INFORM-ACTION
Issue
Number 42 - February
2002
She Makes Her Voice Heard in the Streets
In
late 2001 Sister Kay McPadden rsj was arrested outside
the Defence Recruitment Centre, Brisbane, for protesting
the bombing of Afghanistan, especially the use of cluster
bombs which, dropped from great heights, scatter hundreds
of smaller explosive devices indiscriminately. Kay appeared
in the Brisbane Magistrates Court in January 2002. She
wrote this reflection for the Social Action Office. We
thank Kay for this and for her witness to the Gospel of
Life.
The Mary MacKillop
scarf clip helped to focus me before and between court sessions.
The scarf clip contains the name of Mary MacKillop and the
Josephite emblem which contains a cross, an ‘M’ in
honour of Mary the Mother of Jesus, and three ‘J’s
for the names of Jesus, Joseph and John the Baptist. This was
family solidarity. Our group in the court consisted of two
females and two males. We constituted a community in solidarity
with non-violent witnesses around the world.
Before the birth
of Jesus there is put on the lips of Mary the Song of Hannah
which praises God for the salvation of the poor and lowly.
It is always the poor and lowly who pay the undignified cost
of violent conflict by the powers and more poverty in the wake
of the deals afterward. Joseph was prompted to act in the face
of the violence of Herod’s slaughter of the innocents.
That family became refugees seeking asylum. The cousin, John
the Baptist, went to the root of the problem and spoke truth
to the powers. Herod was part of a power structure allied to
off-shore exploiters. John was imprisoned and suffered a death
penalty. Jesus was firstly a baby, born into an oppressed people,
having to be taken to safety. His leadership was later acknowledged
by John who pointed him out to others.
My situation was
softer than that described above but my country, Australia,
was in collusion with powers that wreaked death and poverty
by indiscriminate bombing and debt dealing. Australia is also
signatory to the Ottawa Convention on the banning of landmines,
and the cluster bombs dropped by USA planes fit the definition
of landmines. As a nation we are part of the information network,
through the US bases in Australia that relay target information.
The planes fly so high that the margin of error can be 15%.
Some of the first victims of a missed target were United Nations
staff whose work was the locating and diffusing of landmines.
Many of us had worked for years for the Ottawa Convention to
come into being. Militarism underpins so many evils in the
world.
I had with me in
the courtroom the October issue of INFORM-ACTION,
folded at page 2 showing Voices of Peace in the USA.
Between court sessions I refreshed myself with those voices
of Joan Chittister OSB, The Quakers USA, Pax Christi USA and
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, whom I quote:
If
the religious community of the United States can’t
come up with a different response than one of violence
and war, we’ve betrayed our whole religious tradition.
The press media jumped
on my use of the word ‘sorry’. Sorry that I acted
thus when, with more time, we may have been able to witness
more strongly. They failed to report the lesson learnt from
previous actions with Aboriginal and East Timorese peoples
that love drives out fear and even Pharaoh’s heart can
be changed. If the future calls for actions of solidarity then
different prophetic action may emerge.
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