No Kings rally (photo/WBW)
BY ELAINE KLAASSEN
In 1990 Ed Felien started the newspaper Southside Pride to protest the First Gulf War. Southside Pride has always been an anti-war paper. So it seemed like an anti-war article was what I should write for my last Spirit & Conscience column.
This was confirmed when I got an intriguing email from World Beyond War, an organization that seriously campaigns to abolish war. Abolishing war could bring peace—which, of course, would abolish starvation worldwide, would end racism, would save the environment. Can we imagine that?
Right now it seems we are a long way from abolishing war. Now, since the current federal administration has been waging war on its own people, I am hoping we can find ways to fight back peacefully. I think of it as the billionaires actually waging war on us, so I know weapons are futile (and I’m a pacifist anyway) and it is silly to think our small change could do anything.
As a child and teenager growing up during the 1950s in an historic peace church, the scenario was different. I saw that being pacifists meant that the young men didn’t do military service, but rather did alternative service—building bridges, digging wells, electrifying towns, taking care of mental patients, teaching children, and so on. During the Vietnam war, the alternative possibility for those young men who didn’t believe in war but were not from an historic peace church was prison.
Resistor beanie
The earliest provision created by the U.S. government for pacifists and conscientious objectors was CPS, Civilian Public Service, in 1940, where the alternative to war was fighting forest fires, working in mental institutions, planting trees, doing dairy testing and serving as subjects for medical experiments. Many women voluntarily joined this effort as well. Before WWII, pacifists and C.O.s were often victims of violence because of their beliefs.
Growing up, it always seemed like the peace position was only about not going to war. By now, though, I can see that practicing nonviolence and building peace is more comprehensive. Being a pacifist or a conscientious objector means much more than just physically not going to war. It’s a way of life.
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Dave’s an aspiring musician and retired physician up in northern Minnesota who farms with his wife, Joanie, about a mile from Pelican Rapids. He doesn’t call himself a pacifist or a conscientious objector, but, in my opinion, clearly works on peacemaking in the sense that Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) expressed it: “Peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition of benevolence, confidence, justice.”
Dave is part of a pro-democracy group called the Resistors who, since January, have met once a week at the Pelican Rapids library to share their concerns about the damage the Trump administration is doing to our country.
Sometimes they hold protests in Pelican Rapids. Sometimes, some of them join a larger political group, Indivisible, for a rally on Saturdays in Detroit Lakes, 25 miles to the north. Their spot is a strip of grass along the highway, sort of like a park. They carry American flags and hold up signs such as “No Kings!” “Silence is not an option”; “Honk if you love the USA.”
At first, Dave said, they got the same amount of honks as they got the finger. But responses are changing. He thinks now it’s about 70 percent thumbs up and 30 percent hostile.
On the weekend after Charlie Kirk was killed, in mid-September, the Resistors learned that a group called the Lakes Area Patriots was going to demonstrate at the Indivisible/Resistors’ spot at the exact same time on the same day. Indivisible was planning its usual rally, but they didn’t want the two groups to engage. They wanted everyone to stay apart.
Instead of backing away, though, the Resistors decided to engage. Dave felt that since the Lakes Area Patriots had lost someone they loved and were grieving, the Resistors should bring coffee and cookies. The night before, he made three batches of chocolate chip cookies.
World Beyond War billboard
When the Resistors arrived, the Lakes Area Patriots had just finished a religious service. A while afterwards, when offered coffee and cookies, a man in the Patriots group shouted, “They’re trying to lure us with cookies,” to which Dave yelled back, “They’re nonpartisan cookies,” getting a laugh from both groups.
Pretty soon a young man came over and took a cookie. When he complimented Dave on how good it was, Dave explained that the recipe came from his grandmother. That was the beginning of a friendly conversation. The guy was a journeyman plumber, and probably as religious as Dave, who calls himself a respectful agnostic, is not. At the end of the morning the two men realized they had similar wishes for the world. They both agreed that people, in general, don’t respect religions. And one of the things they especially agreed on was the necessity of free speech. The young plumber was interested in sitting down together and talking about their shared values.
During the time they were all gathered, a plain clothes police officer had been keeping an eye on the demonstrations. At one point a heated conversation broke out, and although Dave was too far away to hear the topic, he could see it was “between members of the two different tribes.” The cop moved in closer. The arguers calmed down.
When everyone was leaving, Dave said, “Thank you for being here,” to the cop, who answered, “You too.”
Following their protest next to the Patriots group, Dave and Joanie have started a Braver Angels meeting in Pelican Rapids, a gathering where people work on depolarizing themselves and bridging the many divides of our times. The name, Braver Angels, comes from a speech by President Lincoln in which he called for courage and charity in his divided nation.
Since taking his cookies to the rally in Detroit Lakes, Dave continues to bake them for other rallies. He says, “You can’t have a revolution without good cookies.”
Dave’s cookie initiative (and Dave and Joanie’s Braver Angels) take place against the solid backdrop of a farming community where, despite political differences, people help each other out. Like you’re not going to leave somebody stranded beside the road with a flat tire just because they voted for Trump—or because they didn’t vote for Trump. You simply help them with their flat tire because they have a flat tire.
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I wish everyone would take it upon themselves to create peace within their own sphere of influence. If that happened, there would be no wars. If we were bonobos and our greatest desire were the well-being of one another, there would be no war. When the hippies used to say, “Make love, not war,” I wonder if they got that idea from the bonobos (who, by the way, are going extinct right now).
If all humans agreed that war was never an option, and that peace on Earth was a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition of benevolence, confidence and justice, the Earth could easily support eight billion people. No one would be starving, because there would be no racism or climate crisis.
Author’s note: It’s about time to acknowledge my dear friend Maureen Koelsch for coming up with the header Spirit & Conscience so many years ago.
