J une 12, 1996 • T he P ori land O bserver
P age BS
Fasting Pastors For Peace Win Release of Computers
hv
A sm a M
i hammad
Republican Presidential candidate
Bob Dole easily made headlines in
Miami recently by promising to:
"bring Fidel Castro down and end his
reign of terror.” Less than a week
later, a Black Baptist preacher and
two companions ended a vigil in near
obscurity , literally in the shadow o f
the U S. Capitol, claiming victory in
their effort to help Mr. Castro’s is­
land nation.
At midnight. May 25, the end o f
Day 94 o f their "Fast for Life,” the
Rev. Lucius Walker. Jr., leader o f
Pastors for Peace, Lisa Valanti and
Jim Clifford savored a rice broth at a
special service o f thanksgiving sur­
rounded by religious leaders, con­
gressional staff aides, and members
o f their support team
At that moment 374 computers
destined for Cuban hospitals and
health clinics were being released to
the custody o f the General Board o f
Church and Society o f the United
Methodist Church at a private stor­
age facility maintained by the U S.
Customs Agency in San Diego.
‘‘We are thankful to God and to the
hundreds o f thousands o f supporters
who never gave up the struggle to
free the computers,” the Rev. Walker
said as he ended his fast. The hunger
strike had begun Feb 21, to protest
the seizure o f 397 outmoded and
obsolete by U.S. standards "286”
and “XT” computers by Customs
officials in late January.
‘‘Together we have made an effort
to appeal to the soul and integrity o f
our nation," he said. "Our efforts
have not been in vain, but much work
remains. The new broad coalition
which has grown around the Fast will
keep working to send these comput­
ers on to Cuba. And as the coalition
grows, we will keep working togeth­
er for a more humane policy toward
Cuba.
‘‘The release o f these computers
was made possible by the active sup­
port o f hundreds o f thousands o f
people o f conscience in all parts o f
the U.S.,” the Rev. Walker said, ex­
pressing “special gratitude for the
committed work o f Congressman
Charles A. Rangel (D-NY), whose
tireless advocacy helped seal this
victory.”
Just one week earlier, 23 other
computers were released. All o f the
first machines released are o f Cana­
dian origin and are stored in Mexico
in preparation for shipment to Cuba
Treasury I department and Customs
officials had insisted that PFP or
some other group apply for and re­
ceive an export license, even if the
Rev Walker and his group refused to
do so. The agreement for their re­
lease calls for a coalition o f national
church partners to store the comput­
ers in the U.S pending completion o f
arrangements to transfer them to Cuba
without requesting a license. The
coalition includes six national main­
line denominations and the National
Council o f Churches.
"W e are optimistic that this med­
ical aid will soon be exported for
humanitarian use in Cuba," Dr. I horn
W hite W olf I assett. General Secre­
tary o f the UMC (ieneral Board o f
Church and Society, said.
In a May 17 letter to Rep. Rangel,
who mediated the dialogue between
PFP and the government, treasury
Secretary Robert Rubin expressed
concern for the welfare o f those par­
ticipating in the fast and said that
within the existing laws, there are
“Procedural avenues” available for
the Rev. W alkertoachieve his goals,
and end the fast.
"The U.S. government has pur­
sued a policy o f death pursuant to
Cuba for more than half o f my life,”
the Rev. Walker said, at a Capitol
Hill press conference May 2, ex­
plaining w hy he was so adamant. He
was flanked by Reps. Charles Rangel
(D-NY), Sam Farr(D -CA ), Esteban
l orres (D-CA), William Coyne (D-
PA), and by staff members from the
offices o f Reps. Ron Delluins (D-
CA) and Bobby Rush (D-IL), some
of more than 70 members o f Con­
gress who signed letters to support he
"Fast for Life."
“ People have to make a decision
whether or not they will be complicit
with the pol icy o f death toward Cuba.
I refuse to be complicit. I would
rather give my life engaging in this
simplest act o f kindness, rather than
lose my soul.” he said.
The donated computers will be
M ary [hurst fa c u ity
Member ‘W ins A w a rd
Martha Gies, an adjunct faculty
member at Marylhurst College,
came home recently with an award
for writing. She was awarded first
place for Feature Article, Special
Interest Magazine, in the annual
com petition of the A ssociated
Church Press (ACP) at its annual
meeting in Phoenix in April.
Her article. “Heart of W isdom,"
was entered in the ACP com peti­
tion by the editors of the Chicago-
based magazine. Second Opinion,
which originally published the e s­
say a year ago.
In citing "Heart of W isdom ,”
which chronicles the spiritual faith
which sustained G ies's younger
sister after she received a terminal
diagnosis o f cancer, the ACP
judges wrote:
"A g rip p in g e v o c a tio n o f
ev en ts that involve pain and
loss, gained w isdom and faith.
T he w ritin g is e x c e lle n t, c a ­
pab le o f en ticin g the read er into
its in fo rm a tio n a l and a tm o ­
s p h e r ic w eb. A m id the sad
e v e n ts, on c a p tu re s a sense o f
triu m ph. B ecause the w rite r has
u n d e rsto o d , the read er c a n ."
ACP is an organization of some
200 religiously affiliated publish­
ers from Canada and the United
States.
G ies has taught short story
w ritin g at M a ry lh u rst sin c e
1990 and is sch ed u led to teach
a new course in w riting the p e r­
sonal essay this sum m er.
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used to help build an on-line medical
information network for the island
nation-, which already boasts a health
care system that is considered a "mod­
el” by health professionals The ex­
emplary medical sy stem may be one
reason why U.S. officials have been
so inflexible, according to one health
source.
"It is often said that Cuba is no
longer a threat to the U.S.," Diane
Kuntz, Staff Associate for Interna­
tional I lealth for the 50.000-member
American Public I lealth Association
(APHA), said in a statement. Cuba,
she said, "is a threat. The threat is the
example Cuba offers o f a country
that's one ofthe reasons he refuses to
comply with the U.S. embargo by
apply ing for an export license for
items intended for humanitarian aid.
On five previous occasions the
Rev. Walker has waged the same
struggle with federal officials. The
last confrontation was resolved in
1993 when the government relented
after PFP staged a 23-day hunger
strike on board a little y ellow school
bus Customs officials had seized the
bus at a Texas-M exico border cross­
ing as the group attempted to ship it
to a church in Cuba.
"It's like Dr. (Martin Luther) King,
( J r ) and the civil rights movement
interview, because the majority o f
theCuban population is actually Afro-
Cuban. The majority ofthe political­
ly influential anti-Castro Cuban ex­
ile community in Florida, he insists,
is made upofw hiteC ubans who fled
when Mr. Castro took power. "If
Cuba were white there would not be
a blockade. Ifthere wasone, it would
have been over years ago
"W hat crime has Cuba commit­
ted'1 Is it that the first act ofthe Cuban
government under C astro's leader­
ship was to officially outlaw racism?
Was its sin that it put the Mafia out
and w ouldn't let them rape an exploit
the poor? Or was its sin that it decid­
L-R Rev. Lucius Walker, NY. Jim Clifford, Louisville, Lisa Valanti, Pittsburgh, Bill Hill, Tucson, Emile
Milne, (Aide to Cong. Charles Rangle, Jim Mellor, N. Y.
w ith t he poI i t icaI w i 11 to pro v ide good
health care to all its citizens.
"The U.S. is fighting this threat,
using food, medicine and medical
supplies as weapons. The computers
that were confiscated are vital com­
ponents o f Cuba's health care sys­
tem. Many o f the computers were
donated by members o f the Ameri­
can Public Health Association."
Racism, plain and simple, is at the
root o f U.S. hatred o f Cuba, the Rev.
Walker, Pastor o f Salvation Baptist
Church in Brooklyn, NY, insists, and
not being willing to comply with Jim
Crow law s." the Rev. Walker said of
his adamant stand. "I do not apply
(for export licenses) because I do not
want to break the law., the higher
law, the moral o fth e universe.”
The U.S. he said, is signatory to
the Geneva accords—the Universal
Declaration o f Human Rights-which
says that food? medicine, medical
supplies, and other humanitarian aid
are not to be used as weapons.
"This war against Cuba is a race
war." the Rev. W alker said in an
Ir>I
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ed to give universal free education to
all Cubans, including Blacks? Was
the sin that it decided to give univer­
sal free healih care” he asked rhetor­
ically.
"What did Cuba do wrong to de­
serve this? If these acts are sins then
the U.S. should commit the same
sins." The U.S. travel ban, he said, is
designed to keep people in this coun­
try, especially Blacks, from seeing
these truths for themselves.
The APHA agrees. "The U.S. na­
tional grudge against Cuba—exem­
plified by the (1993 and 1996) tight­
ening o fth e embargo—is out o f step
with the changes occurring in the
world. Ehe em bargo's interference
in the Cuban people’s access to food
and medicine is tantamount to the
use o f food and medicine as a weap­
on in the U.S. arsenal against Cuba,"
APHA concludes in its report “The
Politics o f Suffering" the Impact of
the U.S. Embargo on the Health of
the Cuban People.”
By contrast, the Rev. Walker com­
pares China's status as a Most Fa­
vored nation trading partner, despite
the tens o f thousands o f casualties
China inflicted on U .S. troops during
the Korean War. and the fast track
toward diplomatic and trade normal­
ization for Vietnam, despite 58,000
body bags containing U.S. military
personnel sent back from that con­
flict.
There have been no U.S. casual­
ties in the U.S.-Cuban conflict, he
said. “ When Black folks realize that
this blockade is racist, and that it
affects our Uncles' and Aunts’in
Cuba, and then start writing (Presi­
dent Bill) Clinton... when our Black
organizations-the NAACPand Min­
ister Farrakhan—stand up for Cuba,
that will make the difference.”
The Fast for Life, the Rev. Walker
said, gained many allies in the Chris­
tian community, drawing support
from many mainstream denomina­
tions. Representatives o f the Pro­
gressive National Baptist Conven­
tion, the General Board o f Church
and Society o fthe United Methodist
Church, the Alliance o f Baptists, the
American Baptist Churches/USA, the
Episcopal Church, the General Board
o f Global Ministries o f the United
Methodist Church, and the National
Council o f Churches o f Christ in the
U.S. A. have all signed letters of sup­
port.
.
"There should be more Jews out
here. There should be more nuns out
here. There should be more Muslims
out here,” Rep. Rangel said at the
Capitol Hill press conference. “ We
need more religious people out here
to do the right thing for Cuba. Our
government shou Id not be in the busi­
ness o f denying humanitarian sup­
port to sick people.”
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