Back in April I found out about the Witness Against War walk being put on by Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Kathy Kelly was at a member meeting for the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, where I am a work study student, since my GI Bill was just used up it is a great opportunity to use government funds to support my anti-war work. Kathy asked me if I would be willing to do the walk from the middle of July until the end of August. I had to decline as I had a summer class taking up much of my summer but kept it in the back of my mind for when they came through Madison on their way to the Twin Cities.

The walk started on July 12th, which is Henry David Thoreau’s birthday. A fitting day to start such a walk by a group which has a long standing history of civil disobedience and non-payment of fines for actions like the one which I will describe later at Ft. McCoy on August 10. As you may know Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience while in jail for refusing to pay taxes to support the U.S. war efforts during the Mexican-American War.

The objectives of the walk are:
• The complete and immediate withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from Iraq.
• The complete end to all U.S. military action against Iraq, whether that action be from the air, ground or sea.
• An end to any further funding for U.S. military action in or against Iraq.
• Full funding for the highest quality health care, housing and education for U.S. veterans and their families; the end of stop-loss/stop-move orders in the military.
• Provision of full funding by the U.S. for the reconstruction of Iraq following the damage caused by these past 18 years of economic and military warfare waged by the U.S. upon Iraq.
• The unconditional cancellation of the remaining odious debt incurred by Saddam Hussein’s regime and of the reparations imposed by the U.N. against Iraq following the Hussein regime’s 1990-91 invasion and occupation of Kuwait.
• Redirection of U.S. financial resources away from waging war and towards providing for the Common Good in the U.S.—universal health care; free public education at all levels; aordable housing; etc.

As the walk continued its way from Chicago into Wisconsin and towards Madison, I saw that they would be doing the walk to Madison on a Sunday. So naturally I forgot about having my normal day off from homework and work and decided to join the walk. I was interested in their planning of an action at Ft. McCoy because it is a huge base that can be targeted for outreach for Iraq Veterans Against the War potential members and also with GI Rights information for troops contemplating their pending deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan or any other concerns they may have about the military and their rights while a member.

As we drove through the base to meet up with the walkers I realized how large the base actually is. According to their website (pdf) it is 60,000 acres which is over 90 square miles. This number is mindboggling but to put it in better terms the base is about 9 miles wide so that would make it about 10 miles tall. Obviously this is an estimate as you can see if you search the map of Wisconsin that the border is not a straight square but all over the place.

After meeting about the action and getting some breakfast we made our way to Tunnel City which was the starting point for the days walk. On this day the walk was joined by a number of members of the Christian Peacemaker Team. Having them on the walk was invigorating and energizing through their desire to practice true religious belief and not what is normally seen from our modern churches. In all there were around 50 walkers including the 13 who were risking arrest at the base. Upon entering the base property and driving through the base, I noticed that the police presence of both the WI State Patrol and the Ft. McCoy police had increased greatly since the hour and a half ago. As we were stretching, applying sunscreen, picking out a sign to carry, and finalizing other details in Tunnel City the Monroe County Sheriff came by and ensured us that if we followed the law and walked outside of the solid white line in opposition to traffic we would be allowed free passage through the base. A back-up plan was that those risking arrest would cross the line at the base border if they denied us permission to walk through the base. Just as we were taking off a local news channel showed up. They took a lot of footage as we progressed along the walk. They were joined after about a mile of walking by another station which doesn’t seem to have any content on their website so they won’t get a link. By the time we reached the base border and stopped for a bathroom break and to make sure those risking arrest were in the front the media was out of sight.

I was mistaken to think they had gone home for the day and soon saw they had just moved to the main gate, which was now closed and had sawhorses blocking usage, as it came into view. As we neared the gate I went to make sure that I was holding one of the GI Rights signs with my Iraq Veterans Against the War shirt visible to any military members who drove by during the action part of the walk. The other sign was carried by Jeff from Voices and Josh from Tennessee as they entered the base property.

As they entered the base they were warned that if they proceeded further they would be arrested. Upon passing the line one of the base security members, which are now no longer Military Police, said “Ms. Kelly that is far enough.” Clearly Kathy was singled out early on and was apprehended to enforce the outstanding warrant that she had. The others continued walking and soon a swarm of other security forces approached them. Dan worked as the liason and found out that unlike we were planning for those who crossed the line would be processed and released at the edge of the base in about an hour. For more details on why Kathy was detained and not released see this article by Jeff from VCNV and John LaForge’s article here. From across the road we stood witness to their actions in support.

So we continued our walk towards the edge of the base property to meet back up with those who crossed the line shortly after finding out they would simply be released after being processed. Upon arrival some had already been released and others were on the way so we took a break. Slowly the vans arrived carrying them and we cheered their sacrifice as they had the zip ties removed from their wrists. Following the news that Kathy was being sent to the Monroe County jail a decision was made that the core walkers and anyone who wished could continue to walk to the jail and perform a brief vigil outside of the jail. So we got back on the road for the final six miles of the day. We arrived at the jail and by that time it was determined which cell she was in. We went there and yelled her name and sang the songs that we had practiced earlier in the day but didn’t hear back from her. Our guess is that she was at dinner or they had moved her because others had said she could climb up and be barely seen through the screen to the cell. So we re-grouped by the Wheels of Justice bus which is transporting the core walkers between their sleeping areas and the march route.

This is an excerpt from the whole blog which can be found here complete with links and images.