Signs of the times (Stories of engagement)

[Note from Kathie Malley-Morrison: Today in our series of portraits of moral engagement, we introduce Dean Hammer, a clinical psychologist and peace activist, who shares with us excerpts from his essay “Beyond War: A Time for Revolutionary Hope,” presented to the Leverett Peace Commission Lecture Series #2—March 4, 2011.]

Ploughshares Eight
Ploughshares Eight (Image used with permission)

The framework for my reflections is constructed from Dr. Martin Luther King’s Speech delivered at Riverside Church in April, 1967 (a year before his assassination).

Dr. King’s speech was entitled, Beyond Viet Nam: A Time To Break Silence. This vintage oratory occurred during a time of awful blood-letting, much like our current times.

In his wonderful cadence, Dr. King exhorted the audience by stating, “A time comes when silence is betrayal….A new spirit is rising among us… These are revolutionary times.  All over the globe men (and women) are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born…We in the West must support these revolutions.”

While I was a student at Yale Divinity School during the 1970s, I had the very good fortune of meeting Daniel and Philip Berrigan, two radical Catholic peace activists.  These notorious trouble-makers became my mentors and called me into the pathway from Yale to jail.

In Sept. 1980, I joined them and five other friends in a peace witness that came to be known as the Plowshares Eight.  We entered a plant owned by General Electric where components of nuclear weapons were being built.  With household hammers, we disarmed the nuclear nosecone for Mark 12A intercontinental ballistic missiles—beginning a series of over 90 Plowshares actions in the U.S., Europe, and Australia during the past thirty years and leading to time spent in federal prison for my efforts.

From the streets of Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya—and yes, Madison Wisconsin– we can hear the drum beat of revolution.  We have our work cut out for us to understand the signs of the times and to join this dramatic movement of liberation and justice-making.

Dean Hammer

Libya: A “just” war? (Just war, part 4)

Benghazi, Libya
Benghazi, Libya. Photo by Dennixo, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported (from Wikimedia Commons)

[Note from Kathie Malley-Morrison: Today we once again welcome guest contributor Dr. Michael Corgan, for his ongoing series on just war.]

How does the war in Libya, for such it is, measure up to the principles of just war?

First impressions are that it is just, so far. War was “declared” by competent authority; the U.N. Security Council Resolution and France, at least, had recognized the Benghazi rebels as a legitimate government. Qaddafi’s threat to hunt down enemies in their closets, apparent shelling of civilian areas, and promises to show no mercy indicates war was a necessary means when other dire warnings had failed. So far only military targets seem have been hit by the anti-Qaddafi forces which satisfies proportionality.

However a couple of serious questions remain. First, what sort of peace will be had? It’s not a just war until a just peace has been instituted. Lincoln’s “malice toward none, with charity for all” was prescient in this regard.

An even more troubling question is “Why don’t all the same (essentially Western) conditions apply to Bahrain?” The anti-demonstrator crackdown there has been as nasty as Qaddafi’s. And the Saudis have pitched in to help authorities suppress the demonstrations. Both Libya and Bahrain have oil but Bahrain has a U.S. Naval base.

If the Libyan war is just, then what are the same participants doing about Bahrain? This Bahrain inaction undercuts the “justness” of the Libyan action.

Michael T. Corgan, Ph.D., Associate Chair and Associate Professor of International Relations, Boston University