Dec. 14, 2009 issue
Inspired for peace
By Harold A. Penner Akron, Pa.What a treasure of inspirational nuggets the Nov. 30 issue of Mennonite Weekly Review was! Here are but four examples:
1) The editorial was an outstanding tribute to the life and ministry of Marian Franz, the former leader of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund. Now that the United States is sending 30,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan at the rate of $1 million per soldier per year, your perspective rightly affirms that conscientious objection to war taxes is valid. In fact, it may well be one of the few remaining direct CO actions currently available for us to pursue. It’s time for America’s wars to end. Such can happen if we stop paying for them.
2) While Richard Dugan’s Viewpoint letter correctly states that soldiers are not presently forced into the U.S. military by a draft, one wonders how he regards his personal involvement in the U.S. war machine if, like most of us, his daily earnings are being conscripted through federal income taxes to buy guns and bombs that kill.
3) “The Revenge of Forgiveness” story was very moving — one that I want to retain. It reminded me of a quote attributed to the Amish after the Oct. 2, 2006, tragedy at Nickel Mines, Pa.: “Let’s not become a hostage to hostility … hostility destroys community.” It also made me think of the observation by Martin Luther King Jr. that “forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.”
4) It seems we could all be enriched and encouraged by actively pursuing the insights that have resurfaced with the publication of Weyburn W. Groff’s 1963 dissertation, which compares the theory and practice of Gandhian and Mennonite nonviolence. We must continue to seek meaningful alternatives to violence, act on those findings and have faith to not fear the political engagement that ensues. As Marian Franz said, “Nonviolence is not for sissies!”
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