THE IMPOSSIBLE

March to Guantanamo
I have been on the road for 7 days and have been walking 100 klm for five of them to a US military navy base that is surrounded by a nation that does not want it there
It is a place where no US citizen can visit legally. What a sinister
place to build a prison where the inmates are abused and tortured and
stripped of any rights under the Geneva convention, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention Against Torture.
Today after a long journey twenty five us Catholic Workers arrived at the gate that the Bush administration thought no American could get to.
We crossed a line no one but a Cuban military officer has crossed since the revolution almost 50 years ago.
We hung three banners got down on our knees and Sr. Ann Montgomery Father Steve Kelly and Father Bill Frankel Streit said mass
We now demand to see the prisoners.
We ask you all to put pressure on the military and the administration to open the gates.
We are vigiling twenty four hours a day in front of the gate.
Let us carry this witness into this unlawful place.
This was the impossible journey.
So many barricades that were put in front of us have fallen to the wayside And we just kept on walking
we were told we could not walk anywhere
we marched
no banners
we hung banners
no leafleting
we leafletted
no marching through the city of Guantaanmo
we marched
why?
the world agrees
No More Torture
Not in Guantanomo
Not in Iraq
Not in our name!
Tommorrow we fast and wait for one more door to open
You can help open that door
Call whom ever you can and put pressure on the Gov to let us in

Thank you
Danny Burns

PS: Every day it seemed we had gone as far as they could let us and
we would ask from our hearts if we could go just a little farther and they would come back and give us every thing we had hoped for on this the Cuban side
All that is left is for the US government to let the Cubans know to let us pass this final gate in to no man´s land 5 miles from where we are
vigiling and fasting that separates the base and is mined on both sides of the road leading in.
Jesus was a tortured.
Now his body is being tortured again 5 miles
from where we wait and fast in prayer for justice.
Let us in!
please we beg you!
we beceech you!
we command you!
Our hearts are breaking all over the world
End torture! Close the illegal prison at Guantanomo.

THE HERETIK PRINTS this e mail from Danny Burns as it came to me today, typos and all.  Some people see things as they are and ask why  . . . Some people think nothing is possible.  Some people see things as they are and see the impossible.  Nothing can be done.  Some see nothing can be done and still bear witness.  A barbwire cruelty now cuts this nation.  A few consciences bleed.  Some see blood where others see only power.  The impossible is a reality only for those who accept it.

Comments

[Craig R.]

Bravo for them.

These are the kind of people I was proud to call mine own when I was still a Roman Catholic.

Again. Bravo.

And G/d's blessing.

[Stacy]

Thanks for printing that. It's incredible.

This administration, which has the audacity to claim the bible and the flag as its inspiration (ie. justification) and play-acts such hypocritical piety- what will they say and do to the men and women praying to jesus in front of the gates? Will they turn back these Christian men?

The mainstream media needs to cover this. After all, it is they who spread the propaganda about all of us being a bunch of traiterous, anti-American, terror-supporters. Will they do the same to these people who believe its part of their faith to condemn such acts by the government? Or will they just refuse to cover this lest it muddy the waters and make it more difficult to spread the same, tired propaganda?

I love how the Right picks and chooses what it sees as the Christian way of living- it always seems conveniently similar to their political, capitalist agenda- no helping the poor or the meek, no turning the other cheek or showing mercy. Just shameless greed and violence.

These catholic priests and nuns are showing bush what real faith is.

[libby]

Wow. How beautiful and inspiring. It's good to be reminded of the positive side of faith.

[blogenfreude]

Sorry to sound defeatist, but Guantanamo is our Rock of Gibralter in the War on Terror (patent pending). We will torture people there until long after Rumsfeld dies old, rich, and comfortable in his bed.