The Civil Disobedience Imperative
Reflections by Nick Cardell
First Parish, Groton, MA -- January 23, 2000
In 1962 Psychologist Paul Goodman, author of Growing Up Absurd, published
a very small book titled On Drawing the Line. In a chapter called The
Ineffectuality of Some Intelligent People he wrote:
"I am again and again baffled how persons of intellect, of
good intention, of strong conviction, reason in a way that must logically
lead to an Action, and yet do not act. This seems to me to be profoundly
pathological, yet how to cure it?.... To explore this pathology of
professors and scientists, let us first consider [another] group of
well-intentioned, intelligent, solid citizens, whose ineffectuality
seems to be explicable on more familiar grounds. This group we may
loosely identify as Unitarians, Universalists, Humanists, members
of the Ethical Culture Society, many Quakers. They are more than a
hundred thousand, educated far above the average, richer than the
average, with considerable moral courage and high ideals of life.
Why do they throw so little weight?"
Goodman suggested that the answer lay in a "defect of our virtues"
in that we are "decent and observe the rules of the game, even
when the rules are manipulated against" us. In other words we are
law abiding citizens. In his book, Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau
touched on this when he noted that "It is not desirable to cultivate
a respect for the law, so much as for the right." You will no doubt
recall the story about Emerson passing the jail in Concord, discovering
his friend Thoreau there and uttering in astonishment, "Henry,
what are you doing in there." To which Henry asked, "Waldo,
what are you doing out there."
In downtown Syracuse, NY near the Federal Building, there is a larger
than life monument memorializing a jailbreak in 1851 two years after
the publication Civil Disobedience. It depicts William Henry (known
as Jerry in Syracuse), a fugitive slave and on either side of him two
ring-leaders of the group that arranged to rescue Jerry from the consequences
of the recently enacted federal, "fugitive slave law." The
two rescuers in the monument are the Rev. Jermain Loguen, himself an
escaped slave, and the Rev. Samuel Joseph May, social activist minister
who served (24 years) as minister of the Unitarian congregation in Syracuse,
renamed May Memorial after his death.
That act of civil disobedience pretty well killed the Fugitive Slave
Law in Syracuse. So much so that the underground railroad running through
Syracuse went above ground, publicly collecting funds to assist slaves
escaping to Canada.
In his introduction to a book of writings by James Luther Adams, Max
Stackhouse wrote: "One of the distinguishing features of liberal
theology...is the constant concern for social justice as a religious
and not merely secular matter. Nothing makes a theological liberal more
angry than the suggestion that religion is a matter of the privacy of
the heart only, that genuine religion, understood as deep personal experience,
has no direct bearing on questions of justice, equality and freedom
in society." [On Being Human Religiously]
Yet, we Unitarian Universalists have often been somewhat uncomfortable
with civil disobedience (CD) and our fellow citizens of other persuasions
can become apoplectic. A year ago last fall, I arrived home from prison
in time to read two letters in the local paper. Both, writers had read
some of my "Letters from Camp Allenwood," a series published
by the same paper for the six months of my sentence. They called me
(and other protesters—three of them from May Memorial—a "zealot"
and "anarchist." Each with varying degrees of vitriol argued
that because of "unlawful and contemptuous behavior against the
United States" my sentence was "not nearly long enough."
How sad ..... And worrisome.
As I said in my presentence statement before judge Elliott and the
court, at my trial, "If many more German citizens in the 20s and
30s had not had such a reverence for law and order it is conceivable
that there might have been no Holocaust and far fewer young men under
headstones."
My critics were doubly irate because they thought my protest was not
"peaceful" which is unsurprising. I have known many UUs who
have a hard time with "destruction of government property."
In fact it makes me a bit uncomfortable. My critics seem to have confused
my actions (which amounted to a peaceful memorial procession) with those
of five friends, two from Syracuse. They redesigned the welcome sign
at the entrance to Ft. Benning, Georgia, home of the School of the Americas
[SOA], to read "Welcome to the School of Assassins." They
were charged with destruction of government property, a felony. It is
tragically ironic that our government and many fellow citizens can become
so angered by this small act of vandalism while ignoring the fact that
the CIA, our State Department and our embassies aid, abet, honor and
protect rapists, torturers, murderers and assassins. My friends spent
more than a year in prison while murdering graduates of the SOA in El
Salvador, Columbia, Guatemala, Mexico, et al. were granted amnesty by
their governments.
There are issues, causes so vital that when letters to editors and
to Congress, when personal lobbying of legislators fail to inform the
public or rouse Congressional action, then civil disobedience [CD] becomes
a means of last resort. Women's suffrage and civil rights for African
Americans were not won without civil disobedience.
There is another defect that Paul Goodman didn't mention. Too many
citizens become indifferent believing the cliche "you can't fight
city hall" i.e., government authority. Last April, Elie Weisel
spoke at the White House about indifference:
"In a way, to be indifferent to suffering is what makes
the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous
than anger and hatred. Anger can, at times, be creative. One writes
a great poem, a great symphony, does something special for the sake
of humanity, because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses.
But indifference is never creative. Indifference elicits no response.
Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end ... and is always the
friend of the enemy."--Ellie Wiesel, in remarks at White
House, April, 1999
Excessive reverence for law and indifference are attitudes that encourage
and lead to the abuse of power by government and a gradual loss of real
democracy. It is imperative that government power be challenged on fundamental
issues. Using our taxes to support the SOA, the School of Assassins,
our government makes us accomplices, Judases by proxy. We are, thus,
all betrayers of other peoples lives, their legitimate dreams, their
possibilities, and of our own values.
Malvina Reynolds song got it right on civil rights:
It isn't nice to block the doorways
It isn't nice to go to jail
There are nicer ways to do it
But the nicer ways always fail.
Civil disobedience is a tactical tool. It rarely if ever accomplishes
its aim alone. Its purpose and function is two-fold. First, to capture
media attention in order to inform, educate and recruit public support.
For years our government managed to keep the SOA and the deeds of its
graduates secret. But when 25 mostly elderly teachers, nurses, social
workers, nuns and clergy and lay people were arrested for peacefully
criticizing the SOA, found guilty of misdemeanors, and sentenced in
public trial to six months in prison and $3,000 fines the rat was really
out of the bag. Each of us received hundreds of letters from people
who had never heard of the SOA and were appalled by what they learned.
The early efforts to legislate the SOA out of existence lost by nearly
two hundred votes in the House. Gradually that margin narrowed until
last September when a budget amendment to eliminate the money used to
bring students from Latin America to the School won by 33 votes. The
Senate couldn't muster enough votes to keep it in the final bill. BUT
we were back at the gates of Ft. Benning in November. This time there
were about 12,000 at the annual Vigil with us, and over 4,400 risked
arrest by crossing the line. And we will be lobbying again in Washington,
D.C. in April and back at Ft. Benning in November. Remember, all of
this started ten years ago with but one person—a Maryknoll priest,
Roy Bourgeois.
The second function served by civil disobedience is to show our government
that there is real dedicated opposition willing to challenge its abuses
of power. There are governments in Latin-America that have a democratic
form and the name of democracy, but are actually not governments "of,
by and for the people...." They are all-powerful institutions supported
by intimidating armies and paramilitary forces. They govern by intimidation
including disappearance, torture, rape and murder. Governments become
all powerful when there are no institutions or groups willing and strong
enough to challenge them. Civil disobedience is a vital element in sustaining
free institutions, including religions.
Even our government has and uses many means to intimidate potential
dissenters. It is clear that the draconian sentences handed down in
1998 to twenty-five of us were intended to frighten the SOA Watch opposition
out of existence. The Veterans Administration cooperates by cutting
a veterans disability compensations in half for such dissent. Even State
government agencies collaborate. The New York Board of Regents' Office
of Professional Discipline declared my friend retired, registered nurse
Ann Tiffany guilty of unprofessional conduct and offered her a choice
of accepting a $500 fine and letter of censure and reprimand or loss
of her nurses license. Fortunately, pressure from individuals and newspaper
coverage resulted only in a letter of censure and reprimand. A travesty,
but better than the alternative.
Civil Disobedience is not for everyone; prison is not for everyone;
there are many too many people going to prison as it is. But there are
many ways to resist injustice: join the vigils, lobby, write letters
to Congress and newspapers & support the imprisoned.
In 1851 at the Jerry Rescue in Syracuse a large crowd gathered outside
the Jail and passed Jerry on a sea of hands to a waiting carriage that
took him into hiding until he could safely be transported to Canada.
According to one version of the story, Emerson's answer to Thoreau's
question was an action—he paid Henry's fine. Many UUs, some of
you among them, helped do that for us in 1998.
There are many ways to help, many ways to resist government abuses.
People raised money for our fines, people continue to badger their Senators
and Representatives, people swell the crowd of those who show up each
November, not to cross the line and get arrested, but to vigil and support
those who do cross.
According to one definition of the verb minister, it is to attend
to the wants and needs of others. In my view of ministry, there were
12,000 ministers at the entrance to Ft. Benning in Columbus Georgia
last November.
The ministry of any religious community depends for its fruitfulness
not only on support for ministry, but also on participation in it. Celebration
and healing are our tasks. Celebrating the wonders and mysteries of
life, and healing. Nurturing and comforting each other and reaching
out in compassion to those in our larger communities whose dreams, possibilities
and lives have been broken by the mystery of fate or the cruelties of
injustice and indifference. These tasks are a calling by means of which
we help to heal others—and are healed.
Closing Words
While we cannot control the weather
remember that we are always creating climate—
a climate that chills or warms human hearts.
