You have heard evidence form Rev. Graylon Hagler and Sr. Ardeth Platte about the Poor People’s Campaign nonviolent witness on May 29 and what they saw me do.
Regarding the legalities of the case, I renew the Motion for Judgment of Acquittal that I made earlier. Additionally, there is no evidence that I obstructed or blocked anyone from going into or leaving the Senator’s office, or that I was boisterous. Despite what the government has claimed, I did not unlawfully assemble. Simply put, my action was a lawful witness with people of faith and conscience who are committed to making God’s reign of justice, love and peace a reality in our country and world.
There is no evidence that anyone from Senator McConnell’s office asked me to leave the hallway because I was interfering with the work of the office. There is no sign saying that I could not be present outside his office or in the hallway
Why should I be arrested for nonviolently making an appeal to those in position of power that we can’t kill? Why should I be arrested for praying?
The action I and my friends took on May 29 is part of a long biblical tradition of n.v. resistance to injustice and killing.
I acted in the tradition of Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Caesar Chavez of the United Farmworkers and Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker and countless other nonviolent peace and justice makers. Regarding Dr. King, why is it that we have a National Holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., who broke the law on numerous occasions in order to expose and resist violence and social injustice? Because we recognize that his actions were morally and legally justified and necessary in order to bring about constructive change and justice in our society. My actions, I submit, were in concert with Dr. King’s.
What do we do when human law conflicts with God’s law? Do we uphold human laws that sanctions injustice and killing? Or do we uphold God’s command to love one another and not to kill?
As a person of faith I believe we have to uphold God’s law first.
It was never my intention to commit a crime on May 29. I was simply trying to appeal to political leaders to avert more needless death and suffering by calling for an end to state-sanctioned violence and racially motivated killing in our society.
Since our May 29 witness there have been more war and gun-related deaths.
For example, just look at what happened on August 9, 2018 in Yemen, as but one of numerous gruesome acts resulting from the U.S. backed–Saudi war against Yemen.
On August 9, 2018 the Saudi military used a U.S.-made Lockheed Martin bomb in an attack on a school-bus in Yemen which killed over 50 people, including 40 children, in the market of Dahyan in Saada province. Here are the names of two of the children killed: Ali Mohammed Hasssan Da’i–10 years old; Ali Zaid Hussein Tayeb–9 years old. Imagine if these children were members of our own families or friends of ours–how would we feel? It is a grave miscarriage of justice that those responsible for this criminal act will never be held to account.
On May 29 I, and other friends in the Poor People’s Campaign, were witnessing to prevent such massacres from occurring.
On May 29 I, and others from the Poor People’s Campaign, were also appealing to the Sen. Majority leader to call for the conversion of the U.S. war economy which, with the passage of the recent 2019 military budget bill, has reached a staggering $717 billion. How can this exorbitant military spending be legal when some 140 million people are living in poverty in the U.S.? How can such a budget be tolerated when last year 45 people in D.C. who experienced homelessness died without the dignity of a home? Just think how this massive misuse of money and resources could be better spent meeting urgent human needs. This money could instead provide health-care for all God’s children everywhere, housing for the homeless, and jobs for the unemployed. This $ could also go a long way to help alleviate poverty, provide clean drinking water in places like Flint, MI, rebuild Puerto Rico, and reverse the climate crisis by decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels and investing in environmentally friendly renewable energy. Now is the time to convert our war economy, cancel plans for a Space Force, and disarm our nuclear arsenal, killer drones and all weapons of war.
On May 29, the Poor People’s Campaign was also trying to address the tragic proliferation of guns in the U.S. and to demand an end to racial violence. With some 300 million guns now in the U.S., the epidemic of gun-violence across the nation claims countless lives daily. And we continue to witness the horrific killings of people of color by police and vigilantes. In our action on May 29 we were pleading with Congress to ban assault weapons (and I would add all guns), and demand an end to the scourge of racial violence and gun-violence!
If the victims were here and could grace this courtroom with their presence, what would they tell us? What would the several million victims of U.S. warmaking in Iraq say to us? What would the tens of thousands of victims in Afghanistan and Yemen say to us? What would the victims of the Charleston, Las Vegas, Orlando and Parkland shootings say to us? What would Amadou Diallo, Trayvon Martin, Alton Sterling, Nia Wilson, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott and Freddie Gray, to name but a few, say to us?
In his famous song, “Blowin in the Wind,” songwriter Bob Dylan sings: “How many deaths will it take till we know that too many people have died? This question is as relevant now as it was when Dylan first sung this verse. How many more people have to needlessly die before we take action to prevent it?
Tragically, we live in a world where killing has become the norm. Renowned psychiatrist, Robert Jay Lifton, refers to the time we live in as one of “malignant normality,” where the abnormal has become normal. (I was interrupted by the Judge and had to abbreviate most of this paragraph which is in brackets). [Examples of this date back to when the Nazi doctors cooperated with the Nazi regime to kill rather than to heal. Today, psychologists continue this practice by participating in torture at Guantanamo. And we now have political leaders, including those in the highest positions in government, who have tried to normalize destructive behavior. This malignant normality is now most painfully evidenced by the fact that the ending of all life on our planet has become a real possibility. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has now turned it’s Doomsday Day Clock to 2 minutes before midnight, due to the colossal dangers posed by the apocalyptic twins of climate crisis and nuclear war. And so, as Einstein once said, we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe].
St. Paul writes that: “Love is the fulfillment of the law.”
William Penn: “Always put justice above the law.”
Despite what the government has claimed and charged me with, this case is really about the love and justice that St. Paul and William Penn speaks about.
The task at hand before us all is to uphold the law of love and justice and to do all we can to nonviolently stop the killing, abolish war and all weapons, end systemic racism and inequality, protect and cherish the earth and all of God’s creation and to seek to create the Beloved Community. This is what I and my friends tried to do on May 29. I invite you, Judge Matini, and Prosecutor Mason to please join us in the Poor People’s Campaign as we seek to bring about a moral revival in our country that can help transform our political and economic order into one that is based on love, justice, nonviolence and, which has as its greatest priority, serving the common good.
Judge Matini, I committed no crime. I submit that the police order to arrest me was not lawful. I believe that I, nor my associates, should never had been arrested as we were acting within our first amendment rights. I therefore ask you to find me not guilty. Thank you for your patience in listening to me.
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Swords into Plowshares
JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters
Democracy Now!
Common Dreams
Winter Soldier 2008
The Story of Stuff
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