The work of nonviolent resistance is a way of life
A few weeks ago, I was driving to the grocery store listening to “All Things Considered” on NPR when I heard Ailsa Chang warmly welcome someone from the RAND Corporation onto the show to speak about diplomatic strategies to prevent war in Ukraine.
At the stop light at the entrance of the shopping plaza, my two hands gripping the wheel, I leaned forward in anticipation, waiting for Ailsa to ask: “Could you share about how the United States’ insatiable hunger for war has provoked a conflict between Russia and Ukraine? And would you elaborate on how the RAND Corporation contributed to 20 years of war in Vietnam?”
Ailsa didn’t ask either of those questions. She offered a heart-felt thanks to the representative from the RAND Corporation for his solution (that Ukraine promise to never join NATO in exchange for peace) and then went on to the next segment. Was no one else on Route 80, I wondered, sickened by what just happened? Was anyone else shocked? Honk if you are horrified. I wanted to call Liz and tell her.
We at Benincasa Community had the privilege of living with Liz McAlister in 2016 and 2017, prior to the Kings Bay 7 Plowshares action. A few days a week during the growing season we would drive from West 70th Street to upstate NY to work on a farm owned and operated by Dominican Sisters. Liz loved the farm and was quite adept at planting, weeding, and preparing vegetables. For all of our hours in the sun and fresh air, it was the car rides that I remember most. We would “pay attention” to our driving while on the West Side Highway, but as soon as our wheels hit the George Washington Bridge, we were into the daily readings and then on to the audio book “The Pentagon’s Brain” by Annie Jacobsen. The audio book is 17 and a half hours and 8 CDs about DARPA, America's top-secret military research agency. I learned a lot about how America uses technology and some of the best creative minds of each generation in service to endless industrial war-making, including the RAND Corporation. More than the frightening details about our war-making for profit, I learned from Liz that “the work” isn’t a field of expertise or a devotion to a particular issue, but a way of life. Rigorous study, a prayer routine, a commitment to community, courageous acts of resistance and peace-making, feeding your neighbors, and right-relationship with Creation are stitched into the fabric of the week, folded into the flow of life. We were working on a farm, but the time in the field was couched between lectio divina and American history. This is, of course, the rhythm of religious life and the Catholic Worker Movement and Liz is steeped in both. Myself and so many in Benincasa Community are deeply grateful for the opportunity to practice this way of life with Liz, learning from her as we journeyed down the road a bit together.
