CONFRONTING THE LIBERAL
FACE OF BUSH'S WAR
|
Eugene Civil Resisters Confront Senator Ron Wyden at Eugene City Club
in Dramatic Demonstration Against His Votes to Approve War Funding;
Resisters Tell Him "You Are An Accomplice to Mass Murder" in
front of Media - by Peter Chabarek
photography by Carol Melia
January 13, 2006, on the eve of the Martin Luther King holiday weekend---US
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) thought he would be giving a staid address on
his tax reform proposal to business and professional people at a Eugene
City Club address at the Downtown Athletic Club ballroom. He didn't
know he would be faced with some determined anti-war resisters who had
prepared for him a
special "gift" dramatic demonstration on Friday the 13th that would
force him to defend his indefensible voting record on the Iraq War in front
of the public and the media.
Our group works as part of the Iraq Pledge National Campaign for Nonviolent
Resistance, which kicked off a campaign January 13 that will result in
hundreds of civil resistance actions around the country leading up to March
20, marking the third year of the disastrous invasion and occupation of
Iraq.
This Eugene group consists of military veterans, professionals, business
owners, students, and retirees. Our action was intended to dramatically
imprint in Senator Wyden's heart the human tragedy of the war, and the
outrage we feel about his consistent votes IN FAVOR of every appropriations
bill to fund the war, despite his claim to be a "progressive" Democrat
in a largely progressive Democratic state where
opposition to the war runs high, and despite his vote against the initial
use of force against Iraq.
We felt that after nearly three years of war, revelations that the
reasons for invading Iraq were incontrovertibly false, hundreds of thousands
of deaths and $245 Billion wasted, our patience was running out.
Add to that our repeated efforts to convince Congress through emails, phone
calls, petitions, and face-to-face lobbying resulting in no change in this
Senator's position on funding the war, and we were ready to stop being
polite and start making demands.
Our plan went like this: we would come to the City Club dressed in
black as if for a funeral. Some of our people were stationed outside the
entrances with coffins (some draped in the American flag, others adorned
with Arabic script), handing out flyers about our intentions and with a
quote from MLK's 1967 Riverside Church speech in which he first came out
against the Vietnam War.
We had an original recording of that speech playing on a CD player
for all to hear King's stirring voice as they came in the main entrance.
Inside, we had seven people prepared to confront Wyden and commit civil
disobedience if necessary to get our message across.
I acted as the spokesperson and six others (Fraeda, Beverly, Nikki, Paul,
Pam and Betsy) played the role of mourners. We would interrupt the
"civil" procedure of the City Club with our demonstration and put Senator
Wyden on the spot.
The script for the spokesperson went like this:
SCRIPT FOR JAN. 13
SENATOR WYDEN, (MOURNERS START WALKING UP TO THE STAGE; SENATOR WYDEN
IS PRESENTED WITH A BOUQUET OF WHITE ROSES)
THANK YOU FOR APPEARING IN EUGENE
TODAY.
IN HONOR OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING,, WHOSE BIRTHDAY AND NATIONAL HOLIDAY
ALL AMERICANS CELEBRATE THIS WEEKEND, THE "CONCERNED CITIZENS OF THE WHITE
ROSE" HAVE PREPARED A SPECIAL GIFT PRESENTATION FOR YOU.
WE WISH TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR INITIAL VOTE AGAINST THE USE OF FORCE
IN IRAQ.
HOWEVER, OUR GIFT TO YOU TODAY IS A PACKET OF PHOTOS SHOWING THE RESULTS
OF YOUR CONSISTENT VOTES APPROVING FUNDING THE WAR IN IRAQ. (HE IS
PRESENTED WITH A PACKET OF 8 X 10 GRAPHIC COLOR PHOTOS OF WAR CASUALTIES).
AND OUR GIFT TO YOU TODAY IS THE OPPORTUNITY TO PUBLICLY APOLOGIZE
FOR YOUR MISTAKES OF SUPPORTING FUNDING THE DISASTROUS
WAR IN IRAQ,
AND WE GIVE YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO PUBLICLY PLEDGE HERE TODAY, IN WRITING,
(PLEDGE IS RAISED FOR MEDIA TO SEE) THAT YOU WILL VOTE AGAINST ANY FUTURE
SPENDING BILLS FOR THIS BRUTAL AND ILLEGAL WAR OF AGGRESSION. (SHOW
PICTURES TO MEDIA, GIVE PACKET TO WYDEN, ASK HIM TO SIGN PLEDGE).
THE PLEDGE WE ASK YOU TO SIGN SAYS:
PLEDGE TO OPPOSE FUNDING THE IRAQ WAR
I, SENATOR RON WYDEN, HEREBY PUBLICLY DECLARE TO THE CITIZENS OF OREGON,
WHO ELECTED ME TO THIS HIGH OFFICE, AND TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, THAT :
I WILL VOTE AGAINST ANY FUTURE BILLS WHICH COME BEFORE THE CONGRESS
THAT WOULD CAUSE FUNDS TO BE SPENT FOR PROSECUTING THE DISASTROUS WAR AND
OCCUPATION OF IRAQ.
Signed ___________________________
Dated ____________________________
While the script was read, the mourners approached the podium wearing
black veils, sobbing and wailing as if at a funeral.
We had planned the action and prepared materials for a few weeks
ahead of time. New people who had not had civil disobedience training
were trained in the basics. Press releases were sent out to media
around the state, stating that we would be conducting civil disobedience
that day, and that any or all of our three members of Congress-Wyden, Sen.
Gordon Smith, Congressman Peter DeFazio (who have all voted to fund the
war each time it has come up in the Congress)-might be the targets of our
actions. The times and locations were not revealed..
Senator Wyden had scheduled the appearance at the City Club and an appearance
at a Town Hall meeting at a senior center for the 13th, so we decided that
since he would be out in the open, we would make our stand there.
The police were notified that we would be likely doing civil disobedience
that day, and I advised them they would not need many officers to make
the arrests, that our people were all committed to and trained in non-violence,
and they would have our full cooperation if arrests happened, as we have
done in previous actions.
The Eugene City Club is a rather elite club of businessmen and professionals
for the most part, though membership is open to anyone for a fee.
Their presentations are open to the public for a nominal fee on the day
of the event. The current president of the City Club is Tom Lininger,
a progressive Democrat and former Lane County Commissioner, with whom I
had worked with a few years ago on a county resolution opposing the Patriot
Act (he was our biggest supporter on the commission). We hold mutual
respect for each other.
The City Club rules are that one person from each table may ask a question
of the speaker after the speech has concluded, but the questioner must
be a City Club member. It occurred to me that I could ask him
to make an exception to the procedure to make our "gift presentation" without
necessarily disrupting their protocol, so I asked him if it would be possible
for us to do that. He said they had a strict schedule and a contract
with the radio station that prevented that, but we could make our presentation
after the meeting was over. I explained that we wanted to make our
presentation while the media was
still present, and he kindly introduced me to Mary, Wyden's aide.
She was friendly but suspicious, and wanted to know exactly what the "gift"
was. I was equally friendly, but refused to tip her off.
I was then tipped off by an independent journalist friend who was there
that the owner of the Downtown Athletic Club was very upset that we were
there; that Lt. Kerns from Eugene Police was in the crowd in plainclothes;
and that there were 5 or 6 uniformed police officers waiting downstairs
if needed. I discreetly informed our people in the ballroom.
After Wyden concluded his planned speech on his "fair flat tax" proposal,
I gave the signal to Beverly on the other side of the room to distribute
the press packets to the media, which included the script of what we would
say to Wyden, the pledge we would ask him to sign, a description of our
group and why we use civil disobedience, and samples of the war casualty
photos. It wasn't very long before I saw Tom Lininger with a press
packet in his hand (someone in the press must have given it to him), and
he approached me and asked if he could arrange things to get me to the
question and answer microphone near the end of the program and have us
stay within their protocol. I said as long as he guaranteed that
we would get our chance before the media left, and he agreed.
One of the questioners before me asked him about taxes and how much
the war was costing us, and didn't he feel it was a better course to bring
the troops home and divert that money into education and other social needs.
His response was that the troops needed our support and good body armor,
and that Iraq would become a breeding ground for terrorists if our troops
left now.. It sounded like a word-for-word rendition from the Republican
playbook.
As the time approached for me to take my turn at the microphone, Wyden's
aides, Lininger, and City Club executives kept their eyes on me.
I was feeling a lot of adrenaline, and forced myself to stay calm and centered.
We would onlyget one shot at this, we had put a lot of time and energy
into it, and I wanted to make it count.
When it was my time, I walked to the podium and offered Wyden the bouquet
of white roses, which seemed to set him at ease somewhat. Then I
launched into the script. It proceeded as planned, and he was paying
careful attention to every word. But somehow it did not seem to me
he was fully taking it in, just appearing to be listening. So I made
an on-the-spot decision to up the ante-to provoke a response, as Gandhi
would say-and I added the following statement:
SENATOR, YOU ARE AWARE, AS ALL OF US ARE, THAT THE REASONS FOR GOING
TO WAR HAVE ALL PROVEN TO BE FALSE. HENCE, OUR INVASION OF IRAQ WAS
AN ACT OF AGGRESSION, IT IS A WAR OF AGGRESSION, AND YOU, SIR, ARE AN ACCESSORY
TO MASS MURDER. (This last phrase was the quote that made it on to
Air America news
later).
I then read out loud the contents of the pledge, and asked him to sign
it.. He took the clipboard and pen from me willingly, and took a
minute to read it. I actually thought for a few seconds that he was
going to sign it While he read, a few City Club members yelled
"Don't sign it " I didn't know if that meant they were opposed to
bringing home the troops, or if they were just upset that we were acting
outside their protocol.
Wyden refused to sign it, and then launched into his same rhetoric
about body armor, and Iraq as a breeding ground for terrorists. I
interrupted him saying, "The best way to protect the troops is to bring
them home." Lininger was hovering near me, and told me not to interrupt.
I tried to continue, and he said my time was up. I continued talking,
interrupting Wyden, and Lininger took away my microphone. I kept
talking, louder so people could hear me without the mic, but by this time,
the room was in an uproar, with City Club members booing, and our supporters
yelling "Let him speak " I then decided to casually, non-threateningly,
walk up to the podium and stand next to Wyden. I looked at him and
said, "Senator, may I?" He did not react, so I went ahead and stepped up
to his microphone and continued talking about how 90% of the weapons in
Iraq were from our forces, and the best way to stop the killing is to remove
the weapons. But the crowd was in an uproar, and Lininger stopped
me by grabbing my arm and pulling me off the stage before I could deliver
the last part of our script, which was our pledge to the Senator if he
refused to sign his pledge to cut off war funding. Our pledge to
him was:
SENATOR, BECAUSE YOU HAVE REFUSED OUR MOST REASONABLE REQUEST FOR YOU
TO ACT TO END THE WAR, WE HEREBY DECLARE THAT WE WILL MOUNT RESISTANCE
ACTIONS AT YOUR OFFICES AND AT YOUR PUBLIC APPEARANCES ANYWHERE YOU AND
YOUR STAFF MAY BE IN OREGON AND WASHINGTON, DC. THAT IS OUR PLEDGE
TO YOU, SIR.
Our group had decided that if I was taken away, Pam would step up and
continue speaking, and she did. She was quickly pulled away from
the podium as well.
Fraeda was dragged away from the podium after that, while the other
mourners kneeled and held their positions, as we had practiced in civil
disobedience training. I was so moved seeing my comrades step up
and show adamant determination and courage.
Those of us pulled to the side were kneeling on the floor and we were
surrounded by reporters asking questions while the City Club questioners
continued with their questions about Wyden's tax plan. It was surreal.
Thinking about the crowd of mostly liberal Democrats booing us, Martin
Luther King's quote came into my mind: "Long after we forget the attacks
of our enemies, we will remember the silence of our friends."
Lininger came over and starting pestering us to move farther away from
the podium, and I told him we were talking to reporters and we would stay
put.. He kept it up, and finally I turned to him and said, "Arrest
me, Tom " He instantly backed off, looking rather sheepish.
It then occurred to me that it was likely he had talked with Wyden's handlers
and the police, and had planned to have City Club people drag us off, rather
than the police, so as to avoid further embarrassment and bad press for
Wyden.
Some people came up to us when it was over and thanked us for doing
the action. A few came to me and criticized our action, saying we
had upset people and risked alienating Wyden after we departed from City
Club protocol.
A few activist friends whom I respect said as much to me as well, which
gave me pause. But after much reflection, talking to many in our
group and our supporters, and reviewing two different videotapes of our
performance, I felt strongly we had done the right thing. True, we
did not follow the polite rules of the City Club, but as I explained to
Wyden's aides, we weren't there to talk about taxes or fixing potholes,
we were talking about mass murder..
There are times to be less than polite. Tom Lininger came over and
shook my hand, saying he appreciated our efforts and hoped there were no
hard feelings. I assured him there weren't, and I bit
my tongue and did NOT say, "Tom, you should have had the police drag
us away instead of City Club employees. You're a law professor, and
you know the legal definition of 'assault'."
As Wyden was shaking hands with people afterwards, I noticed he had
left his packet of photos at the podium, so I grabbed it and waited in
line to talk to him again so I could hand it to him and talk some more.
I said, "Senator, you forgot this." He took it, looking a little
non-plussed. I then explained to him that my father had spent four
years in the military in Europe in WWII and had come home with deep emotional
scars; that my brother had come close to being killed at the World Trade
Center on 9/11; that my family knows about the realities of war and terrorism;
that my son was of draft age; and that I have many relatives in Syria that
I have never met. He listened with perfect eye contact, just as he
had at the podium earlier. Then I asked him, if he supported funding
the war for the reasons he stated, would he send HIS son to Iraq to fight.
"Sure, absolutely," he said, looking away, "if that's what he wanted to
do." He never looked me in the eye at all when he said that, and
that was the only time in all our interaction that day when he refused
to meet my gaze. Then he hurriedly made motions toward the exit saying
he needed to leave.
Our folks outside got mostly positive responses from people coming into
the building concerning our coffins and flyers, with a few exceptions.
One older Army veteran complained we were disrespecting the people who
had sacrificed their lives for their country, and someone (likely Bob Bennett,
owner of the Downtown Athletic Club), called security and made our people
leave the back entrance to the building.
Media coverage was quite good. Very favorable stories came out
on KOPT Air America, KLCC radio (NPR affiliate), KEZI-TV (ABC affiliate),
and a neutral story on KVAL-TV (CBS affiliate). The Eugene Register
Guard surprisingly did not cover it despite giving us good coverage in
the past, and editorializing often against the Bush Administration and
the war. Followup stories will be coming out in the Daily Emerald
(University of Oregon student paper) and the Eugene Weekly. Interviews
will be coming out in a few days on KWVA radio Eugene and KBOO radio Portland,
as well as independent media.
What did we learn this time? I think we learned that pushing
the envelope can make a strong impact, AND rankle some people who are generally
on our side but feel squeamish about pushing our elected officials to do
the right thing. We learned that by talking strong truth to power,
we can force the powerholders out into the open and have to defend their
position so that the public can see how poorly thought out and morally
bankrupt that position is. We learned that we can express very strong
emotions AND stay determined, civil, and on message, even while under the
pressure of the media spotlight and disapproval from supposed allies.
And we learned what we are made of-this incredible, courageous, principled
and really fun group of people I have been privileged to work with on this
action who have been such a great blessing in my life.
Gratitude and BIG kudos to our brave patriots of this action: Fraeda,
Beverly, Pam, Nikki, Paul, Betsy, Gordon, Dee, Hank, Jacqui, Doe, Beryl,
Jack, Peg, Karla, Rich, Sarah, Carrie, Kevin, Maria, Rose, Don, Carol,
Amy; our indefatigable attorney, Brian Michaels; and anyone else I may
have missed through my own inattention.
The Grassroots, coming up through the cracks in the Empire, cannot be
stopped.
"There have always been tyrants and murderous dictators. In the
end, they always fall, always. Remember this." -Mahatma Gandhi
More about Our Efforts...
Our
Homepage (Who are we?)
OUR
POSTERS
(please be advised they are very disturbing)
Bringing
the War to Hillary - Portland, Oregon Jan 27, 2006 (NEW)
CONFRONTING
THE LIBERAL FACE OF BUSH'S WAR - Jan. 13, 2006
Counter
Recruitment Effort
National
Stand Down Day, U of O ROTC Nov. 2005
Banging
at the Gates of the Empire Sep 2005 - DC
End
the War Protest Sep 2005 - Eugene
Memorial
Day Observance 2005
U
of O Career Fair
Tax
Day 2005 Protest
2nd
Anniversary of the Iraq War
2nd
Bush Inauguration Ceremony
Veterans
Day 2004
Talk
to us in our Blog
or contact group organizer Peter
Chabarek
or...
check out Squadron13's newest creation: Veteran's
Against Torture!
