Execution protestors learn how to be peaceful
Workshop focuses on anti-violence techniques for protests
By Jason Hathaway
Tribune-Star
About 30 area people showed up at St. Margaret Mary Church on Saturday in Terre Haute to learn how to be peacekeepers for nonviolent anti-death penalty demonstrating at the upcoming Timothy McVeigh execution.
Sister Kathleen Desautels, a Sister of Providence who works for the 8th Day Center for Justice in Chicago, led the workshop, which focused on anti-violence techniques for protests and vigils.
Desautels, who has participated in nonviolent demonstrations before, instructed her audience in nonviolent protesting techniques effectively used by such legendary leaders as Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Those who can fight against such a cause as the death penalty and do it without violent force are special people, Desautels said.
"I want to be with people who believe in justice and believe in nonviolence and are doing something about it," she said. "These are good people to be with."
The workshop began with introductions, with hopes of establishing a common ground among those in attendance. Desautels encouraged each audience member to introduce themselves and give a well-thought reason why they oppose the death penalty. This portion of the program also helped measure the dedication of those who will be nonviolently protesting the death penalty on May 15 and 16, Desautels said.
"It seems like a very good group," she said after the workshop. "I think [the introductions] set a tone of commitment and for what their purpose is, and that is to be a community of peace in the midst of such a violent state action."
This violent state action is exactly what death penalty protesters would like to see gone from society. By executing a criminal for his own act of violence toward society, the state is merely taking revenge and completing a cycle of violence, Desautels said.
"I just think the state is killing someone who killed someone whom [the state] says you shouldn't kill," she said. "We're just perpetuating the violence. It's just a cycle of violence that being perpetuated. There's enough evidence to show the death penalty is not a deterrence of violence. It's difficult because you feel sorry for the victims and the families of the victims, but I would say that Timothy McVeigh is also a victim of a society that responds with violence any time it's angered.
"The state is killing a person. When are we going to stop killing people for killing people?"
No matter how passionately against the death penalty these demonstrators might be, resorting to violence in their protesting methods is out of the question, said Suzanne Carter, coordinator of the Terre Haute Abolition Network, who attended the workshop.
"What we are protesting is what we consider to be government violence in our name," she said. "It would seem absurd to protest that violently I'm devoted to nonviolent expression. I feel the purpose of demonstrations is to create interest, awareness and dialogue. The final decision on the death penalty will be made by the legislators. This is just the most visible expression of our work."
Following instruction on various nonviolent demonstration principles, the audience rose and recited the Death Penalty Pledge of Nonviolence, making the promise of nonviolent behavior on the prison grounds. The workshop was closed with a question-and-answer session with Terre Haute Federal Penitentiary Warden Harley Lappin. Lappin informed the potential demonstrators about security measures and what they should expect to see when they arrive at the penitentiary in the early morning hours of May 16, the day McVeigh will be executed.
Following the workshop, many who attended said that Desautels' speech had been helpful in motivating them.
"I'm really glad that I came because it's helped me to get the inner strength that I know I'm going to need to make it through that day," said Billie Jean Rewa, a junior at St. Mary-of-The-Woods College. "I know that I can't not come. I'm going to have to be there and stand up. I don't want to succumb to the violence that totally surrounds this situation. I need to be strong inside myself."
Judy Vasbinder, of Terre Haute, said the workshop helped prepare her for what to expect on May 16.
"I thought it was helpful," she said. "People had lots of questions, and this helped make people familiar with what's going to happen. I think that's important, so we don't get out there and don't know what's going on."
Desautels said the implied dedication of her audience members to the fight against the death penalty gives her hope that some day, the death penalty will be abolished.
"Here are good people who know that this system is wrong and are angry about it but are able to focus their anger in nonviolent ways," she said. "Local people are taking responsibility to gather other people, and I think they are to be commended. It gives me hope."
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