In Memoriam 

E. Lucile Cosner

June 15, 1909 — October 8, 2004

Hope in a time of Fear

Excerpts from an article by Paul Rogat Loeb from Sept 30 issue of The Nation.

Comment by Myrtle Osner

In my work with the Peace Life Center and the League of Women Voters, I am guided by just such principles as Loeb expresses so well, and I commend to you, our readers, this way of looking at what we do in the Peace Center, to give us hope in all our days. It may seem that we do small things, but they add up to a witness that is sorely needed in our part of America.

“Any clear-eyed view of the world recognizes that grave threats exist: war, environmental destruction, the runaway power of corporate greed. Those in power often take advantage of real threats, like terrorism, by exploiting fear for their own gain. Today fear so dominates our society that Americans hesitate to speak out against the very actions that make other people hate us. When people begin to silence themselves, democracy itself is imperiled… ”

“The antidote to such fear and silence is hope, defiant, resilient, persistent hope, of the kind that Desmond Tutu embodies. In this vision, we act no matter what the seeming odds, both to be true to ourselves and to open up new possibilities. As Jim Wallis, editor of the social justice magazine Sojourners, writes, “Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, then watching the evidence change.”

“Another way of expressing Wallis’s sentiment is that hope is a way of looking at the world—more than that, it’s a way of life. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the stories of those who, like Tutu and Nelson Mandela, persist under the most dangerous conditions, when simply to imagine aloud the possibility of change is deemed a crime or viewed as a type of madness.”

“Even in a seemingly losing cause, one person may unknowingly inspire another, and that person yet a third, who could go on to change the world, or at least a small corner of it.”

“The protests of 2003, the largest in decades, brought many into their first public stand, or their first in years. It wasn’t only to voice opposition when being called allies of terrorism. Yet people did, in every community in the country, joined by the largest global peace demonstrations in history. This movement marked the first steps for innumerable individuals, who, ever since, may well join the ranks of the unsung heroes who ultimately create all change.”

“Even if the struggle outlives us, conviction matters. Actions of conscience confirm the link between our fate and that of everyone and everything else on the planet, respecting and reinforcing the fundamental connections, without which life itself is impossible. Whether we flourish or perish depends on how well we can honor the interdependence that Martin Luther King, Jr. evoked, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

“We should not forget that courage is contagious, that it overcomes the silence and fear that estrange people from one another. . . We gain something profound when we stand up for our beliefs, just as a part of us dies when we know that something is wrong, but do nothing. If we remain silent in the face of cruelty, injustice, and oppression, we sacrifice part of our soul. We keep on acting based on our conscience because by doing so we affirm our humanity the core of who we are, and what we hold in common with others.”

Paul Rogat Loeb is author and editor of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear.

Your Elected Officials

• Pres. George Bush (R), 202-456-1414, president@whitehouse.gov

• Vice-Pres. Richard Chaney (R), 202-456-1414, vice.president@whitehouse.gov

• Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 916-445-2841, governor@governor@ca.gov

• Sen. Barbara Boxer (D), 202-224-3553, senator@boxer.senate.gov

• Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D), 202-224-3841, senator@feinstein.senate.gov

• Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Dist. 18, 202-225-6131, www.house.gov/writerep

• Reb. George Radanovich, R-Dist. 19, 202-225-4540, www.house.gov/writerep

• Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Dist. 11, 202-225-1947, rpombo@mail.house.gov

• State Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Dist. 12, 916-445-1392, senator.denham@sen.ca.gov

• State Sen. Michael Machado D-Dist. 5, 916-445-2407, senator.machado@sen.ca.gov

• Assembly, Greg Agazarian, R-Dist. 26, 916-319-2026, assemblymember.agazarian@asm.ca.gov

• Assembly, David Cogdill, R-Dist. 25, 916-319-2025, assemblymember.cogdill@asm.ca.gov

• Assembly, Barbara Matthews D-Dist. 17, 916-319-2017, assemblymember.matthews@asm.ca.gov

  

Looking at the world with a wide angle view: Paul Sesser 1920-2004

By INDIRA CLARK

There is a phrase much in use these days, the “Greatest Generation”, Bill Beck observed at Paul Sesser’s memorial service recently. The former director of Heifer Project International asserted that peacemakers were also part of that World War II generation and Paul “was a peace representative of the Greatest Generation.” Bill listed the United Nations and other organizations peacemakers initiated and sustained.

Paul’s Brethren upbringing instilled in him a deep sense of compassion for others and the conviction that peaceful solutions to conflict can be found, his children, Susan and Greg, and Steve remembered. Peacemaking and community-service were family values in the Sesser family.

Paul began his professional career in photography in 1939 at Shoobs Photography on J Street in Modesto. During W.W. II he sought classification as a Conscientious Objector rather than participating in armed combat. He believed you could not stop violence with more violence, his family recalled. His years of Civilian Public Service included forestry work, as a firefighter and tree planter, and as a psychiatric attendant in Connecticut.

Following the war Paul volunteered as a “seagoing cowboy,”,a livestock attendant for shipments of livestock for Heifers for Relief and the United Nations Relief and Reconstruction Agency which took him to Poland, Greece, and South Africa. His shipboard adventures included a violent Atlantic storm, running into a German mine, running aground twice, livestock jumping overboard to swim ashore and race through a Greek city, and sightseeing too long in Johannesburg that he almost missed the ship. He was always an avid supporter of organizations that assisted others in helping themselves such as Habitat for Humanity and Heifer Project.

After a career in sales, Paul returned to photography with a passion in his retirement years. “Much of his photography reflected his desire for a harmonious world; a place filled with grace and beauty,” his family recalls. His photography hangs in Richard’s Custom Framing (Anderson Gallery) on J Street, nearby the old Shoobs’s location where he started. His images continued to win awards until just a few weeks before his death.

Paul’s photographs lined the walls of the College Avenue Congregational Church during his memorial service. The church overflowed with Paul’s family and friends as they gathered to honor his life. He was always an avid supporter of organizations that assisted others in helping themselves, such as Habitat for Humanity and Heifer Project. People spoke of Paul’s openness, inclusiveness, mentoring, pacifism, honesty, and humility.

Humility. It’s not a treasured attribute in our society. The dictionary definition, “freedom from pride and arrogance,” fit Paul well, however.

At his sister Stella Seip’s memorial service some years ago, Paul said he had always thought of himself as being the best photographer in the family; he took pride in it. However, he’d recently been looking through some of Stella’s photos, and realized just how talented she’d been. He said he was humbled by that. His honesty in sharing that memory has served as a reminder to me of the value of humility in a world that prizes hype and self-promotion.

Betty and Paul were married for nearly a half a century. He was hospitalized in July and diagnosed with terminal cancer. While he was in the hospital, Betty was talking to him about their anniversary, and Paul started counting the months to November, she told us at his memorial service. “But he was talking about the Election, not our anniversary!” 

Vote!

Ending the Drug War

By VASU MURTY

Throughout history, the legal and moral status of psychoactive drugs has kept changing. During the 17^th century, the sale and consumption of tobacco were punished by death in much of Europe, Russia, China and Japan. For centuries, many of the Muslim domains that forbade alcohol sale and consumption simultaneously tolerated and even regulated the sale of opium and cannabis.

Each year, the U.S. government spends more than $30 billion on the drug war and arrests over 1.5 million people on drug-related charges. Over 318,000 people are now behind bars in the U.S. for drug violations, greater than the total number of people incarcerated for all crimes in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain combined.

Our government is calling for billions of dollars to fight a drug war it can't win. Roughly 75 percent of this money goes to enforcing laws and regulations, but only 15 percent goes to drug education and prevention, and a only a meager 10 percent goes to treatment for addicts.

During the 1950s, long-term prison sentences against drug users choked the courts, strained and disrupted prisons and drove black-market prices even higher. The latest casualty in the drug war has been our civil liberties: mandatory drug testing so we can all be “drug free”. Some of these tests have been struck down by the courts, where the government is the employer. But others have been upheld. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia denounced these drug tests as “an immolation of privacy and human dignity in symbolic opposition to drug use.”

Even putting America under martial law will not solve the nation's drug problem. Iran executes hundreds of drug offenders. Malaysia has hanged dozens of drug users in the past few years. In neither country has the drug problem receded. In fact, in Malaysia, the addiction rate continues to rise. On the other hand, the Dutch government, with its liberal social and political philosophy, tolerates drug use, and the addiction rate is declining.

According to a 2003 Zogby poll, two of every five Americans say “the government should treat marijuana the same way it treats alcohol: It should regulate it, control it, tax it, and only make it illegal for children.” Close to 100 million Americans, including over half of those between the ages of 18 and 50, have tried marijuana at least once. Military and police recruiters often have no alternative but to ignore past marijuana use by job seekers.

In 1996, California voters passed a law to regulate medical marijuana within the state. In 2000, voters in California approved an initiative allowing people who are arrested for simple possession of drugs to go through a rehabilitation program rather than through the court process that would result in prison. Since the program began, most agree it has been very successful. It results in less recidivism and is considered cheaper than imprisonment.

Richard Posner, Chicago's chief judge of the 7^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and one of the nation's leading legal scholars, says marijuana use should be legalized as a way of reducing crime. Posner, a Reagan administration appointee once described by American Lawyer magazine as “the most brilliant judge in the country,” explained his views on marijuana in The Times Literary Supplement, a British publication, and in later interview:

“It is nonsense that we should be devoting so many law enforcement resources to marijuana," says Posner. "I am skeptical that a society that is so tolerant of alcohol and cigarettes should come down so hard on marijuana use and send people to prison for life without parole.”

Posner is the highest-ranking judge to publicly favor the repeal of marijuana laws. Several judges of the federal district court, a level lower than the appeals court, have made similar calls, including Robert Sweet of New York and James Paine of Florida, both Carter Administration appointees.

New York University law professor Burt Neuborne said it's significant that “one of the leading intellectuals in the judicial system recognizes that the laws don't seem to be working well.”

Posner and other federal judges have complained that sentencing guidelines force them to give unjustly severe prison sentences to relatively minor drug offenders. Says Posner: “Prison terms in America have become appallingly long, especially for conduct that, arguably, should not be criminal at all. Only decriminalization is a sure route to a lower crime rate. It is sad that it appears so far below the horizon of political feasibility.”

Rufus King, a Washington, DC lawyer who has served on the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, calls the drug war, “A worthless crusade.” According to King, drug use is a social problem, not a law enforcement problem. He observes: “Cigarette use is declining through changes in cultural values in the population. Like most smokers and alcoholics, most users of illegal drugs poison themselves because they want to be intoxicated. No human force can do them much good until they want help.” King is optimistic that the current anti-drug hysteria will subside, and responsible and reasonable drug law policies will be adopted.

Take back our Democracy: Vote!

By KEN KOHLER

It is election time and many of us are less than enthusiastic about our choices. Many once again feel disenfranchised and unrepresented in our views, and are rightfully suspicious that the candidates will not deliver on their promises.

The office of President has become very powerful, but it can enact very little without the cooperation of Congress. All promises are subject to congressional approval and judicial review. It is therefore important to put little weight on promises, but find a leader with a vision and the ability to communicate that vision and build bridges to enact it. JFK and FDR were visionaries. Vision, not promises, which will soon be broken, is what our country needs. Sadly, the candidates with the best vision often do not survive the primary process due to lack of funds. This does not mean that their vision is dead; they can still be major players in other ways.

At Peace Camp this year I overheard several young people talking about the upcoming election. One of them said, "I am not going to vote, I don't like any of the candidates." 

This is when the feelings of disenfranchisement begin. It is part of the politics of manipulation. If enough people feel disenfranchised in a democracy and do not vote in its elections, then the minority gets to elect the leaders. The minority can impose its agenda on the majority. It is rare election that turns out a majority of the citizens eligible to vote. 

We have been living with this and buying into it for years. It is time that we took back our country by going to the ballot box. We must assert our views by electing those who we know will enact our will. To not vote is to let others impose their will upon us. Living in a Democracy is a gift and we can only preserve it if we exercise our basic and fundamental right to vote.

We may for a while have to chose the lesser of two evils, but the more of us who participate the sooner that will change. 

Make a difference — vote!