riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (11/01/84)
What would you do if the U.S. invaded Nicaragua or El Salvador tomorrow? Here's one possible answer: At the present moment, thousands of men and women across the United States are helping to organize and participate in the Emergency Response Network to block or halt U.S. intervention in Central America. These people are pledging to engage in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience if the United States invades, bombs, sends combat troops or otherwise significantly escalates its intervention in Nicaragua or El Salvador. If such an invasion should occur, this nonviolent action will bring the issue dramatically before the North American people, will pressure Congress to act, and will signal the unwillingness of thousands of U.S. citizens to support the war. [From a brochure prepared by the Austin ERN task force.] Becoming a part of the Emergency Response Network involves making a commitment to one or more of three levels of participation: Resistance (nonviolent civil disobedience), Witness and Support (legal vigils and demonstrations in conjunction with the above), and Ongoing Work (newsletters, publicity, letter-writing, etc.). Here in Austin the Network has specific plans for the resistance portion of the response: volunteers will peacefully occupy Congressional offices within 24 hours of a U.S. invasion and refuse to leave until the invasion has stopped. At least as important is the ongoing work: The U.S. is already at war in Central America. One of the purposes of forming the Emergency Response Network is to raise awareness in our community and to work to replace present U.S. policies in Central America with policies that promote peace and justice. It is also our hope that the very existence of the Emergency Response Network will prevent the escalation of the war by deterring a U.S. invasion of Central America. [From the Austin brochure.] The Emergency Response Network was originally proposed by members of the Christian peace movement and has spread beyond it to include other communities as well. National endorsers as of a few months ago included Witness for Peace, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Pax Christi, Clergy and Laity Concerned, the American Friends Service Committee, SANE and Sojourners, among others. The actual work of the Network, however, is done by local groups in individual communities across the country. If anyone is interested, I can post a list of regional co-ordinators of Witness for Peace or the AFSC who can help you get in touch with people working on the Emergency Response Network in your town. For more information, see the article "A Pledge of Resistance" by Jim Wallis in the August 1984 issue of the Christian peace magazine "Sojourners."
riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (11/08/84)
I've been asked to post the list of regional co-ordinators for the Emergency
Response Network, especially in the light of the saber-rattling emanating from
the White House in response to the alleged arrival of Soviet aircraft in
Nicaragua. Here, then, is the list from the August 1984 "Sojourners"
article. (I hope you can figure out my verbalization of their map.)
West Coast (including the Rockies): Mary Kurt-Mason, 515 Broadway, Santa
Cruz, CA 95060, tel. (408)-425-3733.
Southwest (NM, TX, OK, AR, LA): Buddy Summers or Lynn Holmes, 4220 S.P.I.D.
#212, Corpus Christi, TX 78411, tel. (512)-852-8755.
Northern Midwest (ND, SD, NB, KA, WI, MN, MI): Betty Wolcott, 3221 S. Lake
Dr., Milwaukee, WI 53207, tel. (414)-744-1160.
Midwest (Iowa and Missouri through Ohio): Grace Gyori, 3913 N. St. Louis,
Chicago, IL 60618, tel. (312)-267-7881.
Southeast (Kentucky and North Carolina south to Mississippi and Florida):
Betsy Crites or Josefina Tiryakian, 1414 Woodland Dr., Durham, NC 27701,
tel. (919)-688-5400.
Mid Atlantic (New York south to the Virginias): John Collins or Bill
Webber, 198 Broadway, New York, NY 10038, tel. (212)-964-6730.
New England: Bob Bothius or Fran Truitt, RD 2, Box 422A, Ellsworth, ME
04605, tel. (207)-422-9007.
Note: I have had trouble making contact with the Southwest representative.
Luckily the Austin Emergency Response Network is already well-established and
starting to make itself known in the community at large, so in my case it
doesn't really matter. If I were you, though, I would also try a second way
to make contact: call the local Friends (Quaker) Meeting House (listed under
"Churches" in the yellow pages) and ask for help in reaching either the
Emergency Response Network, the American Friends Service Committee or Witness
for Peace. The Quakers have been involved in this sort of work since the days
of the anti-slavery movement and play a large role in the ERN; if anything is
organized in your community, they are bound to know about it.
Please hurry, as there may be less time left than we think. Thank you.
--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddleriddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (11/09/84)
>> What ever happened to writing your congressperson? Yes! Please do! That, in fact, is a major part of what the Emergency Response Network is all about. It is expected that only a small portion of the people involved with the network will engage in public demonstrations, and that a much smaller number will do civil disobedience. One of the first acts of the ERN here in Austin is going to be a large-scale letter-writing campaign. Others will include prayer vigils and press conferences. Civil disobedience is a last resort to be used in time of crisis to demonstrate the seriousness of our commitment to stopping the war. >> The ERN sounds like another attempt at disrupting the government by a small >> group of people. Who benefits from this? Certainly not central america, or >> the people of the united states, it only makes us look bad on international >> T.V. Well, I'll leave it to you to judge which looks worse on international T.V.: the U.S. starting yet another war of intervention in a tiny third-world country, or a group of American citizens trying to stop that war? --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle