Putting People at the Center

In some towns, the activities of military commands that manage nuclear weapons is a subject of downward glances and furtive conversation. In Omaha, Nebraska, according to Tim Rinne, director of Nebraskans for Peace, it's a matter of celebration. There, Offut Air Force Base house Strategic Command (STRATCOM), the place where George W. Bush landed on September 11 when he was reportedly hiding from suspected attackers. Since then, STRATCOM has picked up a mess of missions that led its current commander to say, upon assuming his post, that the organization could be called "Global Command".

It's a scary moniker, and the 150 people from 12 countries and 28 states who showed up in snowy Omaha this past weekend for a conference opposing the militarization of space heard plenty of scary stuff. Young-Dae Ko of South Korea described the US military plans developed on the Korean peninsula that have led not only to North Korea's nuclear responses, but to increased war plans by China and Russia. On a smaller scale, but nonetheless chilling, Jacqueline Cabasso described how she and two others were in the public parking lot outside Offutt air base Friday afternoon, when a legal picket was occurring, and asked for directions, and were then detained. Analyst Loring Wirbel said that STRATCOM's motto could be, "We don't make nuclear weapons, we make nuclear weapons usable." He described how the command has integrated the 'unthinkable' and often abstract-seeming space wars technology into current warfare and war planning.

But it wasn't all doom. Andrea Licata talked about the extraordinary movement in Vicenza, Italy against the expansion of a US military base there, and also the thousands of US military deserters living in Europe. Lindis Perce of Yorkshire, England recounted her protest at Buckingham Palace, where she climbed a fence and hung a US flag upside down, George W. Bush was entertained by the queen. Bal Pinguel, Filipino activist working with the AFSC, spoke passionately and eloquently about how people must be at the center of our vision and our work, wherever we are. Not information, not tactics, not funds — people. He drew a standing ovation.

I spoke about the victory in Ecuador, where on April 1 the constituent assembly approved an article banning foreign military bases and forces, and about the San Jose Peace Community and other grassroots nonviolent initiatives in Colombia.

A teacher from Taos, New Mexico brought a vanful of high school students, whose faces showed shock and earnestness and asked some pertinent questions: Is it right to fight back if you are attacked by police? What would justice for the crimes of the US government look like?

I don't know, but I know these connections open up the space for us all grapple with these quesitons, together.