Kathy Kelly
Encyclopedia
Kathy Kelly is an American peace activist, pacifist and author, a three-time Nobel Peace Prize
nominee, one of the founding members of Voices in the Wilderness
, and currently a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence
. She has been described as "probably the most respected leader in the American peace movement". As part of peace team work in several countries, she has traveled to Iraq
twenty-six times, notably remaining in combat zones during the early days of both US-Iraq wars. She has been arrested more than sixty times at home and abroad, and written of her experiences among targets of U.S. military bombardment and inmates of U.S. prisons. She lives in Chicago
.
neighborhood to parents Frank and Catherine Kelly. She attended St. Paul-Kennedy "shared-time" high school, which split her days between a Catholic institution where she was given the writings of Daniel Berrigan
and Martin Luther King Jr. to read alongside biblical texts, and a desegregating public school where interracial violence was common. She obtained her BA from Loyola University Chicago
working a succession of night jobs to help cover tuition, including a stint on a meat-packing factory line which inspired her to become a lifelong vegetarian. During these years she remembers being deeply moved by Alain Resnais
' Holocaust documentary Night and Fog
, by a lecture by Vietnam War activist Tom Cornell, and by the activist scripture writings of William Stringfellow
.
,) Kelly began volunteer work in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood (where she still resides), working at a local soup kitchen with a circle of activists, including future SOAW
founder Roy Bourgeois
, centered around Chicago's Francis of Assisi House, a homeless shelter in the Catholic Worker
tradition. In 1980 she began work as a teacher of religion at St. Ignatius College Preparatory School.
In 1982 she married fellow activist Karl Meyer and began a lifetime of "war tax resistance" (refusal to pay federal taxes on pacifist grounds), asking her employer to reduce her salary beneath the taxable income. A Jesuit professional development grant enabled her to travel to Nicaragua
in 1985 and participate in a fast led by Foreign Minister Miguel D'Escoto
against U.S.-backed Contra
activity. Returning to the U.S., she left St. Ignatius in 1986 in order to focus on activism including two years as a teacher in Uptown's Prologue High School serving marginalized low-income youth.
In August 1988, Kelly participated in the Missouri Peace Planting, trespassing at a nuclear missile silo near Kansas City
, Missouri
to plant corn on it. For this action she served nine months in a Lexington, KY maximum security prison.
In 1990 she joined the Gulf Peace Team, a delegation assembled to protest the imminent Persian Gulf War
and spent the first 14 days of the air war encamped on the Iraq-Saudi border before evacuation to Baghdad
and then Amman
in Jordan
where she helped coordinate relief work.
Kelly helped organize and participated in several nonviolent direct action teams in war zones outside Iraq: Bosnia in December 1992 and August 1993, and Haiti
in the summer of 1994. She and Meyer divorced in 1994 although they have continued as friends.
against Iraq. In a January 1996 letter, the activists wrote then U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno
a letter declaring an intention to travel to Iraq with food and medicine in violation of the sanctions. A return letter threatened the participants with separate 12-year prison sentences and fines of one million dollars each.
Between 1996 and 2003 Voices organized over seventy delegations to Iraq bringing food and medicine directly to Iraqi citizens in deliberate violation of both UN-imposed economic sanctions and US law. Participants refused to pay fines for these actions but instead solicited matching donations from supporters for supplies to distribute on repeat visits. Members sought to raise awareness at home with demonstrations, media appearances, and personal accounts of their delegation work. Kelly went on 26 of these delegations.
Voices work was chiefly focused on, but not exclusive to, Iraq: in April 2002 Kelly and her fellow activists, walking on foot and engaging in repeated negotiations with Israeli Defense Force officers, became the first internationals to visit the Jenin
refugee camp after learning, while on peace team work in the West Bank, of the recent attack there and what she described as its heavy civilian toll after observing it first-hand.
In March 2003, Kelly returned to Baghdad shortly before the start of the Iraq War, witnessing the Shock and Awe bombardment, and remaining for two months. She narrated her experiences of bombardment for Westerners via antiwar and religious witness websites. When the air war gave way to a ground invasion, she and other activists were present to greet arriving U.S. soldiers with dates and water.
In November of that same year Kelly joined 43 other activists crossing illegally into the Fort Benning
U.S. Army base as part of the annual School of the Americas Watch
vigil, and incurred a three-month prison sentence which she carried out in Illinois
' Pekin Prison
in 2004, to which she was seen off by longtime friend Studs Terkel
. Her experiences in prison resulted in many of the essays collected in her book Other Lands Have Dreams, published in 2005.
Voices in the Wilderness was eventually assigned a $20,000 fine by the U.S. government which it refused to pay. In 2005, the group Voices for Creative Nonviolence was formed to continue challenging U.S. military and economic warfare against Iraq and other countries.
during the 2006 Lebanon War between Israel
and Hezbollah, reporting from the capital city of Beirut
and then, once the cease-fire was declared, from damaged villages in the country's south.
In 2007 VCNV initiated the "Occupation Project," in which activists in 25 states occupied the offices of 39 Senators and congressional Representatives whom they regarded as insufficiently committed to defunding the Iraq war. In the campaign's first ten weeks participants incurred 320 arrests. In the 2008 presidential campaign season
, a corresponding campaign targeted candidates' offices, and "Witness Against War," a march from Chicago to the 2008 Republican National Convention
in Saint Paul, Minnesota
.
In January 2009, Kelly had helped organize "Camp Hope: Countdown to Change," a 19-day winter vigil two blocks from the Chicago home of then-President-Elect Barack Obama
, but she spent most of the length of the vigil in Egypt and in the Gaza Strip
, witnessing Israel's 22-day Operation Cast Lead assault on the region, living with a Gazan family in a neighborhood skirting the area under heaviest bombardment.
In April 2009, working with the Nevada Desert Experience
, Kelly and fourteen others (including Father Louie Vitale
, Stephen Kelly, SJ
, Eve Tetaz
, and John Dear
, entered Creech Air Force Base
to distribute leaflets protesting drone attacks in Pakistan
piloted remotely from the base. They were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, for which they were sentenced to "time served" in a January 2011 ruling. The judge in the case had taken a 4-month recess to consider their claim to have entered the base in order to prevent a crime.
In May and June 2009, Kelly traveled to Pakistan with a small VCNV delegation, including activist Gene Stoltzfus
, that met with organizations and families in Islamabad
, Rawalpindi
, Shah Mansour
,, Tarbela, and Lahore
, reporting back with essays.
In January of 2010 Kelly was arrested in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building while taking part in a mock funeral, organized by Witness Against Torture
, remembering Mani al-Utaybi
, Yasser al-Zahrani
, and Ali Abdullah Ahmed
, three men then recently alleged
to have been tortured to death in the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison complex. All participants of the protest were later acquitted in court.
In May 2010 Kelly made another Pakistan trip alongside activists Simon Harak, SJ
and Josh Brollier. They met with families in the Swat Valley, Peshawar
and Shah Mansur
, as well as spending time in Rawalpindi
, Islamabad
, and Lahore
. As part of this trip Kelly and Brollier travelled in Afghanistan
as guests of the Emergency Surgical Center for Victims of War, visiting Panjshir
and First Aid Posts on the outskirts of Panjshir
, Kabul
, and Bagram
(site of the Bagram Air Force Base). The stated intention of the trip was "learning more about conditions faced by ordinary people in Afghanistan."
Kelly made two other visits to Afghanistan in 2010, working closely with Bamiyan
province's Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers. In October and November 2010 she visited the Afghan youths for one week in their home province before spending several weeks in Kabul, where she met with refugees from Helmand province and representatives of several NGOs, and wrote reports on her experience.
In December 2010, Kelly and six other Voices activists met with Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers in Kabul to assist them in a brief activist campaign; the Afghan youth issued a "People's December Review" to counter President Barack Obama
's December Review of the Afghan war, they hosted two international call-in days using the Skype
internet phone service, and they conducted interviews, not only with NGO aid workers involved in the Oxfam America-authored "Nowhere to Turn" report, but with U.S. Professor Noam Chomsky
(via a Skype
connection), and (separately) with current and former Afghan parliamentarians Ramazan Bashardost
and Malalai Joya
. Kelly's delegation helped them post internet transcripts of most of these events on their website.
Kelly returned with Voices to Afghanistan in March and early April 2011.
On April 22, 2011 Kelly was among 37 protesters arrested in Syracuse, New York
at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base
in a protest against drone warfare organized by the Upstate NY Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars.
Kelly spent June 22-July 9 in Athens, Greece as a passenger (along with retired colonel Ann Wright
, "The Color Purple
" author Alice Walker
, and retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern
) on The Audacity of Hope, the U.S. boat in Freedom Flotilla II
, a campaign to sail to Gaza from international waters in defiance of the Israeli naval blockade. The Greek government refused to allow the ship to sail, based first on a third-party complaint concerning the ship's seaworthiness, and then in an open policy of opposition to the flotilla. The ship attempted to sail for international waters but was intercepted by armed coast card vessels and impounded. Kelly stayed a week in solidarity with the arrested Greek captain until bail could be arranged, then attempted to reach Gaza by plane in the "Flytilla", but was denied entry to Israel and returned to Greece.
and CommonDreams.org
. Several of her essays have appeared in books on the Iraq War. In 2005 she authored "Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison" (CounterPunch), collecting and expanding on her letters from Iraq and from prison. She is co-author of "Prisoners on Purpose: a Peacemakers Guide to Jails and Prison." (Progressive Foundation:1989), and co-editor of "War and Peace in the Gulf"(Spokesman:2001). She spends much of her time touring the country on speaking engagements for schools, churches, festivals, and activist groups from whom she accepts but does not require a stipend. Associates have commented in interviews on her heavy work and travel schedule, noting in one instance that "Jail is the only place she can rest." Her latest articles have focused on the experiences of Afghan and Pakistani people facing consequences of U.S. military action.
"One way to stop the next war is to continue to tell the truth about this one."
"One of the most important "Spiritual Directors" in my life has been the Internal Revenue Service ... finding ways to live without owning property, relying on savings, or growing attached to a job ... Becoming a war tax refuser was one of the simplest decisions I've ever made."
"I want to be in touch with the people caught in a war at home. The war against the poor."
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
nominee, one of the founding members of Voices in the Wilderness
Voices in the Wilderness
Masada Anniversary Edition Volume 2: Voices in the Wilderness is the second album in a series of five releases celebrating the 10th anniversary of John Zorn's Masada songbook project....
, and currently a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Voices For Creative Nonviolence
Voices for Creative Nonviolence is an American anti-war group that advocates nonviolent direct action to stop war. As of 2006 they are organizing a series of actions in Washington, D.C. that they call The Winter of Our Discontent...
. She has been described as "probably the most respected leader in the American peace movement". As part of peace team work in several countries, she has traveled to Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
twenty-six times, notably remaining in combat zones during the early days of both US-Iraq wars. She has been arrested more than sixty times at home and abroad, and written of her experiences among targets of U.S. military bombardment and inmates of U.S. prisons. She lives in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
Childhood and Schooling and Poverty Work 1953-1978
Kelly was born in 1953 in Chicago's Garfield RidgeGarfield Ridge, Chicago
Garfield Ridge is one of the 77 official community areas of Chicago, Illinois, and is located on the southwest side of the city. The northern half of Chicago Midway International Airport is located in this community area.-General information:...
neighborhood to parents Frank and Catherine Kelly. She attended St. Paul-Kennedy "shared-time" high school, which split her days between a Catholic institution where she was given the writings of Daniel Berrigan
Daniel Berrigan
Daniel Berrigan, SJ is an American Catholic priest, peace activist, and poet. Daniel and his brother Philip were for a time on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for their involvement in antiwar protests during the Vietnam war....
and Martin Luther King Jr. to read alongside biblical texts, and a desegregating public school where interracial violence was common. She obtained her BA from Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago is a private Jesuit research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1870 under the title St...
working a succession of night jobs to help cover tuition, including a stint on a meat-packing factory line which inspired her to become a lifelong vegetarian. During these years she remembers being deeply moved by Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais is a French film director whose career has extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included Nuit et Brouillard , an influential documentary about the Nazi concentration camps.He began...
' Holocaust documentary Night and Fog
Night and Fog (film)
Night and Fog is a 1955 French documentary short film. Directed by Alain Resnais, it was made ten years after the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. The documentary features the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek while describing the lives of prisoners in the camps. Night and Fog was...
, by a lecture by Vietnam War activist Tom Cornell, and by the activist scripture writings of William Stringfellow
William Stringfellow
Frank William Stringfellow was an American lay theologian during the 1960s and 1970s.-Life and career:...
.
Poverty and Peace Activist 1978-1996
After college in 1978, and while working on her MA in Religious Education (at Chicago Theological SeminaryChicago Theological Seminary
The Chicago Theological Seminary is a seminary of the United Church of Christ. It prepares women and men for leadership in the church and society through Master of Divinity , Master of Arts in Religious Studies , Master of Sacred Theology , Doctor of Ministry , and Doctor of Philosophy programs...
,) Kelly began volunteer work in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood (where she still resides), working at a local soup kitchen with a circle of activists, including future SOAW
School of the Americas Watch
School of the Americas Watch is an advocacy organization founded by Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois and a small group of supporters in 1990 to protest the training of mainly Latin American military officers, by the United States Department of Defense, at the School of the Americas...
founder Roy Bourgeois
Roy Bourgeois
Roy Bourgeois is an American activist. He was ordained a priest in the Maryknoll order of the Roman Catholic Church and is founder of the human rights group SOA Watch or the School of the Americas Watch....
, centered around Chicago's Francis of Assisi House, a homeless shelter in the Catholic Worker
Catholic Worker
The Catholic Worker is a newspaper published seven times a year by the Catholic Worker Movement community in New York City. The newspaper was started by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin to make people aware of church teaching on social justice...
tradition. In 1980 she began work as a teacher of religion at St. Ignatius College Preparatory School.
In 1982 she married fellow activist Karl Meyer and began a lifetime of "war tax resistance" (refusal to pay federal taxes on pacifist grounds), asking her employer to reduce her salary beneath the taxable income. A Jesuit professional development grant enabled her to travel to Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
in 1985 and participate in a fast led by Foreign Minister Miguel D'Escoto
Miguel d'Escoto
Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, born in Los Angeles on February 5, 1933, is a Nicaraguan diplomat, politician and former Catholic priest of the Maryknoll congregation of priests. He was recently nominated as Libyan Representative to the UN, a request which is currently pending...
against U.S.-backed Contra
Contra
Contra is a Latin preposition meaning "against". It is very frequently abbreviated to con, which is a separate preposition. It may refer to:*Contras, Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries opposed to the Sandinistas...
activity. Returning to the U.S., she left St. Ignatius in 1986 in order to focus on activism including two years as a teacher in Uptown's Prologue High School serving marginalized low-income youth.
In August 1988, Kelly participated in the Missouri Peace Planting, trespassing at a nuclear missile silo near Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
to plant corn on it. For this action she served nine months in a Lexington, KY maximum security prison.
In 1990 she joined the Gulf Peace Team, a delegation assembled to protest the imminent Persian Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
and spent the first 14 days of the air war encamped on the Iraq-Saudi border before evacuation to Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
and then Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
in Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
where she helped coordinate relief work.
Kelly helped organize and participated in several nonviolent direct action teams in war zones outside Iraq: Bosnia in December 1992 and August 1993, and Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
in the summer of 1994. She and Meyer divorced in 1994 although they have continued as friends.
Voices in the Wilderness 1996-2003
In 1993, after her return from Bosnia, Kelly became a full-time caregiver to her father, assisted (until his death in 2000) by a network of former Iraq peace team members now living in and around her and her father's shared Uptown apartment. In late 1995 Kelly and several other of these activists resolved to form Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the U.S./U.N sanctions regimeIraq sanctions
The Iraq sanctions were a near-total financial and trade embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council on the nation of Iraq. They began August 6, 1990, four days after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, stayed largely in force until May 2003 , and certain portions including reparations to Kuwait...
against Iraq. In a January 1996 letter, the activists wrote then U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno
Janet Reno
Janet Wood Reno is a former Attorney General of the United States . She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11...
a letter declaring an intention to travel to Iraq with food and medicine in violation of the sanctions. A return letter threatened the participants with separate 12-year prison sentences and fines of one million dollars each.
Between 1996 and 2003 Voices organized over seventy delegations to Iraq bringing food and medicine directly to Iraqi citizens in deliberate violation of both UN-imposed economic sanctions and US law. Participants refused to pay fines for these actions but instead solicited matching donations from supporters for supplies to distribute on repeat visits. Members sought to raise awareness at home with demonstrations, media appearances, and personal accounts of their delegation work. Kelly went on 26 of these delegations.
Voices work was chiefly focused on, but not exclusive to, Iraq: in April 2002 Kelly and her fellow activists, walking on foot and engaging in repeated negotiations with Israeli Defense Force officers, became the first internationals to visit the Jenin
Jenin
Jenin is the largest town in the Northern West Bank, and the third largest city overall. It serves as the administrative center of the Jenin Governorate and is a major agricultural center for the surrounding towns. In 2007, the city had a population of 120,004 not including the adjacent refugee...
refugee camp after learning, while on peace team work in the West Bank, of the recent attack there and what she described as its heavy civilian toll after observing it first-hand.
In March 2003, Kelly returned to Baghdad shortly before the start of the Iraq War, witnessing the Shock and Awe bombardment, and remaining for two months. She narrated her experiences of bombardment for Westerners via antiwar and religious witness websites. When the air war gave way to a ground invasion, she and other activists were present to greet arriving U.S. soldiers with dates and water.
In November of that same year Kelly joined 43 other activists crossing illegally into the Fort Benning
Fort Benning
Fort Benning is a United States Army post located southeast of the city of Columbus in Muscogee and Chattahoochee counties in Georgia and Russell County, Alabama...
U.S. Army base as part of the annual School of the Americas Watch
School of the Americas Watch
School of the Americas Watch is an advocacy organization founded by Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois and a small group of supporters in 1990 to protest the training of mainly Latin American military officers, by the United States Department of Defense, at the School of the Americas...
vigil, and incurred a three-month prison sentence which she carried out in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
' Pekin Prison
Federal Correctional Institution, Pekin
Federal Correctional Institution, Pekin is medium security federal prison for males. It is located on Illinois Route 29 on the south edge of Pekin, Illinois, and there an adjacent satellite prison camp for minimum security female inmates....
in 2004, to which she was seen off by longtime friend Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
. Her experiences in prison resulted in many of the essays collected in her book Other Lands Have Dreams, published in 2005.
Voices in the Wilderness was eventually assigned a $20,000 fine by the U.S. government which it refused to pay. In 2005, the group Voices for Creative Nonviolence was formed to continue challenging U.S. military and economic warfare against Iraq and other countries.
Voices for Creative Nonviolence 2005-present
Voices for Creative Nonviolence has organized numerous fasts and peace walks and sent several delegations to meet with Iraqi refugees in countries neighboring Iraq, especially Jordan. In the summer of 2006, Kelly and other Voices activists traveled to LebanonLebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
during the 2006 Lebanon War between Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Hezbollah, reporting from the capital city of Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
and then, once the cease-fire was declared, from damaged villages in the country's south.
In 2007 VCNV initiated the "Occupation Project," in which activists in 25 states occupied the offices of 39 Senators and congressional Representatives whom they regarded as insufficiently committed to defunding the Iraq war. In the campaign's first ten weeks participants incurred 320 arrests. In the 2008 presidential campaign season
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
, a corresponding campaign targeted candidates' offices, and "Witness Against War," a march from Chicago to the 2008 Republican National Convention
2008 Republican National Convention
The United States 2008 Republican National Convention took place at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, from September 1, through September 4, 2008...
in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
.
In January 2009, Kelly had helped organize "Camp Hope: Countdown to Change," a 19-day winter vigil two blocks from the Chicago home of then-President-Elect Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, but she spent most of the length of the vigil in Egypt and in the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
, witnessing Israel's 22-day Operation Cast Lead assault on the region, living with a Gazan family in a neighborhood skirting the area under heaviest bombardment.
In April 2009, working with the Nevada Desert Experience
Nevada Desert Experience
The Nevada Desert Experience is a name for the movement to stop U.S. nuclear weapons testing that came into use in the middle 1980s. It is also the name of a particular anti-nuclear organization which continues to create public events to question the morality and intelligence of the U.S. nuclear...
, Kelly and fourteen others (including Father Louie Vitale
Louie Vitale
Fr. Louis Vitale, OFM, is a Franciscan priest, activist, and a co-founder of Nevada Desert Experience. He has engaged in civil disobedience for nearly four decades in pursuit of peace and justice, and has been arrested more than 200 times. Vitale says that St...
, Stephen Kelly, SJ
Stephen Kelly (SJ)
Fr. Stephen Kelly, SJ is a priest of the Society of Jesus who worked with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Central America for many years.He is an activist, has participated in a number of Plowshares Movement protests and is a war-tax resister....
, Eve Tetaz
Eve Tetaz
Eve Tetaz, 78, is a retired Washington, D.C. public-school teacher and a peace and justice activist. Tetaz was arrested 11 times in 2007 for nonviolent civil resistance during protests against the war and occupation of Iraq...
, and John Dear
John Dear
John Dear is an American Catholic priest, Christian pacifist, author and lecturer. He has been arrested over 75 times in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience against war, injustice and nuclear weapons.-Studies:...
, entered Creech Air Force Base
Creech Air Force Base
Creech Air Force Base , formerly known as Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, is a United States Air Force base located one mile north of the central business district of Indian Springs, in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is about northwest of Las Vegas and northwest of Nellis Air...
to distribute leaflets protesting drone attacks in Pakistan
Drone attacks in Pakistan
The United States government, led by the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division, has made a series of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004 using drones . These attacks are part of the US' War on Terrorism campaign, seeking to defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants...
piloted remotely from the base. They were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, for which they were sentenced to "time served" in a January 2011 ruling. The judge in the case had taken a 4-month recess to consider their claim to have entered the base in order to prevent a crime.
In May and June 2009, Kelly traveled to Pakistan with a small VCNV delegation, including activist Gene Stoltzfus
Gene Stoltzfus
Mervin Eugene "Gene" Stoltzfus was an American peace activist, international development worker, founding director of Christian Peacemaker Teams , and pioneer in the international peace team movement...
, that met with organizations and families in Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
, Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi , locally known as Pindi, is a city in the Pothohar region of Pakistan near Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, in the province of Punjab. Rawalpindi is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad...
, Shah Mansour
Shah Mansur
Shah Mansoor or Shahmansoor is a town and Union Council of Swabi District in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located at 34°4'0N 72°27'0E with an altitude of 301 metres ....
,, Tarbela, and Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, reporting back with essays.
In January of 2010 Kelly was arrested in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building while taking part in a mock funeral, organized by Witness Against Torture
Witness Against Torture
Witness Against Torture is a group calling for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp where the United States is holding prisoners as "unlawful enemy combatants"...
, remembering Mani al-Utaybi
Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi
Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi was a citizen of Saudi Arabia, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba...
, Yasser al-Zahrani
Yasser Talal Al Zahrani
Yasser Talal al Zahrani was a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 93....
, and Ali Abdullah Ahmed
Ali Abdullah Ahmed
Ali Abdullah Ahmed also known as Salah Ahmed al-Salami was a citizen of Yemen who died in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba....
, three men then recently alleged
Guantanamo Bay homicide accusations
Guantanamo Bay murder accusations occurred after three Guantanamo prisoners, two of whom had already been cleared for release, may have been killed there and the deaths covered up....
to have been tortured to death in the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison complex. All participants of the protest were later acquitted in court.
In May 2010 Kelly made another Pakistan trip alongside activists Simon Harak, SJ
G. Simon Harak
G. Simon Harak, S. J. is an American peace activist and professor of theology and Director of the Center for Peacemaking at Marquette University....
and Josh Brollier. They met with families in the Swat Valley, Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
and Shah Mansur
Shah Mansur
Shah Mansoor or Shahmansoor is a town and Union Council of Swabi District in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located at 34°4'0N 72°27'0E with an altitude of 301 metres ....
, as well as spending time in Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi , locally known as Pindi, is a city in the Pothohar region of Pakistan near Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, in the province of Punjab. Rawalpindi is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad...
, Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
, and Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
. As part of this trip Kelly and Brollier travelled in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
as guests of the Emergency Surgical Center for Victims of War, visiting Panjshir
Panjshir
Panjshir may refer to:* Panjshir Valley* Panjshir Province* Panjshir River...
and First Aid Posts on the outskirts of Panjshir
Panjshir
Panjshir may refer to:* Panjshir Valley* Panjshir Province* Panjshir River...
, Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
, and Bagram
Bagram
Bagram , founded as Alexandria on the Caucasus and known in medieval times as Kapisa, is a small town and seat in Bagram District in Parwan Province of Afghanistan, about 60 kilometers north of the capital Kabul. It is the site of an ancient city located at the junction of the Ghorband and Panjshir...
(site of the Bagram Air Force Base). The stated intention of the trip was "learning more about conditions faced by ordinary people in Afghanistan."
Kelly made two other visits to Afghanistan in 2010, working closely with Bamiyan
Bamiyan
Bamyan , also spelt Bamiyan and Bamian, at an altitude of about 9,200 feet and with a population of about 61,863, is the largest town in the region of Hazarajat in central Afghanistan and the capital of Bamyan Province. It lies approximately 240 kilometres north-west of Kabul, the national capital...
province's Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers. In October and November 2010 she visited the Afghan youths for one week in their home province before spending several weeks in Kabul, where she met with refugees from Helmand province and representatives of several NGOs, and wrote reports on her experience.
In December 2010, Kelly and six other Voices activists met with Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers in Kabul to assist them in a brief activist campaign; the Afghan youth issued a "People's December Review" to counter President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's December Review of the Afghan war, they hosted two international call-in days using the Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
internet phone service, and they conducted interviews, not only with NGO aid workers involved in the Oxfam America-authored "Nowhere to Turn" report, but with U.S. Professor Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
(via a Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
connection), and (separately) with current and former Afghan parliamentarians Ramazan Bashardost
Ramazan Bashardost
Ramazan Bashardost is Afghanistan's former Planning Minister, a current member of the National Assembly of Afghanistan and was an independent candidate in the Afghan presidential election, 2009.- Early years :...
and Malalai Joya
Malalai Joya
Malalai Joya is an activist, writer and a former politician from Afghanistan. She served as a Parliamentarian in the National Assembly of Afghanistan from 2005 until early 2007, after being dismissed for publicly denouncing the presence of what she considered to be warlords and war criminals in...
. Kelly's delegation helped them post internet transcripts of most of these events on their website.
Kelly returned with Voices to Afghanistan in March and early April 2011.
On April 22, 2011 Kelly was among 37 protesters arrested in Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base
Hancock Field Air National Guard Base
Hancock Field Air National Guard Base is a United States Air Force base, co-located with Syracuse Hancock International Airport. It is located north-northeast of Syracuse, New York....
in a protest against drone warfare organized by the Upstate NY Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars.
Kelly spent June 22-July 9 in Athens, Greece as a passenger (along with retired colonel Ann Wright
Ann Wright
Mary Ann Wright is a former United States Army colonel and retired official of the U.S. State Department, known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War. She received the State Department Award for Heroism in 1997, after helping to evacuate several thousand people during the civil war in...
, "The Color Purple
The Color Purple
The Color Purple is an acclaimed 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker. It received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction...
" author Alice Walker
Alice Walker
Alice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...
, and retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern
Ray McGovern
Raymond McGovern is a retired CIA officer turned political activist. McGovern was a Federal employee under seven U.S. presidents over 27 years, presenting the morning intelligence briefings at the White House for many of them.-Early life:...
) on The Audacity of Hope, the U.S. boat in Freedom Flotilla II
Freedom Flotilla II
"Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human" was a flotilla that planned to break the maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel by sailing to Gaza on 5 July 2011. Ultimately, the sailing did not take place....
, a campaign to sail to Gaza from international waters in defiance of the Israeli naval blockade. The Greek government refused to allow the ship to sail, based first on a third-party complaint concerning the ship's seaworthiness, and then in an open policy of opposition to the flotilla. The ship attempted to sail for international waters but was intercepted by armed coast card vessels and impounded. Kelly stayed a week in solidarity with the arrested Greek captain until bail could be arranged, then attempted to reach Gaza by plane in the "Flytilla", but was denied entry to Israel and returned to Greece.
Author and speaker
Kelly has reported on her time on peace teams and in prison in numerous articles for peace and religious journals, and for websites such as CounterPunchCounterpunch
Counterpunch can refer to:* Counterpunch , a punch in boxing* CounterPunch, a bi-weekly political newsletter* Counterpunch , a type of punch used in traditional typography* Punch-Counterpunch, a Transformers character...
and CommonDreams.org
Common Dreams NewsCenter
Common Dreams NewsCenter, often referred to simply as Common Dreams, is a 5013 nonprofit U.S. based progressive news website. Common Dreams publishes news stories, editorials and a newswire of current breaking news. Common Dreams also re-publishes relevant content from numerous other sources such...
. Several of her essays have appeared in books on the Iraq War. In 2005 she authored "Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison" (CounterPunch), collecting and expanding on her letters from Iraq and from prison. She is co-author of "Prisoners on Purpose: a Peacemakers Guide to Jails and Prison." (Progressive Foundation:1989), and co-editor of "War and Peace in the Gulf"(Spokesman:2001). She spends much of her time touring the country on speaking engagements for schools, churches, festivals, and activist groups from whom she accepts but does not require a stipend. Associates have commented in interviews on her heavy work and travel schedule, noting in one instance that "Jail is the only place she can rest." Her latest articles have focused on the experiences of Afghan and Pakistani people facing consequences of U.S. military action.
Education
- B.A. Loyola University at Chicago 1974
- Masters in Religious Education, Chicago Theological Seminary; part of a consortium of schools which included the Jesuit School of Theology at Chicago where Kelly took courses each quarter
Awards
- Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace Award, 1998
- Newberry Library Free Speech Award, 1998
- Detroit City Council Testimonial Resolution commending humanitarian efforts, February 1999
- Robert O. Cooper Fellowship in Peace and Justice Award, Southern Methodist University March 1999
- University of the Incarnate Word Distinguished Speaker Award March 1999
- California State Assembly Certificate of Recognition for Founding of Voices in the Wilderness November 1999
- The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for her extraordinary commitment to befriend the Iraqi people and bring to light their great suffering under the immoral UN/US economic sanctions 1999.
- Consortium on Peace Research and Development Social Courage Award, 1999
- Dan Berrigan Award, DePaul University 1999
- Office of the Americas Peace and Justice Award November 1999
- International Fellowship of Reconciliation Pfeiffer Peace Award, February 2000
- Nobel Peace Prize Nominee with Denis Halliday 2000
- Arab American Anti Discrimination Committee Humanitarian Award June 2000
- Nobel Peace Prize Nominee 2001
- Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan Appreciation Award for Dedication in Lifting Sanctions Against Iraq July 2001
- Newberry Library "1st place" orator – Bughouse Square Debates August 2001
- Life for Relief and Development Humanitarian Services Award September 2001
- Global Exchange International Women's Rights Awardee May 2003
- Archbishop Oscar Romero Award, Mercyhurst College March 2003
- Nobel Peace prize Nominee, with Voices in the Wilderness 2003
- Call to Action Leadership Award, with Voices in the Wilderness 2003
- Thomas Merton Center Award, Pittsburgh, PA 2003
- Adela Dwyer St. Thomas of Villanova Peace Award, Villanova University, Voices in the Wilderness 2003
- William Scarlett Award from The Witness, Voices in the Wilderness 2003
- Association of Chicago Priests, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Common Ground Award with Voices in the Wilderness 2004
- First Annual Award for Justice on behalf of the Religious Orders Partnership given to Kathy Kelly and Voices in the Wilderness
- Cranbrook Peace Foundation Annual Peace Award 2004
- Houston Peace and Justice Center National Peacemaker Award
- Peace Seeker of the Year 2005, Montana Peace Seekers Network
- Doctor of Theology honoris causa from Chicago Theological Seminary awarded May 14, 2005
- Honorary degree awarded from Lewis University, May 15, 2005
- Elliott Black Award for 2006 awarded by the American Ethical Union
- De Paul Center for Church/State Studies 2007 John Courtney Murray Award April 2007
- Bradford-O'Neill Medallion for Social Justice Recipient, Dominican University September 2007
- The Oscar Romero Award presented by Pax Christi Maine October 2007
- The War Resisters LeagueWar Resisters LeagueThe War Resisters League was formed in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I. It is a section of the London-based War Resisters' International.Many of the founders had been jailed during World War I for refusing military service...
(WRL) 2010 Peace Award, presented by WRL, May 2, 2010 - The ChomskyNoam ChomskyAvram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
Award of the Justice Studies Association, 2011
Quotes
From Baghdad on March 19, 2003 - "I suppose I’m more prepared than most of my companions for the grueling roar of warplanes, the thuds that threaten eardrums, the noise of antiaircraft and exploding 'massive ordnance.' Compared to average Iraqis my age, I’ve tasted only a small portion of war, but I’m not a complete stranger ... I feel passionately prepared to insist that war is never an answer. But nothing can prepare me or anyone else for what we could possibly say to the children who will suffer in the days and nights ahead. What can you say to a child who is traumatized, or maimed, or orphaned, or dying? Perhaps only the words we’ve murmured over and over at the bedsides of dying children in Iraqi hospitals. 'I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry.'"."One way to stop the next war is to continue to tell the truth about this one."
"One of the most important "Spiritual Directors" in my life has been the Internal Revenue Service ... finding ways to live without owning property, relying on savings, or growing attached to a job ... Becoming a war tax refuser was one of the simplest decisions I've ever made."
"I want to be in touch with the people caught in a war at home. The war against the poor."
Further reading
- Ferner, Mike (2006). "Courage Under Fire," in Inside the Red Zone, Praeger. pp. 85–91.
- Sinker, Daniel (2001). "Voices in the Wilderness," in We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet:The Collected Interviews. Akashic BooksAkashic BooksAkashic Books is a Brooklyn-based independent publisher. Akashic Books' collection began with Arthur Nersesian's THE FUCK UP in 1996, and has since expanded to include Dennis Cooper's "Little House on the Bowery" series , Chris Abani's Black Goat poetry series, and the internationally successful...
. pp. 267–279
External links
- Worse than an Earthquake: Peace Activist Kathy Kelly on the Destruction in Gaza. Interview. January 27, 2009. Democracy Now.
- Peace Activist Kathy Kelly on the Secret US War in Pakistan. Interview. June 10, 2010. Democracy Now.
- Voices in the Wilderness website.
- Voices for Creative Nonviolence website.
- Kathy Kelly Papers/VITW Records. Marquette University.
- Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers website. Transcripts of December 2010 activities.