Jeff Moebus Fast and Prayer Vigil @ Fort Benning (April

Just a brief greetings from Fort Benning Road:

No reflections here; just to let you know that DAY ZERO went very, very well.

I'm in Apartment 1804, 2339 Fort Benning Road (Columbus, GA 31903). It is early, Good Friday, April 13. Day 1 of the Easter 2001 Peace of Christ Fast and Prayer Vigil at Fort Benning.

The apartment is about 500 feet from "The Line" and right across then street from the SOAW Media Office. The phone number here is 706.221.6804.

The Thought For the Day was Jesus advising those who seek to make sure that everybody knows what they are doing: "...take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them..." (Mt 6:1). Kind of contrary to conventional thinking about using the media to maximum advantage, no? But he was always kind of contrary to conventional thinking, yes?

Met first thing with the Columbus Police Department to review plans and contingencies; very cordial, very professional, very friendly. Had only one contact with Fort Benning: a Public Affairs civilian who came by to deliver a message that the Times Picayune was trying to reach me. When he got to the site, we were reciting the Rosary, and he waited patiently until we noticed him, delivered his message, and, when he left, said very sincerely, "God bless you." Not a bad way to initiate contact, eh?

The local newspaper sent out a reporter for an extended (30 minute) interview, and one of the local tv stations came out for some sound bites. I was too busy last nite to watch tv to see how it went. I was also tracked down by a reporter from the New Orleans Times Picayune; we spoke at length, particularly about whether the new, improved version of the SOA is really new and improved. It will be very interesting to see how that article ends up.

Father Roy (Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch) made it back in the late afternoon from a speaking tour of Maine; it's always good to see him. He will be with us for the Easter weekend.

The biggest surprise and treat happened at about 3pm: Lil and Bill Corrigan, from Marietta, GA showed up and announced that they were going to spend a week with me. Declaring themselves "refugees from Easter" because there will be no room for them in their suburban Catholic church, they decided to spend Easter at The Gate. They have been involved in The Work here against the SOA since Day 1, in 1990. Bill spent two months in jail in 1995 (he calls himself part of the "Class of 95") for his efforts, and he has a permanent Ban and Bar Letter. Permanent...For Life. Guess he musta really upset somebody.

In any event, they are a delightful almost-80 couple and it is a real privilege to have them sharing this opening week with me.

Today, as a Friday, is a water-only day. The schedule in that regard runs from sundown to sundown. So, tonite, at sundown, I'll break my water fast and chow down on some sort of juice feast. By then, my wife Kathy and Tom and Jeanie Egan from Pax Christi New Orleans will be arriving, so we can have a party. Also, Teresa Panepinto, field director of the Oakland, CA office of the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors is coming in for the weekend to give me some one-on-one training for GI Rights Network counseling activity, which I'll be doing while I am here (providing information and guidance to soldiers who wish to explore alternatives to staying in the military, including seeking conscientious objector status). So, we'll have a full house here for the weekend. Plus, I brought both dogs - Hobo and Ginger - and they are starting to get to know all the neighborhood kids and cats and generally settling in.

Need to run; it's 7 am and time to begin getting ready for the day's activities at The Gate. today, of course, as Good Friday, is the beginning of the real story. There seems to be a tendency to forget that the only way Easter could have happened is if Good Friday happened first.

The message is disconcerting.

I like Dan Berrigan's thought: "If you want to really follow Jesus, you got to look good on wood."

Peace, Good, and Love.

Jeff

Shalom from Columbus:

Yesterday, Good Friday, was Day 1 of the Fast and Prayer Vigil, and the first full day of the project. Was also a water-only day. Too busy to be hungry. Maybe that's how the campesinos deal with it

I have a routine fairly well worked out in my mind that I think will work well to frame the spirit and intent of this whole effort: whether it can and will be executed or not is another matter. So far, what we have been able to do every day is the Rosary at 4:30. This has worked very well as a wonderful way to close the day. We are using the Campaign For Human Development (CHD) Scriptural Rosary for Justice and Peace, which is a very powerful vehicle for contemplation and discernment on the Way to justice and peace, and a gateway to the fact that peace and justice is the Way.

Lil spent a lot of very fruitful time walking a Way of the Cross using Megan McKenna's Pax Christi publication as her guide. She did it on the median island just before the Main Gate that has some very pretty tree-shaded areas and, right on The Line, toetips less than 1 inch from the dividing line between Here and There.

We are getting settled into the neighborhood: there is a small group of kids who worked with Becky and her team in January who have adopted us as well, serving as dog-walkers, sherpas, comic relief, and a biting reminder that one needn't travel to some Third World country to see the marginalized.

They are a treat and they love having Hobo and Ginger to pamper, walk, run, and fun with. The dogs, of course, are in this Fast too. As used as they are to table scraps, they have experienced cold-turkey withdrawal and are on a (gasp!) dogfood-only diet. Or they were until about 2pm, Friday, when the kids brought them a bunch of hamburgers. A number of kids who, on Day ZERO, were absolutely terrified of Hobo were taking him for a walk on Day 1. That's progress, eh?

I finally got the apartment straightened up and moved into; had to, company coming, you know. I wanted to hold out breaking the water-only fast until they got in; but at 9:15, an hour plus after sundown, I went ahead without them. Juice of apple and orange with fine ground sunflower, pumpkin, and sesame seed emulsified in solution. How'd it taste? If I got something like that at the Smoothie King, I'd have sent it back But, under the circumstances, having been without anything but water for 25 hours, it wasn't too bad at all. I keep remembering Gandhi's admonition to view and use and treat food as medicine, and not as a source of pleasure.

Late last nite, Teresa from C3O and then Tom and Jeanie Egan (Pax Christi New Orleans) and my wife Kathy arrived safe and sound. It's good to have community in the house. It is better than good; it is blessing.

In the Gospel reading, Pilate asks "What is truth?" Apparently Jesus remained silent again. That was the thought that kept returning, over and over again.

Roy told the story of a Trappist monk who has been refused ordination for three years now because he has refused to sign an "oath of allegiance and obedience" to the Pope. Lil asked, "Does he get to chose the Pope to which he swears allegiance?"

Quote of the Day: One of the more interesting aspects of being on Vigil at The Gate is the reaction from the folks going in to and coming off of the base. We get waves, honks, smiles, thumbs-ups, and we get thumbs down, middle fingers up, and epithets such as "Go Home!" "Get a Life!" The best was during a brief but intense afternoon cloudburst that knocked down one of our signs; as I stood in the rain trying to retrieve it, a Ranger-tagged SUV whipped by and the driver hollered, "The Gods Have Spoken!!! GO Home!!!"

Had a visit from the Columbus Police Department, a young Catholic Chaplain's Assistant wo has a 13-year old daughter doing a report on the SOA controversy wants to come by to interview me next week, and, best of all, a guy named Joe Blair. Joe is the Army Major featured in the Maryknoll film "An Insider Speaks Out." He was an instructor at the SOA for several years and, more significantly, a Foreign Area Officer in Latin America for many years (including all thru the 80s and the Reagan assault on democracy south of the Rio Bravo). The film is his indictment of what the SOA did (does) based on his first hand experience at the School and with the people trained at the School. We had a great chat. It was a real privilege to meet him.

Had a very interesting and intense discussion with Roy, Lil, and Bill about the Fast and Prayer Vigil and how to ensure that its conduct is consistent with and facilitates the mission of SOAW while at the same time maintaining the faith-based orientation that I seek to maintain. There is a delicate balance that can be easily upset. Too much focus on the faith-based perspective, and it becomes my own private spiritual retreat, which is contrary to the ultimate objective, to shut the damn thing down. Too much focus on strictly The School, and it becomes pure protest, which is contrary to the expressed concept of execution with which I went into this thing.

I created a sign that said: "Can a soldier be a Christian? Can a soldier 'Love Thy Enemy' and survive?" Concern was expressed as to whether or not this was more about personal theology and less about "Men With Guns," soldiers from Latin America being trained on how to more effectively and efficiently wage war against their own fellow countrymen. Concern was also expressed that to question whether or not a soldier can be a Christian in Columbus, Georgia is to open the way for all manner of reaction and response that may divert attention from the terminal objective cited above. A very interesting conversation, that I need to process further.

I also broached OPERATION DEWEY CANYON V with Roy. Details at eleven.

Peace, Good, and Love.

Jeff

Day 2. Holy Saturday. April 14.

Re-reading Day 1's report, I realized that I made no mention of Good Friday. The original intent was to read through Leonardo Boff's WAY OF JUSTICE, WAY OF THE CROSS and Henri Nouwen's WALK WITH JESUS: STATIONS OF THE CROSS. That intent was not realized due to a variety of circumstances, part of which was Joe Blair's visit, part of which was the rainstorm, part of which was bedlam accompanying the arrival of the kids after school got out, and principal of which was an extended reflection on the conversation about focus with Roy, Lil, and Bill. A day later, I'm still processing it, still trying to absorb it. Still trying to de-riddle it.

I will read Boff and Nouwen next week when the extended meditation on the Crucifixion and the "Crucified Peoples" begins.

The day - today, Saturday - began wonderfully. Waiting on the desk in the media center was this message on focus by Archbishop Romero from Father Roy:

"We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us...

"We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

"We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between 'master' builder and the worker. We are the workers, not the master builders; the ministers, not the messiah. We are prophets of a future that is not our own."

I think that very fittingly captures what Father Roy's work is all about, and what those of us who have been captured by his mission and his vision should be aspiring to.

And even if Roy and those who are committed to the work succeed, and the WHISC (WHINSEC)/SOA is closed down at Benning, that does not mean that the Beast has been killed.

I keep having this lurking suspicion in the middle of the night that if Congress were to stop funding it, it would be outsourced (to, say, Colombia, and funded via black-budget processes). Or, they may just move it to Puerto Rico, where the US Army Southern Command's forward control elements are located (having re-located from Panama). I used to sleep better before I knew so much.

But that is irrelevant. I am drawn back to the statement about the faith on which my effort here is based; specifically, to the third article of that faith: "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."

That is the faith that makes the hope possible, even in the face of the reality of Good Friday. That reality is that the Empire that crucified Jesus is the same Empire that Columbus worked for, and is the same Empire that is crucifying the oppressed, marginalized, impoverished, and wretched of the earth, and the earth itself. (Read Boff's CRY OF THE EARTH, CRY OF THE POOR.)

After that great start, the day only got better. We have hatched plans for an SOA Watch Fast Food Cookbook, to be part of a special Weight Loss Program under the direction of Father Roy. We started keeping track of the positive and negative responses to our presence (keeping a scoresheet) and will send weekly reports to General LeMoyne (Commander of Fort Benning) and the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer newspaper. And finally, I felt like I was in a movie called Mr Rogers Goes to Fort Benning; there were kids all over the place...the original band of banditos plus a whole new gaggle of their friends. Kathy launched her face-painting project and was an immense hit...they don't have camoflague like that on the other side of The Line. We have begun a dog-handling course for kids, virtually every one of whom is - or was - terrified of at least Hobo when they first encountered him. And next week is Spring Break...

Got to spend a lot of time with Teresa on C3O/GI Rights Network activity. A major focus of that effort is what they call GI Outreach, the result of a sort of chicken-or-the-egg perspective that concludes that the only reason that Empire is still in business is because it has the power and might of the national (and soon supra-national) military force at its disposal. Diminish or disable the military and Empire becomes vulnerable to chaos and collapse. Destroy the military and Empire is dust.

I am coming to believe more than I ever have that it is possible to take back the planet, one step - one heart and mind and soul - at a time. And the place to begin is with the soldier. If there are no soldiers to fight all these wars, will the politicians, CEOs, generals, and media moguls do it? Perhaps. Perhaps not. If there are no soldiers to maintain Empire's unchallenged position of total domination and control, soon there will be no Empire.

So, the strategic purpose of GI Outreach? To subvert the military and thus encompass Empire's doom? That may not be the intent, but that is a very potential result. It is work that has heart.

Kathy took command of the kitchen today, taking inventory and launching a couple of shopping expeditions that stocked the refrigerator and supplied all the necessary utensils, implements, tools, and such to make the place functional. Plus, she made first a fruit juice and then a vegetable concoction that would make anybody wonder why on earth they ever ate solid food.

One thing that is emerging in the Fast is the opportunity and necessity for mindfulness in the whole process of preparing, consuming, experiencing and enjoying food. This is a river that cannot be pushed and requires a focus at all times, so that you don't forget where you are, what you are doing, and why you are doing it. A moment ago was the first time since the fast began some 52 hours ago that I have experienced a vague sense not that I was hungry, but that I wanted (needed?) something to eat. Automatonously, I rose from the computer and went into the kitchen, opened the freezer and opened the container Kathy had filled with sliced frozen strawberries and had taken one out of the container and was ready to pop it in my mouth when...suddenly, I remembered where I was, what I was doing, and why I was doing it. I was almost as if a sleepwalker, in no control of my body, completely taken over by a need, a desire, a demand for something in my mouth and my belly. It was actually pretty scary. I need to put signs on the refrigerator to jar my somnolenceness when it happens again.

We closed the day with selections from the Campaign for Human Development's "Novena for Peace and Justice" and "A Justice Prayer Book" serving as a lead-in to recitation of CHD's Scriptural Rosary.

I see that the reading for tomorrow, which is Easter, the third day of the Novena, is Isaiah 58:6-8:
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
          releasing those bound unjustly
          untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
          breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry.
          sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them;
          and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
          and your wound shall quickly be healed."

So, what I'm doing is easy, eh?

This was sent to me by Jim Wilson. He asked that I share it with you all....
And it is Saturday,
the tomb is sealed,
and grief runs unchecked,
the moment of truth denied,
as his broken body
is consigned to the dust.

The pain and agony
demanding the rote attendance
upon customs of burial,
a little spice, mixed with tears,
hopeful always
that the bitter joke is over.

Confusion, despair, rejection,
how can this be,
and there is the tomb,
stone cold tomb,
shouting its vengeance
in silent passion.

The day lasts forever,
will it never end,
mourning calls the names,
Mary, Mary, Salome,
and their stilled answer
waits, impatiently waits.

How lifeless their breath,
how hollow their eyes,
no lilt in their step,
simply moving about in a stupor,
not caring,
to even cry.

Truth killed,
love denied,
life demeaned,
meaningless filling that basket of anointing,
to anoint the anointed one,
in the tragedy of all time.

Sabbath,
Torah,
all forgotten,
only the calamity of death,
incumbent depression forced
the tomb was sealed forever.

It is Saturday.


Peace, Good, and Love.

Jeff

Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!

The stone of demand,
shattered,
the tomb of decay,
shattered,
back there has no power
nor has our coming death,
only in the moment of incarnation
is reality absorbed.

Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!

How he took his death into his hands,
dreading the pain,
unsure about the change,
knowing nothing of tomorrow,
celebrating wholeness and freedom,
allowing not even his death
to deter his path
or rob him of living.

Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!

The evil of life as his footstool,
the hope of life,
his mainstay,
touching, touching, touching,
giving wholeness,
becoming one with humanity
regardless, absolutely regardless,
even death failed to dissuade him.

Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!

And the grave yielded,
the stone wall parted,
wholeness triumphed,
truth soared to new heights,
he came forth whole,
calling humanity to wholeness,
to life,
to conquer evil

Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!

my friends in Ga., calling for and end to efficient killing, an end to oppression, need your prayers. jim wilson

Friends,

I began updating all the messages I have been receiving from Jeff, and was told that they were all archived elsewhere. There is no real purpose in my duplicating someone else's efforts, so I am giving you the link at the SOAW WebsiteL

Jefff Moebus' Sojourn at Ft. Benning


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