Sheila Stumph's and Scott Langley's Statements

Reflections by Sheila Stumph

On the morning of December 27 Scott Langley and I walked up to the Pentagon and poured our blood on its pillars and walls. After pouring the blood we knelt in prayer in front of the stained pillars. We prayed for the victims of our country's foreign and domestic policies. We prayed for the victims who have died and those who have killed. Those who have suffered on the streets of Boston and New York City and the streets of Baghdad and Ramallah. We were handcuffed and arrested and after a few re-positionings we were told to once again kneel in front of the pillars. Over the next couple of minutes 15 other demonstrators were arrested for holding banners across the pathways and pleading with the workers streaming into the building to quit the military and refuse to kill. The other who were arrested were brought over to us and we all knelt, handcuffed, in front of blood-stained pillars.

We had come to Washington, DC to join other Catholic Workers for the Faith and Resistance Retreat held each year over the Feast of the Holy Innocents. During the Feast of the Holy Innocents we remember the innocent children of Bethlehem who were slaughtered under King Herod's decree. We also remember the hundreds of thousands of innocents who have been killed in just the last decades as results of the decrees of governments. Governments that rule out of the same greed and fear as King Herod. We also gather in the realization that so many of these deaths are a result of our own government's policies.

We remember and grieve for the 500,000 Iraqi children who have died in the past decade as a result of US sanctions and warfare in their country. We remember those murdered and disappeared in Central and South America by militaries and paramilitaries backed by our government. At the Catholic Worker we daily share meals with homeless men and women who live in poverty on the streets of our cities while our country spends billions on warmaking. We came to Washington, DC to reflect and act on behalf of justice for these innocents - the oppressed, the abandoned, the murdered and those left behind to weep and mourn.

Our action at the Pentagon was to say No! No More! We went to the Pentagon, the center of US warmaking, to publicly cry out our dissent. We do not agree with our country's priorities that put profit, domination and death before life. We believe in a literal interpretation of loving one's enemies, in the creation of God's nonviolent kingdom here and now and in the living out of all of the works of mercy. We believe in conversion. We pray for the conversion of ourselves, our government and our world from fear and greed to God's nonviolent love.

Scott and I spent many hours discerning what form our witness would take at the Pentagon. We felt called to take part in the tradition of nonviolent symbolic action that so many before us had done. Scott and I feel tremendous support from Haley House, the Catholic Worker community where we live together, the greater Atlantic Life Community, and so many of our family and friends. The witness was made especially powerful to me because of the fact that Scott and I were able to both take part in it. Our relationship and love for each other has only grown.

Scott and I face two charges and face up to six months in jail for our nonviolent witness at the Pentagon. We go on trial March 19 in Alexandria, VA. back

Peace and the Pentagon Reflections by Scott Langley

The weekend after Christmas I participated in a retreat in Washington DC with a community I have become close to as part of my experiences with Haley House and the Catholic Worker Movement. The retreat is called "Faith and Resistance" and it is with a wonderful and inspiring group of husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, elderly, youth, ordained ministers and lay people of extraordinary faith and courage from all over the Atlantic Coast region.

The three-day retreat involves sharing meals together, praying, singing, reading, and also planning and participating in various demonstrations around Washington D.C. (hence the "resistance" part of the weekend).

The flyer for this annual retreat (held during a Christian remembrance called the "Feast of the Holy Innocents") said this:

We invite you to gather - to reflect and to act

On behalf of justice for the oppressed, the abandoned, the murdered, and those left behind to weep and mourn
Against the injustice that plagues our planet, a plague that finds so much of its origin in our own government
For righteousness for all the oppressed, the abandoned, the murdered, and those left behind to weep and mourn
And to walk humbly with our God, knowing that it is not our task to complete the work but that we cannot shun our responsibility to fulfill our part.

In the months and weeks leading up to this retreat, I spent much time in thought and prayer as a discernment process of deciding in what forms I wanted my "faith" and "resistance" to intersect. I knew that I was feeling called to do something more than hold a sign.

One of our demonstrations during the retreat was at the Pentagon. The Pentagon is the center of our nation's killing machine - silencing the voices that strain to cry out: NO MORE!

I knew that I wanted to protest against the United States' military system that violates the universal commandment of loving one's neighbor and not seeking war against nation. The United States has long been the perpetrator of suffering and violence for many, many people across the world. Through our military policy, we massacre the holy innocents every day.

The Feast of the Holy Innocents, which is remembered on December 28 each year to mark when King Herod called for all children under two to be killed, inspired Sister Linda Ballard, my friend and mentor at Haley House in Boston, to write the following: "Today there are too many families and too many innocents struggling and dying with no voices to cry out for them. Some lie dying on the battlefields and in the cities destroyed by human greed."

On Monday, December 29, I, along with my partner Sheila Stumph, decided to use our own blood as our sign of protest of what the Pentagon stands for - and to give voice to the victims dying in the battlefields. At 7:00 am that day, with 75 others demonstrating in front of the massive five-sided building, we poured our blood - the blood of the holy innocents - on the pillars of the Pentagon. We knelt in prayer as the blood dripped down, awaiting our arrest. It was an act of faith, and at the same time, an act of hope (I hope you will also read the reflection I have written below).

Fifteen others were arrested with Sheila and I that morning, mostly for protesting without a permit and failing to disperse when ordered by Pentagon Police. Sheila and I were given an additional charge because of the blood and will go to trial on March 19 in Alexandria, Virginia.

The use of blood as a symbol of my dissent with the US military economy and its murderous policies comes from a rich tradition that has been enacted time and time again. We follow in line with a tradition of non-violent resistance and protest that has been led by priests, nuns, laity, and role models of the civil disobedience movement (Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero, Daniel and Phillip Berrigan, and so many more).

The outcome of the March 19 trial is unknown. While there is always a chance that the case could be dismissed, the reality is that I may spend anywhere from 30 days to 6 months in jail. I knew this from the beginning, and am ready to accept whatever the consequences may be. This is a decision I have made - a decision that Sheila and I have made together.

Regardless of if you support the political ideology behind this action, the religious tradition, or the tactic itself, I ask that you support me through prayers, love, and understanding. I will need all of this as I move forward in planning my court strategy and for whatever awaits me beyond the trial. Support of friends, family and community are very important to me. I cannot do this alone.

With the love and peace of God in our midst,

Scott

Why I choose to use the symbol of blood at the Pentagon:
Reflections from the weeks leading up to the Faith and Resistance action

In this age of fear, terror, terrorism, and terror alerts, I feel led to act. In this age of an increasing dependence on - and faith in - military solutions, I feel called to resist. In this age where the U.S. spends $12,000 a second on military spending to offer a false sense of protection and comfort, I feel the need to risk. In this age where society worships the military god, I choose to follow the God of Peace and the God of Love.

The Pentagon has long been the center of our nation's war machine - the place where workers work, decisions are made, and money is spent. The sanitized, five-sided, sound structure itself hides us all from the bloodshed that the work of the Pentagon produces on the inside.

We, as a nation, are not supposed to see the bloodshed of war - the bloodshed of our Defense - the bloodshed of terror. The Pentagon's façade hides it. The wars fought in far off places hides it. The manipulated media loses sight of it. It is all packaged to us in pretty little sound bites and Time magazine covers.

At Dover Air Force Base, the arrival point for all U.S. troops killed overseas, a new $30 million morgue opened this fall as part of our "War on Terror" budget. Not a day since the war started in March 2003 has there been no U.S. military remains there. Only the nine full-time staff have witnessed the bloodshed of our own soldiers brought home in body bags. There has been a ban on news coverage of arriving bodies since the first Bush Administration. It is a total media blackout. The public is not allowed to see the bodies or the blood. And unless you go to Iraq yourself, the chances are slim that you will see one of the thousands of Iraqis slain by U.S. military.

The bloodshed is hidden from our eyes. I choose to witness by exposing that blood which largely goes unseen.

To use the symbol of blood at the Pentagon is not merely an "action" or just an exercise in speech or expression. For me, it is grounded in a practice. The symbolic gesture is my practice.

It is a practice of denouncing an American lifestyle that I no longer believe in, and that the world can no longer afford.
It is a practice of risking everything for the experience of God's love.
It is a practice of placing myself in God's hands without reserve in boundless confidence.
It is a practice of putting faith and belief into action.
It is a practice of sincerity and truth (Joshua 24:14).
It is a practice of being all things, believing all things, hoping all tings, and enduring all things (Corinthians 13).
It is a practice of giving voice to the silenced, giving life to the dead, and giving exposure to both the bloodshed and the lifeblood.
It is a practice of personal responsibility.
It is a practice of enacting solidarity.
It is a practice of voicing dissent.
It is a practice of spiritual penance and spiritual nourishment.
It is a practice of lightening the burdens of the world.
It is a practice of grieving and offering hope.

The pouring of blood is not with malicious intent, not with angry vengeance, and not with criminal mindlessness, but instead it is with grounded spiritual mindfulness of these practices, in order to give life to (and in hopes of redeeming) those whose blood has been spilled by the commands of the Pentagon.

Just last week, on 22 December, Tom Ridge, secretary of Homeland Security, announced, "The strategic indicators... are perhaps greater now than at any point since September 11th, 2001." The myth of the Pentagon's military solution is once again exposed: all this war making, war spending, and bloodshed, and not an ounce of security has been gained.

Is our faith in war, violence and empire, or in nonviolence, love, and God?

Risking arrest for me is the right thing to do - right now. It is a tradition I want to be a part of, and I feel led in this direction. I have a responsibility to act, to be public, to not be easily dismissed, to give voice, to witness, to believe, and to risk. After all, what is faith without risk?

I have the support of my Haley House community, the Atlantic Life Community, the greater resistance community, my dear friends, my mother, my loving partner Sheila, and only God knows who else. I am willing to take this risk, and am willing to accept the consequences, whatever they may be.

I have put a lot of thought, prayer, reading, reflection, and experience into this decision. It is surely never an easy one to swallow, but it is one I feel called to live out.

Sheila and I chose to do this together, and for me, this practice is an extension of our love for each other, our love for the world, and our love for God.

The fact that we can both do this together with tremendous inner and outer support, without the obstacles of bills, children, sick parents, and all the other practicalities of life, leads me to ask at this point: WHY NOT?