January 18, 2008

Central Arizona Detention Facility
Dear Family and Friends,

Six weeks in custody to date! Again, thank you for your letters of support--they mean more than I can express. God continues to strengthen me for the journey, wherever it may lead. At this point, I am considering the possibility of a plea agreement that could let me see the light of a fenceless day as early as February 4th, in return for serving a period of probation, etc., etc. Stay tuned to www.tortureontrial.org for updates.

In this letter, I would like to respond to some questions about nonviolent resistance that I perceive to be "floating around" out there:

1. What is nonviolent resistance? Why resist? For me, resistance in a socio-political sense is whatever we do that challenges and hopefully provides an alternative to what we perceive to be wrong with society's status quo. Examples of simple and legal forms of nonviolent resistance include:
--Communicating with elected and appointed representatives on current issues.
--Contributing to charitable and justice-focused organizations that act for the common good.
--Avoiding consumerism and materialism (especially) at holiday time, in favor of more family-oriented observances.
--Boycotting stores that have unfair employment practices.
--Rejecting products that are known to harm the environment.
--Standing on street corners holding signs that call for peace.
--Giving children toys and books that teach positive values rather than toys that glorify violence and war.

People of faith and/or conscience engage in resistance because of deeply-held convictions that we feel compel us to do so. We may resist in ways similar to those suggested above and/or we may feel "called" somehow to go a step further.

When I look at our country and its effects on our world today, I see an oppressive empire that is:
--Making war on innocent nations;
--Imposing trade agreements that benefit the rich and further impoverish the poor;
--"Improving" a deadly nuclear arsenal that violates treaties and demands of others what we fail to acknowledge as our own responsibility as well;
--Neglecting the poor and those in need at home and victims of genocide abroad;
--Failing to work with the global community on environmental issues, while wreaking havoc on the environment; and setting up demeaning and life-threatening systems of illegal incarceration and torture for alleged terrorists and other foreign nationals, and‹as I'm coming to recognize‹for literally millions of our own people at the hands of the prison industrial complex.

These are just a few of the many evils of our day that nag at me and nudge me into action.

In addition to having strong concerns about many issues and feeling we need to do something about them, those of us from the Judeo-Christian tradition have models in the prophets and Jesus (among others) who invite imitation.

Peace activist, John Dear SJ, says that in nearly every event in his years of public activity, Jesus "challenged the imperial and religious authorities who opposed and killed the poor. Time and time again he broke the law by consorting with the unclean, violating the Sabbath, proclaiming himself a King, urging people not to pay taxes, and disrupting banking transactions in the Temple sanctuary" (Transfiguration, New York: Doubleday/Image, 2007, pp.78-79).

Jesus taught not only in words, but also in actions, modeling the nonviolent life he invites us to share. The Jesus of the gospels is more than the loving, caring Shepherd children learn about in Sunday School. He was, to use Dear's words, "bold, daring, provocative, perfectly nonviolent but never passive" (p.19).

As we read in the gospels, Jesus stayed attuned to God and God's will in prayer. He did God's will and invites us to be his followers. Does that not mean that we, too, are to be "bold, daring, and provocative," even to the point of running risks to stand up for what we are convinced is right? Dear is so convinced that we cannot be followers of Jesus without joining Jesus in his journey to the cross, that he calls civil disobedience a sacrament and suggests that Christians should partake of this sacrament frequently during their spiritual journey (See John Dear, SJ, The Sacrament of Civil Disobedience,). It is to actions that could precipitate incarceration that the phrase "nonviolent resistance" most commonly applies.

There may be a point in one's life where something that is happening seems so horrendous to us that we cannot NOT go a step further to the point of risking arrest and possible incarceration. That event for me was the massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her young daughter in El Salvador in late 1989. Shortly thereafter, many people in the faith community in the San Francisco Bay Area joined a public demonstration to protest U.S. complicity in the cold­blooded killings. I was among a good number who for the first time were arrested, as we sang and prayed on the steps of the S.F. Federal Building. In the following 18 years, I have faced the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, and key sites in several states, now including Arizona, to participate in prayerful vigils and not infrequently join in actions of nonviolent resistance. And since last year I have been making charitable contributions in lieu of paying at least the "war tax" portion of my federal income tax. Four times I have been jailed for periods ranging from one night to six months (the length of my current incarceration being as yet undetermined as I write).

Some of the people who write supportive letters to me in jail seem to be asking themselves if they might not be in jail before long themselves. I hope these brief paragraphs raise further questions for those letter-writers and all who are reading this. If we recognize that social ills do beset us, and that silence about them is an affirmation of‹or complicity with‹the status quo, we need to do something. My concluding question for all of us (myself included) is, "What is my next step as a resister? Enough for this letter. Thank you again for your support and prayers. I hope all is well with you and that together, each in our own way, we continue in "la lucha," especially against torture.
Peace and love to all.

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December 26, 2007

Feast of Saint Stephen, the Martyr

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all who have been supporting me and our cause through your prayers, letters, cards, and visits. Your presence in my life continues to strengthen me for this journey. In this missive, I share some of what led me to this place.

As you may know, Steve Kelley and Louis Vitale crossed the line onto Fort Huachuca in November 2006, in order to convince the post commander to call for a halt torture. They were charged with two misdemeanors: trespass and failure to obey a police officer. Looking at a maximum of ten months, they are both now serving five months in California prisons. Jerry Zawada, Mary Burton Riseley and I have been charged with an additional third offense "conspiracy to trespass" which brings our total possible sentence to 16 months. "They" clearly want to discourage further protest at Fort Huachuca, claiming that we are "violently" disrupting military operations!"

Today is the Feast of Saint Stephen, the first martyr among the early followers of Jesus. Before deciding about participating in the Fort Huachuca action, I found myself thinking about a more recent martyr, Oscar Romero of San Salvador, a brave advocate for nonviolence and for the poor, who was assassinated in 1980 at the hands of graduates of the School of the Americas. It was he with whom I conspired prior to this action.

As Ann and I were moving from Redmond to Bend in October, I found myself alone (with the cats) in Bend, while Ann was still cleaning our house in Redmond. To relax after a hard day's work unpacking boxes, I watched for the umpteenth time the video, Romero. Watching it has always inspired me, however, this time the inspiration seemed to be bumped up a notch to the level of conspiracy, as I conversed (Jesuit-style) with Oscar Romero about crossing the line at Fort Huachuca. I had been hoping that the witness of Louie and Steve would be continued, and had no idea whether anyone had yet stepped forward to cross the line in 2007, or, if they had, who they might be.

Was God calling me, through Oscar Romero? Was my response to be, "Here I am, send me?" (Isaiah 6:8). I began to "count the cost" (Luke 14:28), thinking of various factors that might influence my decision. I considered responsibilities related to the move to Bend, other obligations in the community, my own degree of psychological and spiritual readiness for incarceration and the likely length of the sentence. Since I did not expect to be incarcerated until after the trial, and concerns in these areas could be addressed by then, I figured that these were all non-issues. I even had an unused round-trip ticket to get me there! The fact that I was on pre-trial release for an action in Bend only briefly crossed my mind.

Having counted the costs, I returned to conspiracy with Oscar Romero. He himself had witnessed torture and the effects of torture many times in El Salvador, at the hands of graduates of the SOA who had been trained in torture methods from a manual that originated at Fort Huachuca. After further prayer and discernment, I decided that I would likely follow my call as he had his, and, in the spirit of Louie and Steve, to engage in an action of nonviolent resistance against torture. There were never any guarantees about the outcome! My basic premise about pre-trial release turned out to be false, so here I am in jail without bail, with a half-used plane ticket.

If this recounting of my personal discernment process and subsequent developments seems like just "too much," I apologize. My hope was to give you some glimpses into the process and how, in this unique circumstance, there was a surprise outcome. In part it's to let you know how I got where I am, and in part it may be a word to the wise as others discern their own actions.

Our action was important, I believe, and I feel privileged to have participated. I hope in some way we have been successful in pointing an accusing finger at the U.S. government's unconscionable endorsement and practice of torture, and in raising the consciousness of people around the world on this issue. The great outpouring of mail from many parts of the globe suggests that in some measure we have been successful. Meanwhile, Advent and Christmas have passed and probably the welcoming of the new year by the time you receive this. Here, Christmas was very hard for many, especially those with children. I tried to be present to others. Perhaps it is my age that frequently makes me the "go to" person when tensions surface, advice is needed or simply a listening ear is required. There is a deep spiritual hunger that exists for so many of the women. During these seasons, we held our daily Bible reflections, and gathered for a Christmas Eve service that included the sharing of bread and apple juice (a strengthening communion, even if not "kosher"). Rick Warren's book, The Purpose-Driven Life, is being "pushed" by the Protestant chaplain. I was tapped to "lead" a group discussion about the book until I spent some time in conversation with the chaplain and he summarily dismissed me! Perhaps the lesson is, never discuss faith/theology with the chaplain. I am now reading it on my own. I have been hoping to be released for a time prior to any further incarceration that may result from sentencing (if we are found guilty), so that I could leave things in better order at home and see as many of you as time permits. An initial appeal for release on bail until the trial was denied, so "time out" looks less and less likely. I give thanks to God for the strength I receive each day, and am confident that with God's support and yours, all of us will make it through whatever is to come as stronger people, committed to act for justice that brings peace to our world.

Love and blessings to you, Betsy
Peace and love to all.

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Advent, 2007



"Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence...
Stir up your power and come to save us!
O God, restore us and cause your face to shine upon us,
and we will be saved."
(Isaiah 64:1; Psalm 80:2b-3, NASB)


Dear Family and Friends,

Unexpectedly, this year's Advent letter is being composed at the Central Arizona Detention Center where I am incarcerated for crossing the line at Fort Huachuca, the U.S. Army Center for Intelligence, Interrogation and Torture Training (the last of which is not on the letterhead!). My two co-defendants­a Franciscan priest and a Quaker­and I peacefully and nonviolently crossed onto the post to distribute handouts condemning torture and pleading with the military to disobey any orders to engage in it. After kneeling to pray, we were immediately arrested. At arraignment on December 4 and again at a hearing two days later, the judge remanded Jerry Zawada and me to detention because of legal challenges in other jurisdictions (see below). Mary Burton Riseley, who apparently appears less threatening, is supporting us from outside until our trial.

The goal of our action was to put torture on trial, to challenge the present Administration's limiting the definition of torture to the most egregious offenses and their exempting alleged al Qaida and Taliban supporters from supposed bans on torture at its worst. We were trying to say "Not in my name" to any degrading, pain-inflicting actions that dehumanize both the subjects and their torturers. The close interaction that torture requires for me represents the ultimate in "micro" (person-to-person) evil, at the opposite end of the spectrum from the "macro" (more global) evil of nuclear bombs.

And there's so much in between, the war in Iraq being a prime example. It was the Fort Huachuca action together with alleged violation of pre-trial release conditions for earlier actions against the Iraq War in Bend, (OR)­in March (sit-in_ and September (die-in)­that made me, according to one friend, "such a significant threat to the empire that (I am) being held without bail."

The prison-industrial complex distressed me anew as I arrived in Florence, AZ, on the CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) bus. The main industry in little Florence has to be prisons, ranging from initial holding facilities like this one (federal) to state prison facilities on up to death row. This facility alone must hold about 4,000 inmates (someone said there were 380 women and likely ten times that number of men). You wouldn't want to believe some of the stories heard here, for example, of women who didn't know drugs were in their vehicle when they crossed the nearby border, or who have been in the "system" for many, many years with no new "crime" except minor infractions of endless years of probation.

Human dignity and human rights are violated here as they are in the torture we are protesting, e.g., in getting people up at 1:00 a.m. for 10:30 a.m. court appearances in Tucson (1¦ hours away); in sending them out into the cold with no long sleeves; making them sit for a long time in the stationary bus with its doors wide open; keeping them in cold holding cells for hours, often with only a concrete floor to sit on; and in strip searches and shackles for all. Why, oh, why the gratuitous acts that assault our common humanity?

One of the bunks across from me is occupied by a young, pregnant, Mexican woman name Siria. She could be Mary today, unjustly exiled from society, bringing Jesus into the world in a place he would have felt comfortable, with people he would embrace as his own. We reflect on such things in the daily scripture reflection groups I have initiated in Spanish and English. There are plenty of ministries to be done here.
Back in Oregon, I am growing closer to people in a number of circles, especially the church and peace community (sometimes one and the same). Ann is ever the faithful and supportive partner through it all. We've been blessed this year by the visits of family and friends from far and near, one of whom subsequently moved to Bend and has been a great help to us in our recent move from Redmond to Bend. We now live in the same neighborhood as Ann's parents and are closer to so much that's happening in Central Oregon. I hope to be home by next Christmas. Although we're looking at a maximum of 16 months for the AZ action, the Bend actions may add more. Meanwhile, there are rumors of the filing of an appeal for my release (likely on bond) until trial (now scheduled for 2/4/08). I'm not counting on anything. I expect that at least through the holidays my address will be: Frances Elizabeth Lamb: #92100-020; CCA; Box 6300; Florence, AZ 85232. (Please use full name and number and send letters or cards only.)

Please be assured that I am healthy and content, and am feeling that for me, in our country today, this is the most honorable place to be.

I hope you are well and pray that your observances of this season will bring peace and hope to your heart and to our world.

With love,
Betsy

P.S. To those of you who have written me, or otherwise have been supporting us, so many thanks! Your support means a great deal. Thank you!

Peace and love to all.

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