BENTON HARBOR – For Grand Island, N.Y. resident Alice Gerard, there are many compelling reasons to oppose America’s use of drone aircraft – starting with the personal side.
“In my opinion, there are two kinds of people in this world – there are my friends, and friends that I haven’t met yet. I can’t see killing my friends, especially the ones that I haven’t met yet,” Gerard said.
Gerard was among 44 people who came from Buffalo, N.Y., Chicago, Kalamazoo, Minneapolis, Tennessee, Seattle and the United Kingdom who lent their collective voices to “On the Road to Ground the Drones,” a 160-mile protest march aimed at raising public awareness about the issue.
The route began at Boeing’s corporate headquarters in Chicago, Ill. – a company that makes drones – and continues through Watervliet, Paw Paw and Kalamazoo today, Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
Marchers will then proceed through Galesburg-Augusta on Friday, and wrap up their efforts in Battle Creek.
Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a Chicago-based peace group, sponsored and coordinated the activity – which paused for a break Monday night at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, 1753 Union, Benton Harbor.
Asked what prompted him to host the group for its mid-walk dinner break, Saint Augustine’s Parish Priest, Dan Scheid, responded: “What they’re (Voices) doing is how I understand the Gospel.”
Phil Runkel, left, of Waukesha, Wis., is part of a group walking to protest the use of drones in warfare.: photo by Kristy Noack
Gerard [to the right of Runkel in the above picture] is among a core group of 13 walkers who expects to complete the entire route. She’s marched four other times with the group.
“The purpose, as I see it, is to meet people along the way who normally wouldn’t go to a protest rally – so that they can see us, and we can listen to them, and hope that we can reach them with our message, as well,” she said.
[K]athy Kelly, a former Chicago teacher and Voices members, has seen the impact of drones first-hand – having traveled 15 times to Afghanistan, mostly recently in February. She plans to return there July 2.
“I’ve had the opportunity to live with young people in Afghanistan,” Kelly said. “They’re quite frightened, often, about drone attacks that might harm their family members – and they’re very conscious about what the U.S. military’s involvement might harbor for the future.”
The idea of the march, from Kelly’s perspective, is to raise discussion of an issue that’s received little attention in U.S. media, she said.
“It’s a whole new experience of war. They (drones) actually spend days hunting, stalking their prey – and they get to know a person. That person’s body is blown to bits on the screen without much certainty: ‘Was this person really involved in anything that would harm the security of the U.S.?’”
Maloy, Iowa resident Brian Terrell – another person who counts himself among the core group of walkers who’ll make the entire route – served a six-month federal prison term for his protest activities.
Terrell said he was charged in April 2012 for trespassing on Whiteman Air Force Base property in Missouri. He started his sentence last November, and got out in April of this year.
Kelly also faces similar charges on that score, as well, though she hasn’t received her summons in federal court yet, she said.
Asked what prompted to him join the walk, Terrell responded: “Kathy and I are among a few people who have been talking about drones – probably in 2009, when it really picked up (as a military practice). It happened with no public discussion, or awareness, or information. We’re talking about drones because of grassroots actions like this, that have put drones into the public’s awareness.”
Actions like the walk are intended to cause a wider debate about drones – because what the public has been told about them isn’t true, Terrell said.
“This isn’t a more humane or precise way of making war,” he said.
Minneapolis, Minn. resident Ruth Cole decided to commit herself after hearing about the walk at the Midwest Catholic Worker Faith and Resistance retreat last spring.
“Now you’re creating Des Moines, Iowa, or Battle Creek, Michigan, into a target – because we’re terrorizing Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen daily with these things,” Cole said. “Children don’t want to play when it’s a sunny day, because that’s when drones fly. When I’ve learned about drones, or seen documentaries, I become angry with our government – and I don’t even live there.”