National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance Members Will Protest Congress on Henry David Thoreau’s Birthday

National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance Members Will Protest Congress on Henry David Thoreau’s Birthday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 11, 2017

Contacts: Max Obuszewski 727-543-3227 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast.net; Joy First 608 239-4327 or joyfirst5 at gmail.com; or Malachy Kilbride 301-283-7627 or malachykilbride at yahoo.com

WHO:  Members of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR] have long been protesting U.S. war-making, including killer drone strikes, income inequality and climate chaos.  NCNR citizen activists have been arrested at the White House, in the halls of Congress, at the Pentagon, the Supreme Court, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. More recently, NCNR decided to engage in a protest at the Inauguration.  As part of that protest, NCNR members engaged in a die-in, not far from the U.S. Capitol, to simulate all of the innocents killed by drone strikes.  The police did not arrest any of the protesters. 

WHAT: Members of NCNR decided to take nonviolent action, calling it RIVERS OF BLOOD II, to call on Congress to stop funding war which is causing rivers of blood to flow throughout the world, especially in the Middle East. There will be a meeting at Union Station in Washington, DC in the lower level food court near Walgreens at 10 AM on July 12.  Then a petition calling for an end to war funding will be delivered to the following legislators: Rep. Paul Ryan, 235 Cannon House Office Building; Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 235 Cannon House Office Building; Sen. Mitch McConnell, Russell Senate Office Building, 317 Delaware Ave NE; and Sen. Chuck Schumer, 322 Hart Senate Office Building.

  After the petition delivery, the activists will gather on the anniversary of Henry David Thoreau’s 200th birthday. The Capitol Police may intervene.  But these citizen activists will try to read Martin Luther King’s Riverside Church speech, which still remains relevant today.

WHEN and WHERE: July 12, 2017 at 1:30 PM on the U.S. Capitol steps, across from the U.S. Supreme Court

WHY:  Members of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR] are petitioning the Congressional leaders on behalf of the voiceless, the poor, the middle class, the immigrants and people whose pleas are ignored.  Sadly, President Trump has embarked on a policy in favor of militarism, income inequality and climate chaos.  As part of his invidiousness, he has targeted immigrants and people of the Muslim faith.  We and so many others reject Trumpism, and we urge Congress to also reject the president’s pernicious policies.  This could be accomplished if Congress passed laws which severely cut the military budget, provide a living wage for all, protect Mother Earth, and recognize that most immigrants are people fleeing human rights abuses.

   This is the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech at the Riverside Church in Manhattan, entitled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” This was a prophetic speech.  King recognized the U.S. government was fighting an imperial war in Vietnam. He pointed out that this was “the symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit.” The Washington powerbrokers did not listen to King.  He predicted our current disastrous situation:  “we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.” Our Congressional leaders should heed the words of King and renounce militarism, racism, income inequality and climate chaos.  Failure to do so will cause so many of us to nonviolently resist a Congress bent on continuing policies which will lead to more war, more inequality and ecocide.

  A copy of the petition is available upon request.

“One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the US around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better" - Daniel Berrigan