Pax Christi New Orleans Fort Benning Fast and
Prayer Vigil (Apr 12 - May 24)

WHINSEC, THE WAY OF THE CROSS, AND THE WAY OF JUSTICE
LOW-INTENSITY SPIRITUAL CONFLICT AT FORT BENNING, GEORGIA
AN EASTER 2001 PILGRIMAGE AND WITNESS ACTION

INFORMATION SHEET

This provides information about the 42-Day Fast and Prayer Vigil beginning on April 12 at Fort Benning. It contains the following sections: Overview and Objectives; Inspiration And Secondary Objective; A Faith-Based Action; The Faith On Which The Action Is Based; A Faith-Based View Of The WHINSEC/SOA; Details On The Fast; Details On The Prayer Vigil; Linking Prayer And Protest At The Gate; Support And Solidarity Information; Contact Information; and (personal) Background Information.

OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES

What began as an angry protest by an Army retiree to be climaxed with a dramatic act of direct action civil disobedience by a group of veterans on Memorial Day has unfolded into a faith-based experiment on the power of prayer, penance, and transformative revolutionary nonviolence and love.

At sundown on April 12, 2001, Pax Christi New Orleans member Jeff Moebus will begin a 42-Day Fast and Prayer Vigil at the Fort Benning Road Gate entrance to Fort Benning, in Columbus, Georgia.

The purpose of the juice and water-only Fast is to offer up a personal sacrifice as an act of remembrance, repentance, and reconciliation for all past, present, and future victims of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly known as The School of the Americas (SOA).

The purpose of the Prayer Vigil is to bring spiritual and faith-based forces to bear on the process by which that institution will either be transformed into an agent and agency of true peace, justice, liberty, equality, reconciliation, and love, or it will be closed down.

INSPIRATION AND SECONDARY OBJECTIVE

Moebus was inspired to do this after his visit to Fort Benning on January 31, when he and his wife Kathy stood in solidarity with Becky Johnson, the 21-year old Oberlin College senior who was completing her 31-day Fast and Vigil against the WHINSEC/SOA that day. “The only thing that could have made Becky’s effort better,” he said, “was if, on the afternoon of the 31st, there had been someone for Becky to pass the torch to, to continue the very next morning with the Fast and Vigil.”

“The vision,” he continued, “is that from now until the WHINSEC is changed or closed, that there is at least one person involved in an on-going, extended Fast and Vigil outside the gates of Fort Benning. I volunteer to be the first person to take on that task and plan to be the first of an unending ‘Gandhian Wave’ of Fasters and Vigilers.”

Moebus will also be inviting Fort Benning soldiers to consider alternatives to military service, including exploring conscientious objector status. He will be available to anyone seeking information and counseling on ways to become a CO or to get out of the military altogether. He also hopes to be able to impact the lives of at least one or two of the Latin American soldiers attending the WHINSEC, perhaps leading them to re-consider their choice of profession within the context of their faith.

A FAITH-BASED ACTION

Noting that the action begins on Holy Thursday and continues through the Easter Season, ending on the day of the celebration of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, Moebus said that the entire project will be faith-based. “I’m doing this as a member and representative of Pax Christi, the Catholic peace and social justice organization, and will seek participation and support from faith-based peace and justice organizations all over the country.”

He continued, “The President of the United States has called for a faith-based perspective and point of view in dealing with this nation’s social problems. I plan to bring a faith-based perspective to bear on this nation’s economic, political, diplomatic, and military policies and actions, specifically in Latin America, particularly as manifested by the WHINSEC/SOA.”

Saying that he looks forward to engaging the WHINSEC, Fort Benning, and Columbus Christian communities in dialogue on this perspective, he says that he will be asking questions like, “Would Jesus carry an M-16?” and “Would he teach others how to use one?” and “Would he attend WHINSEC?” and “Would he encourage his disciples to attend WHINSEC?”

THE FAITH ON WHICH THE ACTION IS BASED

When asked what is the faith upon which this action is based, Moebus said, “There are three articles to this faith. The first is simply that it is the intention and will of God that a kingdom, a reign of peace, justice, freedom, equality, reconciliation, and, above all, love, be established in this world, as soon as possible.

“The second article is that it is the function, the task, the duty, the mission of every human being to do whatever she or he is capable of doing in order to help to create the space, the time, the place, and the environment in which that kingdom, that reign, can begin to happen, immediately.

“The third article of this faith is that it is also God’s will and intent that Good will ultimately prevail over Evil. That there is to be a world without war, without hunger, without poverty, without ignorance, and without death, disability, or disfigurement by treatable or preventable disease. And that this world is not to happen at some indeterminate time in the future, but right here and right now. And finally, that such a world is not just some utopian fantasy, but the birthright of every child, woman, and man on this planet, our birthright as the daughters and sons of God.

“With a faith like this in a God like that, no wonder there is cause for boundless hope and grounds for limitless love.”

A FAITH-BASED VIEW OF THE WHINSEC/SOA

Stating that he is not aware of anything about the WHINSEC/SOA that facilitates the onset of the Kingdom of God, he hoped that perhaps the WHINSEC Chaplain could enlighten him about this.

“In my estimation,” he continued, ‘it is, in fact, an abomination. It is an agent and an agency of Evil that is nothing more or less than a tool for oppression, terror, and tyranny, and a mechanism for domination, exploitation, enslavement, and extinction. It is an enforcement agency for the globalization, corporatization, and privatization of the entire western hemisphere south of the Rio Bravo. As such, it must be terminated. The purpose of this Easter Pilgrimage is to wage low-intensity spiritual conflict against it and thus encompass its doom. Or transformation.”

DETAILS ON THE FAST

The Fast will be a 42-Day long personal sacrifice offered up as an act of remembrance of each and every victim -- past, present, and future -- of the WHINSEC/SOA. It will remember all of the victims -- all who have suffered, now suffer, or will suffer --as a result of the existence of the WHINSEC/SOA: directly or indirectly, mortally, physically, psychologically, emotionally, intellectually, materially, or spiritually.

It will also be offered up as an examination of conscience, as an act of penance, and an act of contrition, for the role that I -- as an American citizen coming to adulthood in the second half of the twentieth century -- have played in making an institution like the WHINSEC/SOA not merely possible, but necessary and virtually inevitable.

Finally, it is offered as an act of reconciliation and reaching out to those most pitiful and pitiable, ultimate victims of the WHINSEC/SOA, those who become so brutalized, terrorized, tyrannized, and de-humanized that they are unable to resist and revolt against orders that direct them to become the oppressors -- the murderers, the kidnappers, the torturers, the jailers, and the leaders of these criminals -- of their very own brothers and sisters, and mothers and fathers, and sons and daughters.

Thus, the Fast is for the Oppressed and for the Oppressors. Until the Oppressors are transformed, the oppression will continue.

The fast will be with juice and water; only the juice of fresh and dried vegetables and fruits and the powder of fresh or dried ground seeds, nuts, and legumes to be consumed. Each Friday will be a water-only fast day and there will be other water-only days during the course of the Fast, to mark days of particular significance to the history of the people of Latin America as they have been impacted by the WHINSEC/SOA. Examples would be April 26, the Anniversary of the Assassination of Bishop Gerardi of Guatemala, and May 14, the Rio Sumpul (El Salvador) Massacre.

DETAILS ON THE PRAYER VIGIL

Emphasizing that he will be holding a Prayer Vigil as opposed to a Protest Vigil, Moebus said that the intent of the Prayer Vigil is “to bring a deliberate, sustained concentration, meditation, and contemplation on the Word and Will of God to bear on that Main Gate at Fort Benning, and on the people who pass through it on their way to and from their places of duty, residence, and recreation.”

Central to the Prayer Vigil will be daily scripture reading with reflection and discussion, with particular emphasis on exploring and discerning how the day’s readings apply to the peoples of Latin America. “We will explore how the Bible serves them in their struggles to survive and to overcome the oppression, marginalization, poverty, terror, tyranny, and temptation to hopelessness that marks their lives.” The Prayer Vigil will also include the daily recitation of a Peace and Justice Rosary.

The focal point of the Prayer Vigil will be the “daily remembrance and reflection upon the arrest, trial, sentencing, torture, death walk, and execution of one Jesus of Nazareth, some 2,000 years ago in a place called Palestine, by elements of a global Empire.”

He continued, “It will also include daily remembrance and reflection upon how that Crucifixion continues to be carried out to this very day, in places called Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Haiti, and Cuba, by elements of a differently named but essentially unchanged global Empire. That’s why this Pilgrimage is about The Way of the Cross and The Way of Justice.

“We will be exploring the concept of one of the WHINSEC/SOA’s ‘greatest hits’ and best known victims, Ignatius Ellacuria, who was assassinated in 1989 by El Salvadorian soldiers trained at the SOA and led by SOA graduates. Father Ellacuria spoke of ‘the crucified people,’ an attempt to convey the idea that the cross upon which Jesus was executed continues to be manifest today in the cruel suffering to which the wretched poor, oppressed, marginalized, and hungry of this planet are subject and that ‘the crucified Lord is present in the crucified people.’”

Moebus said that his action became a pilgrimage and no longer a protest when he grasped the message that he had received from someone very experienced with action – and the consequences of action – against the WHINSEC/SOA. She told me that “the Fort Benning main gate is a sacred space,” he said, and that she knew that “my presence and prayers there will bear fruit in mysterious ways.”

LINKING PRAYER AND PROTEST AT THE GATE

While his action is Prayer Vigil and not Protest, Moebus said that he hopes that the “Gandhian Wave” strategy of continuous, varied, and uninterrupted sequences of protest, civil disobedience, direct action, media events, and legislative grunt-work at Fort Benning and elsewhere will kick into high gear while the Prayer Vigil is in progress. “There’s plenty of room on Fort Benning Road for all manner of work to be done. I really hope that there is protest, direct action, and civil disobedience activity during our Prayer Vigil. I know that the effect of prayer and protest will be synergistic and can only make a ‘force-multiplier’ of each,” he said. “It’s a target-rich environment out there with all sorts of opportunity to make something wonderful happen.”

SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY INFORMATION

In addition to Pax Christi New Orleans, Moebus is working with SOA Watch in Washington, DC and “The Gandhian Wave,” in Syracuse, New York in planning and preparation for his action, as well as the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors and the GI Rights Network, in Oakland, California.

Pax Christi New Orleans is organizing a parallel, rotating “co-fast” to be held in New Orleans during the entire time of Moebus’ activity at Fort Benning. For information on Pax Christi New Orleans solidarity action with the EASTER 2001 Pilgrimage and Witness Action to Fort Benning, contact Tom and Jeanie Egan at 504.866.3596 or jeanegan@tulane.edu.

Moebus will be staying in a two-bedroom townhouse apartment three walking minutes from the Fort Benning Road Gate. There will be ample sleeping bag space for people led to come to Columbus to spend some time with him at the Gate and he welcomes all fellow Pilgrims.

CONTACT INFORMATION

JEFF MOEBUS  504.641.3766  jgmoebus@bellsouth.net  1640 Harbor Drive #126  Slidell, LA  70458 (Once an address and phone number and cell phone number is established in Columbus, on or about April 8, it will be distributed.)

UPDATED: 04 APR 01

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Moebus, who is 54, and his wife Kathy live with their two dogs on a sailboat near New Orleans, Louisiana.

This will not be the first time that Moebus has been at Fort Benning for an extended period of time. In 1966, he earned his Jump Wings at the Airborne School, prior to going to Vietnam as an airborne infantryman in the 101st Airborne Division. In 1988, he was the Distinguished Honor Graduate at the spring Advanced Infantry Noncommissioned Officers Course. He was also there on various occasions during the Gulf War monitoring the mobilization and de-mobilization of reserve forces activated for that conflict. “I understand ‘ALL THE WAY!’ and ‘FOLLOW ME!’ and ‘HOO-AHH!’” he said, referring to signature mottos and war-cries of the airborne, the infantry, and the post-Vietnam Army.

On August 31, 1998, I retired from the U.S. Army as a Master Sergeant with 28 years of service, including 22 on active duty. On November 19, 2000, I received a “Ban and Bar Letter” from the Commanding General of Fort Benning for “crossing the line” at the SOA Watch November Vigil. It's been an interesting path from a DD Form 2 (Retired) ID Card to the Ban and Bar Letter. What follows may shed some light on the process. It’s in the form of a letter to a friend of mine, a refugee from Honduras, a man who himself and whose family has suffered grievously and personally at the hands of the SOA...:

Hola Marcel…

Sr Clinton sneaks in and out of Cartagena to deliver the $1.3 billion gift yesterday and makes promises of no war, no Yanqi Imperialismo, no American soldiers in combat. I remember 35 years ago when American leaders snuck in and out of Saigon delivering similar gifts and promises.

It is my personal conviction that the United States is on the verge of ensnaring itself and yet another people, land, and nation in yet another misadventure that will rival the American War in Vietnam in its trauma, travesty, and tragedy to all who become embroiled in it. It is my personal intention to do everything and anything in my power to prevent this from happening. Let me share some personal background information about myself that will clarify the basis for this conviction and intention.

I come to a place called Colombia via two places separated very much in space and time. The second place from which I come to Colombia is a Place called Chiapas. This is from a report I wrote about my most recent trip there, in the spring of 2000.

…things are finally beginning to come into focus…

This past Thursday, I returned to New Orleans after having spent 10 days in a place called Chiapas, a place far down in the southeastern corner of Mexico where the Fourth World War has begun and a small group of desperately determined Mayan Indians stand in open rebellion and revolt against the amassed forces of so-called free trade, globalization, neoliberalism, re-colonization, and the WalMartification of the planet.

Chiapas. The place where, since January 1, 1994 -- the day that the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA was to go into effect -- a formally declared state of war has existed between the Zapatistas -- an army of indigenous children, women, and men who must change the world in order to survive -- and the government of Mexico and, by proxy, the government of the United States.

My recent visit to Chiapas was at once fulfilling and inspiring, but above all, it was deeply troubling.

It was fulfilling by virtue of the nature of the Project that took me there in the first place. As a participant in an activity sponsored by an organization called Pastors For Peace, we delivered almost 28 tons of humanitarian aid from the people of the United States to the people out in what is euphemistically called “the Conflict Zone” of Chiapas, where the Zapatistas and their supporters are in an official ceasefire and literal Mexican standoff with Mexican military and civilian authorities. We delivered food and medicine, and medical, school, agricultural, building, and information technology equipment, tools, and supplies.

The visit was inspiring because although we saw people living in refugee camps in their own country, fleeing from terror and tyranny initiated or tolerated by their own government; although we saw conditions and circumstances of gut-wrenching poverty, with rampant malnutrition and preventable, curable diseases taking frightening tolls; although we heard testimony of murder, and kidnapping, and illegal imprisonment and allegations of torture, we never, ever saw any indication that the Zapatistas or those who, at great personal and communal risk, support them and their cause, will ever give up, will ever surrender, will ever be vanquished.

But, most of all, my recent trip to Chiapas was, and is, very, very troubling.

In the first place, delivering 28 tons of humanitarian aid to those people in that place at this time is like giving a band-aid to someone who has been cut in half by a machine gun, or a leg splint to someone in the process of being run over by a tank.

The reason that the people of Chiapas in the communities in resistance are suffering so is because they are guilty. They are guilty of being on the same land that their ancestors have occupied for more than two thousand years, and of having the misfortune of having that land contain oil, and uranium, and timber, and hydroelectric potential, and unparalleled biodiversity and all other manner of wealth that The Power That Be has declared it must have and thus will have.

To get it, The Power has launched a massive Militarization of the region that says, loud and clear, “Made in the USA.” Virtually every piece of clothing worn by the Mexican soldiers, every bit of personal gear, every weapon, every vehicle, every helicopter and surveillance airplane, every bullet was bought and paid for by American taxpayers, and was made and delivered by American military contractors and sub-contractors.

And in exactly the same way that the Reagan White House turned Guatemala and El Salvador into laboratories for counter-insurgency warfare using the technology and lessons learned from the American War in Vietnam, so the Gore-Clinton White House is turning Chiapas into a laboratory for so-called “low intensity conflict,” using the hardware and humanware of Operation Desert Storm.

But it is nothing more than a continuation of that same War as the ones fought in Guatemala and El Salvador, as the one fought in Vietnam, a war I fought in thirty-three years ago….”a bunch of little brown people running around hating, harassing, hurting, jailing, torturing, disappearing, and murdering each other so that a very few rich white guys can get even richer.”

The people and communities in resistance in Chiapas stand at the vanguard of a growing, world-wide awareness of the threat that “free trade,” globalization, and neoliberalism pose to this planet and to all of its people. It was they who declared, in their battle cry, “YA BASTA!” “ENOUGH!” It was they who realized that they had absolutely nothing to lose by fighting, by refusing to submit; they had nothing to lose except everything that they had. And this was because they realized that all that The Power wants is Everything.

But the people and communities in resistance in Chiapas are not quite so alone as they were when they started. For the second time in less than four months, American citizens have been tear-gassed, pepper sprayed, billy-clubbed, arrested, and jailed -- this time in Washington DC as it was four months ago in Seattle -- for daring to have the temerity and audacity to challenge The Revealed Order of Things As They Must Be.

At first, I thought that what I was seeing in Chiapas was the emplacement of a massive Death Machine preparing for a Feast. I then realized that this was no Machine, that it was alive, that it must therefore be a Monster. But then I saw that this was no Monster, that it had a very human face. That, therefore, it must be Madness. In time, I saw that this was no mere Madness, no aberration of policy and polity, but that this was Method. That this was how the system was intended to work and that this was the basis for everything that had happened on this planet for a long, long time. As I say, my trip to Chiapas was very, very troubling.

This was my second visit to a place called Chiapas. I carry in my mind, in my heart, and in my soul the words of a young woman from a Zapatista village we visited last November. The mother of four, she was widowed at the age of nineteen on the first day of the Uprising back in 1994 when her husband was killed in the battle for Ocosinco. She lives in the autonomous municipality of Francesco Gomez, deep in the Zone. When asked how she thought the problems in Chiapas could be resolved, she fixed every one of us Concerned Gringos dead in the eye and said: “El problemo en Francesco Gomez no es el gobierno de Mexico; el problemo es el gobierno des Estades Unidos.” “The problem in Francesco Gomez is not the government of Mexico; the problem is the government of the United States.”

The IFCO/Pastors For Peace Spring 2000 Caravan for Peace and Reconciliation to Chiapas delivered almost 28 tons of humanitarian aid to the people of Chiapas. Like I said, all we really did was give a glass of water to someone being fire-bombed with Napalm or give a bunch of bandaids to people in the process of being run over by a tank. We could deliver 28 tons of stuff each week and still be delivering only bandaids.

The crisis in Chiapas is not going to be resolved until the social, economic, and political process, structure, and system of Mexico is changed.

And Mexico is not going to change until it is free (and safe) to do so because it is no longer held hostage to and for extortion by the social, economic, and political process, structure, and system of the United States.

Remember -- never, ever forget -- the words of that young widow mother from the Zapatista village of Francesco Gomez: “… el problemo es el gobierno des Estades Unidos.”

…With one possible exception, Concerned Gringos have virtually zero ability to change the process, system, and structure of Mexico. With zero exception, those same Concerned Gringos have unlimited potential ability to change the process, system, and structure of the United States.

And the first place from which I come to Colombia is a Place called Vietnam.….

Like I said, I recently retired as a senior noncommissioned officer in the United States Army. Until I retired, I had spent much of my entire adult life preparing for war or preparing others for war: learning or teaching more effective and efficient ways to close with and kill the enemy.

I spent entirely too much of my youth waging war. Having spent two years in Vietnam in the 60s, where I was first an airborne infantryman and then a helicopter door gunner, I had ample opportunity to practice the art and science of murder in the name of mission. I can not count the number of human beings that I killed; however, I can count the number that I was close enough to be able to watch dying, to be able to watch taking their last breath.

The first sentinel event of my life occurred almost 35 years ago, when I was part of a 33-man US Army military unit that was attacked and overrun by a 250-man force of Viet Cong. Of the thirty-three, eighteen were killed and fifteen were wounded. I ended up playing dead in the bottom of a foxhole filling up with the body fluids of a buddy of mine who had just been killed by massive head and chest wounds.

The second sentinel event occurred a few of years ago. I experienced an epiphany, the planting of a seed of realization that was to change my life. In a moment of clarity I have never known before or since, I realized why there is an Army.

For a career soldier, the realization that we don't have an Army to preserve such forgotten, worthy values and causes as freedom, democracy, life, liberty, equality, and justice -- or even to protect so-called "national" interests -- was sobering. The realization that what we do have an army for is to preserve and protect returns on investment, access to markets and resources, and the interests of Empire, was withering. What was profound was the recognition that this Empire is the exact same one that Columbus worked for.

That experience, the second time in my life I had been overrun, was the beginning of a transformation still in progress, a journey into a new life seeking a Way to become a peacemaker, as opposed to a warmaker.

Over the past year or so, I have been able to zero in on a bearing that seems to be taking me in a direction that I need to go. This direction has manifested itself in the form of work on behalf of the people in a place called Chiapas, Mayan Indians in the extreme southeast of Mexico who, in 1994, rose in armed rebellion against the 500-year reign of terror, tyranny, oppression, repression, and marginalization inflicted upon them by the “modern world.”

I have been to Chiapas twice, first as a member of a human rights and environmental justice delegation, and then as part of a humanitarian aid delivery team…all of this is part of my efforts on behalf of something called Vietnam Veterans Against Another Vietnam (V2A2V). V2A2V is not an organization; rather, it is an extended ad-hoc hyper-community comprised of every child, woman, and man on this planet who has ever been directly or indirectly affected by the American War in Vietnam and who is prepared to ensure that something like that does not happen again.

The ultimate motive behind all this is pretty simple. As I said above, once upon a time in another galaxy, I spent two years in Vietnam. While I will never be able to undo or make up for what I did to those people, to that land, and to that country way back then, I can and must do whatever I can to ensure that something like Vietnam never, ever, ever happens again.

It is beginning again, right now, in a place called Colombia. Even as we speak. In fact, it is the same war I fought in thirty-something years ago: a bunch of little brown people hating, harassing, hurting, and ultimately killing each other just so that a very few rich white guys can get even richer. Again, and again, and again.

If I am unable to stop this new Vietnam, then perhaps I will at least be able to help convince a few young men and women not to make the same mistakes that I and a bunch of guys like me did way back then. When I explained that to a young gringo human rights observer in Chiapas, she said, “That’s very noble….” I corrected her: there is nothing noble about it at all.

I lost part of my soul when I was in Vietnam, and I am now given the opportunity to get it back. It isn’t often that a man gets a chance to be on the right side of something about which he was dead wrong thirty-six years ago. It isn’t often that one is in a position to impact the hearts and minds of young people who can be diverted from the War Mind, the War Machine, and the War Culture.

It is for these reasons that I intend to work as a link, a gateway, a liaison for young people to be able to access the experiences, the memories, the nightmares, and the horrors that veterans carry within their hearts and minds. There are a lot of veterans who have been doing this work for a lot longer than I have, and I know a number of vets who have expressed eagerness to participate in this project. My guess is that there are vast numbers of others who will come forward once they see groups of old warriors who have denounced the madness and have vowed to study war no more, forever…..

It’s all just a simple matter of compromiso, no?

You have all my faith.

Jeff

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