MEDIA RELEASE
April 3, 2006
Four
Catholic Worker anti-war activists entered an armed forces
recruiting
station in Columbia, Missouri and offered a rose to each
military
branch recruiter along with a short note explaining that since
recruiters were prohibited as military personel from engaging in
political activity it was activists job to do it for them especially
since their commander-in-chief started an illegal war and authorized
torture as one of the means to prosecute the war. Steve Jacobs, a
Catholic Worker from Columbia, MO told one Navy recruiter, "We love you
guys and we don't want you to go to Iraq and get killed or have to kill
anyone else in our name". In an ensuing dialogue between the activists
and the recruiters, Jacobs noted the recent Zogby poll of military
personel in Iraq which found that more than 70% of those stationed in
Iraq felt that the U.S. should not be there and Jacobs told the
naval
recruiter that "We're doing this for you and for Americans in
Iraq.
It's our job as citizens to use our Constitutional freedoms to protest
when corrupt leaders do unethical things that get you guys
killed in an
immoral war."
The activists taped photos of torture victims from Abu Ghraib and
bloodied Iraqi children whose parents were killed by U.S. troops at a
checkpoint on the recruiting station walls and the office doors of
recruiters along with another sign that read, "Who Would Jesus Bomb?"
and "Christians cannot love their enemies and kill them, too".
The four arrested were part of a gathering of nearly 60 Catholic
Workers from 7 states who held a retreat over the weekend at Our Lady
of Sorrows Shrine in Starkenberg. They caravaned to Columbia this
morning for the civil disobedience action. After arriving in Columbia
they started a funeral procession through the downtown
area carrying
coffins draped in an American flag and an Iraqi flag respectively and
held photos of war crimes victims commited in the ongoing Iraqi
war.
Brian Terrell, a Catholic Worker from Des Moines, Iowa urged on the
civil disobedience as a way of following in Jesus's footsteps and being
a truth teller and a Peacemaker. "Some people consider civil
disobedience an extreme measure for extreme times. If these aren't
extreme times, I don't know what are" said Terrell.
Catholic Worker activists cited numerous war crimes by the Bush
administration as reasons for their opposition to the
wars. "I don't
feel I'd be much a Christian if my only response to
U.S. torture, and
pre-emptive war is to pray quietly for it in church on
Sunday. Jesus
urged us to be peacemakers; not to be torturers or killers
of innocent
civilians at checkpoints and inside Muslim mosques. So, we
came here
to ask people of faith, 'Who would Jesus bomb?' " said
Steve Jacobs.
Those arrested were: 1) Eddie
Bloomer age 56 from Des
Moines, Iowa Catholic Worker
2) Chrissy Kirchhoefer, age 25 from
St.
Louis, MO Catholic Worker community
3) Joseph Black from the St. Louis, MO
Catholic Worker community
4) Steve Jacobs, age 51, of the St. Francis
Catholic Worker in Columbia, MO