Council.
After this harrowing experience
I was greeted coldly by their director, Marjorie Anderson,
and
she would not let me use their telephone.
Apparently the group
is associated with the U.S. State Department.
Finally I found
the offices I was looking for in Hartford and talked with people
at the Freeze and Bruce Martin of the AFSC.
I stayed the weekend
with wonderful people at the house of John Bach,
a man who spent
35 months in prison during the Vietnam War for refusing to be
drafted.
On Sunday I went to a march and rally for some Puerto
Ricans
who have been imprisoned (Some are out on bail.) for two
years awaiting trial,
persecuted because they work for independence.
In the evening I went to a potluck for the New England peace walk
and learned more about Puerto Rico's history as a U.S. colony
since 1898.
In New Haven, Alan Wright of the Leon/New Haven Sister Cities Project
was my guide and host.
He is teaching a philosophy class at Yale on freedom and justice in Nicaragua.
As Sandino was a theosophist, I explained to him various esoteric concepts
that were new to him.
I met prime mover, Paul Hodel, and attended a Bible class at the Isaiah Peace Ministry
with Art Laffin, Elmer Maas, and John Schuchardt who have done Plowshares actions.
On my way to New York City I stopped at Nyack where the
Fellowship
of Reconciliation has its U.S. headquarters.
Jo Becker told me
about the working group on the Disarmament 2000 campaign,
and
director Doug Hostetter let me speak briefly to their staff.
When I got to Manhattan Island, parking near the United Nations
was expensive;
so I stayed at the Unitarian UN office less than
an hour.
Then I visited James Goodwill at the Freeze,
Cora Weiss
of the Riveside Church Disarmament Program, and had an informative
conversation with Christopher Candland of the
Task Force on Militarization
of Asia and the Pacific.
Chris filled me in on Palau's recent
vote to change their nuclear-free constitution
and on Afghanistan
where in 1987 the CIA funneled 630 million dollars in weapons.
On Wednesday I walked about five miles to the UN for the conference on the relationship
between disarmament and development, but the working groups were closed.
I learned that this is because of lack of security people,
which is why the meditation room was not open.
I walked around the UN building and then across the street I visited the
World Policy Institute and Methodist Peace and World Order director Robert McClean
who said that all of U.S. debt together is $20 trillion.
Then I attended an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) conference
on women and disarmament, hearing the Secretary-General of WILPF, a Chilean woman,
and Anne Montgomery of the Plowshares 8.
I took the subway and met Jack Marth of Plowshares NY
and other groups on Lafayette Street.
Today I'm staying at Coleman Publishing in Farmingdale on Long Island
to pick up my new book tomorrow, LIFE AS A WHOLE.
Washington, Wednesday September 16 8 p.m.
Friday I packed six boxes of my new book in my car and gave
Gail Presby a ride
from the Bronx to the Atlantic Life Community
retreat near Bangor, Pennsylvania.
The ALC has grown around people
who have done
plowshares actions of hammering on weapons.
Over
a hundred people attended the three-day retreat in a beautiful
wooded setting.
Excellent presentations were made by Phillip Berrigan
and his wife Liz McAlister and others.
The talent show on Sunday
night was a riot.
Much sadness and sympathy was felt over the
Brian Willson train incident at Concord, California.
I heard that
land has already been bought there for peace work.
On Labor Day I decided to skip Newark, because of the holiday,
the rain, and the traffic.
I drove to Philadelphia and stayed
with the Los Angeles Catholic Worker people
who were just moving
in to begin a CW house there.
My car was helpful for Mark White,
Angie, and Patty Burns.
We went to a vigil at General Electric.
I visited the Movement for a New Society, American Friends Service
Committee
headquarters to talk with Chris Wing about Disarmament
2000,
and briefly the WILPF headquarters.
I went to the sentencing
of two priests who, after two hung juries on a plowshares action,
pleaded guilty to a reduced trespass charge.
They got 100 days
in jail but no restitution
even though the damage was estimated
at $70,000 each.
At a dinner party I got to talk at length with
the priest Dexter Lanctot;
both had been dismissed from their
priesthood after the action.
He hoped to be reinstated and was
taking it well.
He wants to adopt a child.
Friday I stopped in Wilmington and met with some groups in
Baltimore.
I stayed one night at Jonah House and attended their
liturgy on Sunday.
Saturday I went to a peace fair in Frederick
where I met Arthur Kanegis and John Darnell
who are working on
the FUTURE WAVE project for a major motion picture
giving a vision
of a peaceful world in the year 2020.
I offered to help with the
writing and spent Monday telling them my ideas for a new plot.
On September 15 I attended the demonstration at the capitol
in Washington opposing aid to the contras.
Half of us carried
two thousand letters from the people of Maine to Senator Cohen's
office.
I talked with Steve Gray of the Maine Peace Action Committee.
I visited a few peace groups and then stayed with Marcia Timmel,
Paul Magno, and Kay of the Olive Branch community.
Today I met
with Freeze Voter and the Jesse Jackson campaign.
I delivered
Peace by 2000 petitions to the offices of Senators
Simon, Gore,
and Biden, and Rep. Gephardt.
In the Senate elevator I reminded
Sen. Jesse Helms of the Nuremberg Principles
and their application
to those who vote for contra aid.
I walked around a celebration
of the Constitutional bicentennial and then watched
from the gallery
the U.S. Senate debating the amendment
to restrict star wars spending
within the limits of the ABM treaty.
Statesville, NC, Sunday September 27 9 a.m.
I went with Patrick O'Neill, who came up from North Carolina,
to a trial in Arlington
of Phillip Berrigan, John Heid, Lynn Romano,
Kay, Homer, and five others
for an action on August 6 when they
blocked the escalators going into the Penatagon.
They were found
guilty, but I think the judge was moved by their motives
and the
refusal of every one of them to pay a fine.
He continued the sentencing
for one year, and it will be suspended
if they are not convicted
of something else in Virginia.
Friday I visited Nuclear Times and a couple other groups in Washington and then drove
back to Jefferson, Maryland to work on a treatment for the movie about the year 2020.
My story has some astronauts traveling in space for 30 Earth years and returning
with a secret military mission to further U.S. interests.
The world has disarmed all nuclear weapons earlier
and has just voted to disarm the nations' conventional forces.
A group of militarists tries to take over but fails
against massive nonviolent methods of conflict resolution.
Monday I drove to Charlottesville and stayed with Rain Zohav
of the Peace Center.
I also met Bill Anderson of FOR, a black,
and visited nearby Monticello.
In Richmond I talked with activists
Wendy Northup, Jack Payden-Travers, and John Gallini.
I went with
Marii Hasegawa to a local meeting of the Rainbow Coalition.
In Raleigh I talked with Robin Davis of NOW, Bob Cain of SANE,
Clyde Smith of Peace Artists Network, and stayed with Jane and
Jim Hunt;
Jim has written two books on Gandhi.
Thursday I met
with the founder of Witness for Peace, Gail Phares.
We attended
a talk on the Persian Gulf at North Carolina State by a conservative
professor.
His knowledge was helpful, but we both disagreed with
his opinions.
He saw U.S. intervention as the way to force a settlement
in the Iraq-Iran war.
I suggested that the fanatical psychology
of 45 million Iranians
might resist U.S. imposition to the death.
In Durham I had a good talk with War Resisters League staff person
Mandy Carter
and also with Betsy Crites of Witness for Peace.
I stayed near Chapel Hill with Ingrid Swenson who had recently
been to Vietnam.
She told me of their struggles and efforts in
education and health care in spite of
trade sanctions from the
U.S. and other countries the U.S. blackmails.
Peter Nemenyi invited
me over for breakfast and expressed his concern about the
3 1/2
million dollars of "humanitarian aid" for the contras
that the rules committee
attached to an emergency spending bill.
At the Center for Peace Education in Chapel Hill I talked with
Tiffany Davis
and also Gerry Drake of PSR.
That evening I spoke
to about fifty Unitarians
who had come there for a regional leadership
conference.
I emphasized the strategy of influencing the next
elections and the likely need for
massive civil disobedience and
to not pay federal income tax.
I was followed by the excellent
musical group of four women, Pomegranate Rose.
Saturday morning from 9 to 12 I attended a meeting of the Orange
County Greens.
I managed to meet with Dale Davidson of the Religious
Coalition to Reverse the Arms Race
in Greensboro, but was not
able to reach anyone in Winston-Salem.
I'm resting today with
friends in Statesville.
St. Petersburg Wednesday October 7 9 p.m.
In Charlotte I talked with Rev. Arthur Kortheuer of Veterans
for Peace
and Kimberly Reynolds of SANE.
I then drove on the same
day to Columbia, South Carolina where I met up with Kevin Gray
who works with the peace groups as well as the Rainbow Coalition
and the NAACP.
Kevin introduced me to long-time civil rights advocate
Miss Modjeska Simkins,
Peter Sederberg, and also Bret Bursey of
the Grassroots Organizing Workshop.
On Tuesday I drove to Charleston but was unable to reach anyone
there.
I continued on to Savannah and finally found psychologist
Debbie Kearney
who works on environmental issues.
She directed
me to the Catholic Worker House, and from Helen O'Brien and
Rosanne
Kiely I found out about the Southern Life Community (SLC) gathering.
At St. Marys near Kings Bay I visited Martina and John X. Linnehan
where a house
is being built for Metanoia Community next to the
railroad tracks
into the newly enlarging Trident base.
On Thursday
I visited Chris and Daniel Weiss and others in Jacksonville.
From
Friday to Sunday I attended the SLC gathering
which featured excellent
talks by Liz McAlister.
There I met activists from all over the
Southeast.
Sunday night Sharon Beinert and I stayed with Peg McIntire
in St. Augustine.
We went out and heard the ex-mayor of Gainesville
sing.
In Orlando I stayed at the Florida Peace Coalition office and
talked with coordinator
Bruce Gagnon and Brett White of the Friends.
Brett told me about his experiences living in villages between
Jordan and Israel;
he thinks of himself as a Palestinian.
Chap Morrison told me what is going on in Miami with so many
active Cubans
and how some ex-contra Nicaraguans are trying to
encourage peace.
Tuesday evening I went to a meeting at Fran Schmidt's
about a youth peace festival
on May 1, 1988 involving students
from Miami's schools in the arts and communication skills.
Fran
has been developing peace curricula for years.
Here in St. Petersburg I visited the AFSC office, talked extensively
to Ruth Uphaus
at Amity House and went to a potluck at the homeless
advocacy group ASAP.
New Orleans Saturday October 24 10 p.m.
In Gainesville I stayed where Sharon Beinert is house-sitting.
We went walking out on the plains and saw several alligators,
herons, and egrets.
We also talked with Linda Aguirre about the
Central American Refugee Bond Fund.
At the Tallahassee Peace Coalition I met Elaine Roberts and
met up with Roger Peace
who organized a small group at his house
for a discussion.
I also talked with some student activists at
Florida State University.
On Sunday night we attended a classical
music concert by FSU faculty
to raise money for the peace coalition.
On Monday I drove to Americus, Georgia and talked with Tom
Hall at Habitat for Humanity
about how they build houses for the
poor. I stayed the night at the Koinonia farm community.
I talked
with Steve Clemens about his civil disobedience experiences and
spent
several hours
responding to questions about spiritual things
from a 20-year-old woman named Joyce.
In Alabama I visited the Carver Museum at Tuskegee University.
I spoke to a few students at Auburn University and at a potluck
organized by Judy and Jack Cumbee.
I stopped in Birmingham but
was only able to speak to
Scot Douglas and Steve Guesman on the
phone.
I headed for Atlanta and stayed three nights at the Community of Hospitality.
I had an intriguing meeting with Fred Taylor and E. Randall Osburn
at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
discussing strategies for civil disobedience.
At the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Social Change I talked with Hilda Tompkins who
invited me to the Atlanta premiere of the musical "I Have a Dream" where I met Mrs. King.
Saturday I stayed at the Quaker Meeting House and read the book
SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES.
After the Friends meeting I spent the day with Glen Mahoney and Marcia Montenegro
discussing astrology, and I mentioned that I was curious what would happen to the
stock market on Monday because I thought
it might go down even more than it had on Friday.
In Chattanooga I tried to reach Anne Redivine, while my car
was being repaired.
I drove on to Knoxville and went with Nickie
Meeks, who I had met talking to
Unitarians in Durham, to a Peace
Links meeting.
I heard about the Highlander Center but was only
able to talk to Paul Deleon on the phone.
This was the Monday
the stock market dropped over five hundred points.
I met Irene Boyd at the Diocese office in Nashville.
I went
to dinner and talked at length with Ruth Lindahl at the Freeze
office.
We both share a love of classical literature.
I stayed
at the home of Steve Applebaum of PSR.
My chief contact in Memphis
was Bill Akin at the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center.
I went
with him to make a presentation to a group of Jewish women.
Sister
Sharon Sullivan welcomed me in Jackson, Mississippi and took me
and Woody,
who had just arrived to work on the hunger issue for
Results,
to a prayer meeting in her neighborhood.
In Mobile I stayed with the L'Arche Community
which lives with
mentally handicapped people.
I talked with Andy Rector who has
gone on long peace walks in the U.S. and Europe.
Today in New Orleans I met Sister Catherine Martin of Pax Christi
and Dan Fitzgerald
who moved here recently from Los Angeles to
help Central American refugees.
Catherine drew the poster of Gandhi,
King, and Dorothy Day,
and a second one of the four church women
who were murdered in El Salvador.
Ojai Tuesday November 10 7 a.m.
Sunday I went to the New Orleans Friends meeting
and also heard
a refugee from El Salvador speak.
He had been to a national conference
of Latino people in the U.S.
I stayed with John Golding and that
evening
played the board game Diplomacy with several of his friends.
In Franklin, Louisiana, I was shown around by Bernard Broussard of Agape
who has lived there among the sugar plantations for fifty years or more.
He told me of their struggles for civil rights, labor unions,
community organizing, and for peace.
I spoke to a small group.
His wife could not read his writing and publicized my book as LIFE AS A WHALE.
I drove to Houston and met with the elderly Ann Wharton of the Nuclear Safety League
who told me of their efforts to stop Texas from becoming
a nuclear waste site and transport area.
At the Houston Wellness Center I spent the afternoon with its director,
an Indonesian woman named Elsha; they offer progressive wholistic health care.
My main contact in Houston, Peggy Wilgis, introduced me to people
who were putting out the monthly Houston Peace News.
On my way to San Antonio, I stopped in Austin and talked with
Jere Locke,
staff person for the Austin Peace and Justice Coalition,
as well as Roxanne Elder
of SANE/Freeze, and on Saturday with
James Heine of the AFSC.
Dr Ann Semel welcomed me at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.
I spoke three times at their conference on "Conflict and
Conflict Resolution"
for about an hour each time, twice to
students and once to the general public.
I was also on the panel
on Central America.
To represent the other side, they invited
a man from the Salvadoran consulate
who seemed a caricature of
anti-Communist attitudes.
He called Ortega a "Russian dictator."
The other members of the panel had so many facts and perceptive
observations
that the issue was rather obvious to most people.
I was particularly impressed by Phyllis McKenzie of Latin American
Assistance.
I also heard Mere Dith Norwood of Psychologists for
Social Responsibility speak.
I decided to speed up the rest of my tour so that I could arrive
in Las Vegas
one week earlier for the action at the test site
on Dorothy Day's 90th birthday.
Stopping in Dallas I met with
an ex-lawyer Edgar Patterson who works for world federation
and
Larry Egbert who is active in PSR; I talked with him in the emergency
room of a hospital.
Then I made the long drive to Amarillo where
I stayed with Sharon Sullivan's brother Joe.
That day I drove
570 miles.
Karolyn Shaw, whom I had met at the Unitarian General Assembly,
was my gracious guide in Amarillo.
We went to a Unitarian service
on Sunday and then visited Cindy and Les Breeding,
Karen, and
Ron at the Peace Farm next to Pantex
where all the nuclear warheads
in the U.S. arsenal are assembled.
They believe that they may
be shipping some of them by airplane,
but they primarily watch
for trains and trucks.
Ron gave me a videotape of Bob Bowman's
speech on star wars from their August event.
We all went to a
potluck at Becky Livingston's of CALC.
In Santa Fe I talked with Bruce Berlin of Trinity Forum
and
Alan Hutner who has two radio programs.
Alan asked me to call
in reports on the peace movement in the future.
I went on to Albuquerque
where I stayed two nights at the home of Dorie Bunting.
At the
Center for Peace and Justice I had a good talk with staff person
Connie Adler.
I talked with Deb Preusch at the Resource Center;
I was very impressed with the detailed literature they are publishing
on Central America.
Also Mary Wommack is involved in the New Mexico
Construction Brigade to Nicaragua.
I decided to skip El Paso and made the long drive to Tucson.
I stayed with Nancy Carroll of Catholics for Peace and Justice.
I went with her to a meeting about getting draft counseling into the public schools
with the same access as military recruiters.
Bill Brooks explained how the precedent of a case in Chicago
gives them strong legal ground to demand this right.
I met at length with Barbara Elfbrandt who runs the AFSC office.
I also talked with Wini Hall of the Tucson Peace Action Coalition.
I spent the second night at Joe and Jean Gullo's home;
they direct the Theosophical Order of Service.
I talked with Connie Rogers on the phone, and in Las Vegas I met up with
Jack and Felice Cohen-Joppa who put out the Nuclear Resister newspaper in Tucson.
In Phoenix I visited with Annette Marcus, staff person
for
the Arizona Center to Reverse the Arms Race.
Also in Las Vegas
I met several people from the Phoenix Catholic Worker Andre House.
I arrived in Las Vegas just in time to hear Cesar Chavez, Shelley
Douglass,
and Brazilian Archbishop Domhelder Camara.
The next
day about five hundred people went to the test site,
and 225 of
us were arrested and released.
I went with Patty Burns' group,
and we were arrested for blocking the road.
Sunday night those
who were still in Las Vegas had a party at Ann Welch's home.
I
ended up without a ride back to the Catholic Worker house and
stayed there
with Frank Cordaro from Iowa, John Williams of Seattle,
and Jeff Dietrich of LACW
who suggested we watch a Rambo movie.
The next morning I said goodby to Julia Occhiogrosso and others
at the Catholic Worker
and drove back to my parents in Somis and
then to Ojai.
This has been published in the book PEACE OR BUST. For ordering information, please click here.