Last night I listened to Rick Axtell, a member of the ECAPC Speakers' Bureau and chaplain/professor of religion at Centre College, talk about the crisis in Colombia and what he learned on a trip there for Witness for Peace. (Rick is on WFP's Board and frequently leads short-term delegations for them to places in Central America.) I learned much on the background in Colombia as well as the current crisis. I can now tell someone the difference between the FARC and the ELN and the rightwing paramilitary AUC. I know what the period called "La Violencia" was and how Presidente Pastrana had negotiated a cease-fire and how that came undone. I now understand how the "War on Drugs" made things worse and how both the leftwing guerillas and the rightwing paramilitaries became totally intertwined with the drug trade. I learned the terrible role played by so-called "Free Trade" policies, the structural-adjustment policies demanded by the IMF, and everything that will be compounded if the FTAA (Free Trade of the Americas Agreement, which is a "NAFTA on steroids") goes through. (I have asked Rick to write a future column for this page on Colombia and one on "Free Trade" as a form of structural violence.) I was not surprised to find that, in addition to the work of WFP, the FOR, Peace Brigades International, and others, there is a small Colombian Mennonite group, Justapaz ("Just Peace"), that is working for tremendous changes at great risk to their lives. There are only about 5,000 Mennonites in the heavily Catholic Colombia, but they are making an impact far beyond their numbers--as Anabaptist/Mennonite groups have since the 16th Century. But what struck me the most about last night's presentation was my own level of ignorance about the history of most of the nations in Latin America--and I took a course on Latin America in college. I grew up in Florida and learned Spanish and have been to Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Belize--first with mission groups growing up and then with Witness for Peace in the early '80s. I deliberately try to find alternative sources of news than the U.S. mainstream media. I comb the web to keep well-informed and have friends around the world who keep me up to date on important events in their nations and regions through email. I listen to the BBC World News nightly, which gives a more global perspective than any news agency in the U.S. And yet, I knew less about what was happening in Colombia and how my government was involved than I should. I realized again the importance of our work at ECAPC and in other faith-related works of peace education. Not only are our churches and society ignorant of the nonviolent Jesus and the ways of peace, but we (and I mean WE) are remarkably ignorant about what goes on in the world. That is why it was so easy for the White House propaganda machine to fool a large part of the U.S. public into supporting the invasion of Iraq, but the same propaganda by the British government left their people unconvinced. The work of popular education in our churches, in writing letters to the editors of newspapers, in holding "teach-ins" such as I attended last night, in promoting alternative media and in making our mainstream media more accountable to the public. I hope you all will engage in such activities in your churches and neighborhoods. I also hope you will donate generously and regularly to our work at ECAPC so that we can take our peace education mission to new levels. We have many plans--they all require money. Consider it an investment in peace for the next generations. Michael L. Westmoreland-White
|
