Nonviolent Struggle - Theory and Practice

Submitted by John Amidon on Thu, 12/05/2013 - 09:35

On Monday, December 2, 2013, we completed our first four week class at Albany Friends Meeting. Everyone seemed to enjoy the materials presented and learned a great deal about both the laws concerning  Civil Resistance and considered deeply the issue of obedience. As has been said by Howard Zinn and others, the problem in our country is not civil disobedience, it is civil obedience.

Inside you will find a course outline divided into 4 sessions. The two texts,  “Power and Struggle” by Gene Sharp and  “Jesus and Nonviolence,  A Third Way” by Walter Wink are essential for a complete understanding of this course also.

I hope you will find this material useful. I hope also to see you on the front lines, working to right the course of our nation. Nonviolent civil resistance is absolutely necessary and long over due on a massive scale as an antidote to the violence and corruption of our government.  "If we do not end war, war will end us", whether it be  one of the numerous corporate wars manfuactured to sell arms or the continued war on our ecological systems which have rendered significant portions of the enviornment toxic to human life and is dramatically altering and killing many life forms.

John Amidon
25 Melrose Avenue
Albany, NY 12203

A Jailhouse Reflection

Submitted by John Amidon on Fri, 03/29/2013 - 09:43

Belly chains wrap around your waist and chain your hands to your side allowing limited mobility, enough to eat awkwardly and carry out needed functions in a very restricted fashion.  I am wearing a set and waiting to be processed in the Las Vegas, Nevada jail.

Next to me is a young man, 26 years of age who is marveling at how old I am. He is stunned that  Fr. Louie Vitale is 81 and Fr. Jerry Zawada is in his late 70’s. We have been arrested for protesting drones at Creech Air Force Base, 03/27/13, while our young friend had an existing warrant on an old traffic ticket from when he was 16. Several seats away, a drug addict is going through withdrawal and throwing up. The women of our group are segregated and sitting in the back of the room. The youngest of our group, Rev. Felicia Parazaider is 39.  8 of us have been arrested for refusing to be complicit with our government’s program of targeted political assassinations, the “kill list program”, the murder of hundreds of children and thousands of non combatants in the Middle East, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries.  In fact we have both a legal and moral responsibility to bring these acts to the attention of our government.  Each of us carry an indictment which we had hoped to deliver to Col. James Hecker, the base commander. We were charged with disturbing the peace.

Nuclear Missiles on High Alert

Submitted by John Amidon on Wed, 12/05/2012 - 10:08
We have 450 land-based Minuteman III nuclear missiles on high alert.  Despite hundreds of near-disasters due to human and mechanical mistakes over the years, these nuclear-armed missiles could be sent by a U.S. president in 13 minutes or less.  Thirteen minutes, with the very real possibility that false information, an electronic glitch or bad signal, or an error in human judgment, would bring the world as we know it to an end.
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