You may remember that I mentioned TJ when I wrote about our little visit to Rep. Beauprez' office a couple of weeks ago. At 27, TJ is the youngest member of the No Blood for Oil 12, the Student Coordinator for the Colorado Department of Peace and Nonviolence Campaign, a student at Regis University getting his Masters in Nonprofit Management, and a man that is very wise for his years. Actually, he is very wise for any amount of years. People like him give me hope (oops! I forgot that I am living beyond hope).

TJ is good at finding the commonality between us, the place where we find that we all want and need the same things, then he helps us explore what's behind the ways in which we go about getting those needs and wants met.

This is what he said at the No Blood for Oil 12 press conference this past Wednesday:


As an American, I feel proud to have common objectives with my government. The safety of my community and myself is important to me. From a worldly scope, democracy, the removal of authoritarian regimes, and stopping the spread of WMD’s are important. I may have common objectives, but I have higher expectations of my country. High expectations mean that our common objectives are accomplished using just means. Unfortunately, while striving for just ends, America is using unjust methods. The facts are that 90% of deaths in war are innocent civilians. We use depleted uranium to coat our bullets. We torture to gain information. We violate international laws, treaties and our own constitution.

Serving the U.S. military in Iraq is a violation of international and constitutional law. Our military is violating the Geneva Conventions and the U.N. Charter. The good news is that we have a legal justification to use a “justifiable amount of physical force” to prevent our fellow citizens from breaking “laws governing the military service and conduct of war”. Blocking a recruitment center is a nonviolent method we have employed to symbolically prevent our fellow citizens from engaging in illegal activity. This is a direct method of supporting the troops. If you love someone, you don’t let him or her drive drunk. Similarly, if you love humanity, you don’t let someone violate international and humanitarian law.

The United States of America must accomplish our objectives with just means or we become just like the violent and unjust terrorists we resist. Terrorists threaten to employ any method in their arsenal, including the killing of innocent civilians and the use of WMD’s to accomplish their objectives. Does the United States not use the same methods to fight our battles? The United States, with the best intentions, has become a terror state to millions worldwide. Currently, through our actions, we actively indorse an international legal system where the gunners interpret and enforce the laws. This is unacceptable. We need to adhere to the letter AND spirit of our international treaties and the rules of warfare following the same expectations we require from other countries and organizations.

Some will say that such expectations are unrealistic. Some will even accept violations of human rights as long as it is not on American soil. We can do better. We have been to the moon and back, mapped the entire human genome, and we split atoms. We have utilized our democracy to nonviolently achieve a higher standard of worker, women’s, civil, and environmental rights within our own boarders. Surely we can teach the rest of the world our strengths without using violence or skirting around laws and human rights agreements. To those who claim that nonviolence is not a powerful force of change, I ask, “have you made an honest attempt?” Our country has not made an honest attempt to achieve our vision with more effective means than the military and I expect better.

The U.S. Government is clearly not making an honest and full-fledged attempt to accomplish our national security goals of freedom, democracy, human rights, and security for all people through just methods. It is obvious that true, sustainable safety does not come from guns and bombs. We are clearly not allocating an adequate or even noticeable amount of money and resources towards nonviolent catalysts of safety and democracy. This is a classic case of needing to put our money where our mouths are. I expect a greater effort from my fellow Americans to find real solutions to our safety. We would not feel good about failing to land on the moon had we spent $100.00 on the project. We would not feel good about women or blacks not having the right to vote in this country if few made an effort to find a way. Most Americans have no idea that such effective and nonviolent solutions exist to solve the problems of terrorism, authoritarian regimes, or nuclear proliferation. We cannot continue to use contradictory methods to solve social and political problems. Democracy cannot be violently enforced: violent coercion is tyranny and tyrannical means will never create a democratic end. It is self-evident that our safety is not ensured through making others unsafe. A better America is possible.

More Americans must make an effort to provide real solutions for our safety or we will bow our heads in 20 years from a failure to live up to the standards we expect from the rest of the world. We must expect more from our country. If we envision a world with safety, human rights, and freedom, our nation must behave as if such a world already exists. We must hold ourselves accountable to the very principles that we wish other nations to uphold. History has taught us that means and ends are one and the same. Indeed, the great social leaders of the past have reached a consensus that violence is clearly not the most effective tool for social change, establishing democracy, or ensuring human rights. America must wake up to this social and political reality soon or our violent nightmare will continue. Please join me holding our nation to higher expectations.