December 2002/
January 2003

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

From the editor's desk

"In the bleak midwinter," sang poet Christina Rossetti, "earth lay still as iron, water like a stone." Right now the eastern seaboard of the United States lies in the grip of a cold front, but the weather in the Middle East is ideal for war. Richard Perle, George Bush's policy advisor, has said as much--there seems to be a six-week window of starry nights and good visibility--and preparations are rumbling ahead.

What drives this rush to war?

With the concept of "global apartheid," Manning Marable provides a framework with which to understand the dismal news at home and abroad, linking racism with imperialisms past and wars of terror still to come. In this season of his birthday, we've got to do more than honor Martin King; we must listen to him. He called us to stand and speak. He paid a heavy price for it, and the fine print in the Homeland Security Act dictates that speech will become ever more perilous. But there's lots to talk about these days.

Poverty at home, for starters, bad and promising to worsen. War ongoing and imminent in Iraq. Our authors remind us of sanctions' very real, daily effect and the legacy of depleted uranium, while pointing out the obvious--the appalling consequences to civil society of new war--as well as the less-mentioned casualty of this particular new war, the breakdown of international rules governing the use of force. The two articles on Pakistan and Afghanistan remind us of war's devastation, odd bed-fellows, unintended consequences, and the breathtaking stupidity of leaving chaos in our wake.

We also offer you encouraging examples of determination and principled opposition: Weapons inspections in Canada, quixotic, ironic, but perfectly reasonable if you think about it; persistent, faithful, and sacrificial protest at the School of the Americas, reported here by teenagers who participated; worldwide refusals to fight wars by men who may not have even heard the term "conscientious objector;" and an example--check out our back cover--of how to protest with zest and style.

In "Living with the Holocaust," Sara Roy takes us deeply into her journey of survival. Set this mid-winter Peacework aside until you have uninterrupted time, but make sure to read her essay. Her questions speak of course to her fellow Jews, but speak also to every one of us today. "What is the narrative that we as a people are creating, and what kind of voice are we seeking? What is at the center of our moral and ethical discourse? What is the source of our moral and spiritual legacy? What is the source of our redemption? Has the process of creating and rebuilding ended for us?"

Philip Berrigan, awaiting arrest after committing civil disobedience with the Prince of Peace Ploughshares at the Bath Iron Works, Ash Wednesday, 1997. Photo: Erin Miller

In this Advent season we are mourning Phil Berrigan--teacher and priest; activist, husband, father, brother; inspiration and mentor for Vietnam War protesters; a man who for conscience's sake spent some 11 of his 79 years in various jails and prisons. The Dec. 7 Baltimore Sun obituary began, "Philip Berrigan, the patriarch of the Roman Catholic anti-war movement whose conscience collided with national policy for more than three decades, died last night of liver and kidney cancer...He led the Catonsville Nine, who staged one of the most dramatic protests of the 1960s. They doused homemade napalm on a small bonfire of draft records in a Catonsville parking lot and ignited a generation of anti-war dissent." In his message to the October 6 anti-war rally in Central Park, Berrigan wrote: The American people can stop Bush, can yank his feet closer to the fire, can banish the war makers from Washington, can turn this society around and restore it to faith and sanity. Keep the Pledge and put flesh on it. And please, please, please don't get tired.

In the spirit of Christ, Philip Berrigan, Ploughshares activist

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