Day 2: Fast and Vigil for Justice

Dear Friends,

Day Two of the fast for justice began at the Friends Committee on National Legislation where we received training to prepare for lobby visits later in the day.

At 1pm, the first group went to their first lobby visits, sitting down with aides from Senators Kerry, Mikulski, Cardin, Conyers, Sanders, Olver and a few others to share our draft of a "dear colleague" letter. The meetings were good, and we felt welcome and heard. We will have more lobby visits scheduled for Wednesday.

At the same time, a group of about twenty-four of us participated in a somber "prisoner walk" through the halls of the Senate Hart Building, in which two people walked slowly up and down each floor wearing orange jumpsuits with the name of a man in Guantanamo who has been cleared for released pinned to their back. Looking over the balconies of the seven story atrium, you could glimpse prisoners on every floor.

To round out the day, we went to the White House, where we joined the Dorothy Day house and other folks who have been holding a vigil there every Tuesday since the end Witness Against Torture's 100 days campaign and we were pleased to be met with the familiar and encouraging sounds of Sister Ichi's drumming and chanting alongside of us.

In the evening, we gathered for group reflection and were fortunate to be joined with fellow fasters from around the country on the phone.

Kathy Kelly led us in our reflection by sharing some of her own experiences. She spoke about the immense sorrow that comes from war and torture, a sorrow that we have all felt on some level while wearing the orange jumpsuits and hoods, and she evoked the image of a heart covered in sheets of ice to describe the cold indifference of so many in regards to other peoples' suffering. She also spoke of the power of forgiveness, sharing stories of people who in some way or another broke through the ice, to reach "the thaw, the flood, the upstart spring." The line comes from "A Sleep of Prisoners," a poem by Christopher Frey (which is included below).

Her reflection provoked a few of us to recall a short and beautiful video on the BBC website, documenting the reunion of a Guantanamo guard with two men who were detained there. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8452937.stm

After Kathy's powerful words, we went around the group to share some of our own thoughts and feelings during this second day of the fast. We talked about the practice of fasting, and how it allows us the space to look again at the system perpetuating torture, in the context of examining ourselves and our own participation in this system as we resist it.

Matt Vogel, on the phone from New Haven, reminded us how the small things we take for granted, such as being able to breathe clean air, or speak freely, are being routinely denied to the people in Guantanamo, as well as people in our own country, as a matter of policy. This connection between Guantanamo and other secret prisons around the world, and our own prison system here in the U.S., has not been far from our minds these past couple of days.

We talked about the "prisoner walk," a moving and disturbing experience for those who participated. People spoke about the loneliness of this witness, which was a solitary one, as people walked alone through the halls of the Senate office building, heads down, arms tied behind their backs. In this email, we've included a few reflections from that walk.

Our site is being regularly updated, so check out photos and videos and more there!

Thank you for all you are doing,
Peace with Justice,

Witness Against Torture
www.witnesstorture.org

Table of Contents:

1. Interconnected, John Bambrick
2. Prisoner Walk at the Hart Senate Building, Art Laffin
3. "A Sleep of Prisoners," Christopher Fry
4. Video

2. Interconnected, John Bambrick, Chicago, Illinois

Interconnected – In a number of theology classes, we talked about the unity of all beings and things on the earth.  We are all interconnected.  As I have sat with this over the last few years, the more I have come to believe this (from scientific, theological, social perspective, etc.).

Today our group did a Ghost Walk in the Senate Hart building.  A number of us walked in orange jumpsuits with names of prisoners that have been cleared for release on our backs.  We each walked separately on a different floor and wing in a very prayerful and solemn way.  We went to "lobby" those in the Senate to help remember these men that all have been "cleared for release" and are ready to leave but remain in Guantanamo.   We put the jumpsuits on once in the building and after about 20 minutes a police officer came running up to me (very out of breath) as I walking at a Thich Nhat Hanh pace….very slowly and deliberately.

He respectfully asked how I was doing and what I was doing here and then for my ID.  He followed up with a number of investigative questions.  We weren't doing anything illegal in our action but they were checking on us.   After I was allowed to continue walking, the next guy up at the Capitol Police wanted to talk to me.  As I told him that I was with Witness Against Torture and that I was not protesting or demonstrating and that I was lobbying to help follow the executive order to close Guantanamo and end torture and that we were completely nonviolent….he said "Oh Witness Against Torture…oh yeah.  I know you guys.  I've seen you for a number of years."  They let me continue to walk and our whole group.

Apparently, I was one of the few who got this much attention from the police.  To be faced with this interrogation and questioning does make me feel uncomfortable.  I want there to be harmony and don't like lying or not telling the whole truth.  So it is difficult to engage with the police because my experience in past actions is that some of the officers have lied and significantly misled us.

As I went through this relatively brief questioning (which Jerica overheard and described as "tough"), I was relieved to be able to continue walking.  It took a while to get re-centered.  I imagined what it would be like to face continued pressure and questioning like the men in Guantanamo, Bagram, and the many other prisons.  I got just a little taste of it.  But it moved me.  Then I thought of the horrific abuse on top of that.  I don't know how people could withstand this.  I felt this deeper "interconnectedness" (that I mentioned above) because of this experience.  Tasting it in a tiny way made me feel this connection.  The binding and connection of my heart, life, and soul to theirs.  We are all one.  We are all interconnected.  This leads me a step further.  Thich Nhat Hanh writes about an exercise of saying "You are me.  And I am you."  This can helps us grow in our awareness in our interconnectedness.  And even further that we are literally all one.

So as I sit with the fact that I am the man at Guantanamo (Sayf Bin Abdallah) and he is me....what does this tell me?  If I am then being held and mistreated in Guantanamo, what must I do?  If I am yearning to be reconnected with my family and wife and kids after years and years apart, what does this mean?  I don't have the answers.  But I think it calls for a deeper and more intimate journey with this issue.  I am hopeful and confident that we will be exploring and walking down that path this week.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Prisoner Walk at the Hart Senate Building, Art Laffin, January 12, 2010

I walk for Mansoor Muhammed Ali Qattaa
tortured by the brutal hand of the U.S. empire
now cleared for release
still languishing at Guantanamo.

Mansoor, you are my brother.
You are not forgotten!

Wearing an orange jump suit with your name on my back
my hands cuffed
I walk through the corridors of the Senate
to give voice to you, Mansoor,
and to all the Guantanamo and Bagram prisoners whose lives hang in the balance.

I walk to break the silence
and the cycle of violence.
To convey, in some small way, the message of the tortured Jesus:
perfect love casts out fear!

I walk for justice
praying that one day soon
justice will prevail--
that the captives will be set free!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. A Sleep of Prisoners, Christopher Fry

The human heart can go to the lengths of God.
Dark and cold we may be, but this
Is no winter now. The frozen misery
of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move,
The thunder is the thunder of the floes,
The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.

Thank God our time is now, when wrong
Comes up to face us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take
The longest stride of soul men ever took.

Affairs are soul size now,
The enterprise
Is exploration into God.
Where are you making for?
It takes so many thousand years to wake,
But will you wake for pity's sake?

- Compiled by Kate Cowley