Contemplating nonviolent civil disobedience at the
office of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin isn’t easy. On the one hand, Durbin
is one of the senators most supportive of ending the Iraq War; on the
other, he has consistently voted to fund the war. As I find myself
increasingly angry and frustrated about the lies, torture, disregard for
self-determination, and tremendous expense of this administration’s
war, I am motivated to take action beyond my usual work for peace. About a year ago I had thought about sitting in at the
office of Sen. Durbin, whom I greatly admire and support. In fact, when my
husband asked, “Why would you do that when he’s one of the good
guys?” I deferred to what I thought was his good judgment. However,
when one of Durbin’s aides posed a similar question, this time I
could say that because of this senator’s understanding of the issues,
it makes absolute sense to advocate for “raising the bar” for
him. I joined Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for
Creative Nonviolence, and Tim Keough, a Walker for Justice and Christian
Brothers University student, because of the imminent attack on Ramadi, a
city in the Anbar province where there are said to be insurgents loyal to
Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the assassinated leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. As U.S.
and Iraqi forces prepared to eliminate Zarqawi’s supporters, Los Angeles Times correspondents
Megan K. Stack and Louise Roug reported that “a desperate population
of 400,000 people [are] trapped in the crossfire between insurgents and
U.S. forces. Food and medical supplies are running low, prices for gas have
soared because of shortages and municipal services have ground to a
stop.”
Our desire was to bring attention to this possible
attack that could resemble the 2004 bombing of Fallujah, in which many
people died or were injured. Also the recent arrival of 1,500 U.S. troops
reinforces the military presence in the city and further underscores the
seriousness of these activities. Although the U.S. Army is telling
residents to evacuate Ramadi, the difficulty of doing so is intensified
because they cannot flee to Baghdad, the nearest city; the government
militia is suspicious of anyone entering the city. Furthermore, we were
concerned about a media blackout on Ramadi. With these thoughts, we entered Durbin’s office.
After we asked to speak with the senator or one of his aides, the
senator’s downstate director, Bill Houlihan, came down from his
office and heard our request: that Durbin find out the specifics on this
impending attack, address the issue on the floor of the Senate, and speak
with the media. After Houlihan said that he would e-mail Durbin with this
message, Kelly asked whether we could respectfully sing the names of U.S.
soldiers and Iraqi victims of the war. Houlihan said he didn’t have
much time to listen but stayed with us for a while as we prayerfully sang
their names. We continued for about an hour, when a man, who did not
identify himself, asked us to leave the building and continue our vigil
outside, if we so desired. Kelly indicated that we were remembering the
dead, and we continued. Shortly afterward, a woman who identified herself
as a federal marshal asked that we stop singing because we were disrupting
the workplace. Kelly suggested that senator’s staff might want to
take a moment from their day and join us. When a staffer suggested that we
move our vigil to the conference room, I stated that I felt that that would
still be in the spirit of our vigil and moved from the reception area.
After a few moments I heard no more singing and returned to the reception
area to see Keough and Kelly being led away in handcuffs. As we resumed our vigil outside, speaking the names of
the dead, Houlihan came out and said that the senator wanted to talk with
me by phone. Durbin told me what had gone on in the Senate that afternoon.
Although I was glad to hear that amendments had been proposed to bring the
troops home in a specific period of time, I told him that our major worry
was for the people of Ramadi. After I explained the main issues, he replied
that he didn’t realize that this was happening. We agreed that I
would send him information that he would read, and, if he felt it
appropriate, he would speak from the Senate floor about the imminent threat
to innocent people in Ramadi. This was conveyed to the vigilers, and we
left the area, as we had planned, at 4 p.m. Over the course of the past year, people in our local
peace movement have questioned what impact we can have as private citizens,
what I will call the “I’m only one person” syndrome.
There is a point, and I pray that our elected officials and neutral
citizens are beginning to reach it, when we must follow a path toward what
is just instead of what is expedient. My choice to speak out in this way
will not be the choice of many others, nor does it need to be. It is only
one form of risk we can take to let others know that we are serious when we
say this war must end. Our troops need to come home. Now.
This article appears in Jun 22-28, 2006.
