Support for Rod Coronado: The Sound of Silence

From:    "Support for Rod Coronado" <info@supportrod.org>
Date:    Sun, September 21, 2008

(Last night, only the Bobby Kennedy speech was sent..?  Here is what was
intended..."

Let me warn you, this is going to be a long one…..
Many, many, many thoughts have been whirling through my head. They come
because of what happens in my life, like all of us trying to make sense of
our realities. We experience and we synthesize all that is within and
without, deciding what should become and what should dissipate. It is part
of being conscious, the intention to manifest, to transform, to possibly
transcend our gut reactions in favor of what may be better. So we play
with all that is in our head, until we choose it to come out right.
Lately, I find that I am reluctant to write much on this website. There is
no lack of information that I feel is important, there are insights and
experiences that are also valid to share with people who are aware of what
is happening to Rod and so many other folks. There is also a chill that is
settling into my ability to communicate.
This feeling that remains in my heart is heavy. It scares me in a way that
is curtailing what I say, to whom I say things, and it blocks
transparency. Without saying, there is a time and a place for everything,
and there are some things you should certainly keep to yourself. Even now,
I feel myself censoring my vocabulary, afraid to use words like security
culture, because I dare not link my husband to a concept. Because the
concept is linked to a group of people, a group of people referred to by
some as “activists”. Me, I refer to them as people. Like I refer to most.
If any general title were given to this group of people, I would say
organizers. And that would include folks from all over the spectrum that
organize, whether it be organize cooperatives, organize community dinners,
organize a household, organize a garden, or organize a bike ride. Do I
consider myself an organizer? Well, proud to say: yes, I do.
I organize 24 little people every day at a children’ center, and actively
help organize their interpretation of justice, of responsibility, of
equality, and where their sleeping mats are placed each day. It’s very
radical work.

I went to visit Rod last weekend. I met my step-son and his mom in
Oklahoma City last Thursday, and we spent three days visiting with Rod,
and having a very powerful, exciting, and loving weekend. There was not a
negative aspect to the trip, besides the fact that Rod is in prison and
that is a horrible and depressing experience. We must all step over that
stone (or wall) each time we are together, we must let that pain subside
and move into the place where we can laugh and feel the warmth of our
family. And I see us do it with grace, time and time again. I see two
children who are not damaged by this experience because they are
surrounded with such love and intention; children who will remember how to
overcome struggle and fear with the power of love.
I hear a man speak to his wife, and his children, and the mother of his
son, with love and hope. After years of government persecution, and years
of walking within iron walls, he is able to dissolve the persona he must
wear in the prison, where violence is king, and come to us with
vulnerability and gentleness. He remains a warrior. Can I use that word?
I do not use that word to inflame his name. I use it to say he is a
warrior of the light. He believes there is something more powerful than
what they take from us. They take our days, our sacred time, but they
cannot take our knowledge of the truth. What we know in our hearts, which
is that believing in and working toward a better world is not a threat, it
is our responsibility.

When Rod is released from prison, he has requested to be released some
where different than Arizona. He has requested to be allowed to move where
his son lives, so that we may go and try to lead an existence that is
semi-normal. We whole-heartedly want to be together so that Maya is with
her brother, and we are with both of our kids, and that his son gets to
have his daddy. Our plans are just that, honest and true.

In order for his release to another location than Tucson to be allowed,
there is much leg-work to be done. This includes a probation officer
visiting and verifying that there is a reason for allowing a release to
this location, and a concrete address and person that will vouch for him.
This visit has happened, and during it, some startling insinuations were
made regarding Rod’s true intentions, and mine, as well. It appears that
some three-lettered agencies don’t want this to happen. It appears that my
very intentions are in question, as well. It was also suggested that if
Rod is really, “done with activism” then why am I soliciting activists for
money? Am I not aware of where the money is coming from? Well, it
certainly is not coming from my husband whom is a political prisoner, and
it is also not coming from those that have taken him from his family.

It comes from people, like all of you, whoever you are, and yes, I do know
who some of you are, and I love you. It comes from people like Robert
Meeropol, who founded the Rosenberg Fund for Children as an adult, because
at the age of six his parents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were murdered
for alleged espionage. In 1990 Meeropol began work on his lifelong dream,
The Rosenberg Fund for Children. The Fund supports children of injured,
harassed, or imprisoned activists, as well as targeted youth-activists.
They provide things like counseling, music lessons, tuition, and summer
camp for young people who have felt the horror of political imprisonment
and persecution in their families. The Rosenberg Fund has helped kids
including Judy Bari’s daughter and Mumia Abu Jamal’s son. It is the only
organization of its kind dedicated to protecting the voices and actions of
families in the political realm.
They funded our entire trip to see Rod this past weekend. I am grateful
and humbled to receive this gift from someone who has endured such tragedy
and loss, but remained in light, and continued to serve where there is
such a need.

Yet, there is a subtle warning in the words spoken by the probation
officer. Am I not allowed to organize if I want to raise a family that
includes my step-son? Must I accept the terms of fear and silence? I
cannot. That is against my spirit and my design. I can only persevere in
truth, with compassion. My life, which is so damn privildged, recognizes
that no one is silent, though many are not heard. My voice must work to
change that. I cannot be silenced because of fear. My words will not
promote violence, or suffering, but may challenge the paradigm which
empire enforces.

This weekend I went to an event for another person who is a political
prisoner. Watching the presentation on Eric McDavid sent chills throughout
my entirety. It was haunting. It was heartbreaking to hear another person
who shares the deep loss that I feel. It was scary to see what lies
beneath the persecution of him, which is his philosophy. To see the video
tape from FBI cameras in the car he rode in, to watch video from the cabin
where he was with “friends”. Terrifying how silly conversations about
movies were manufactured into “revolutionary” talks. He wasn’t given bail
in part because he didn’t have a cell phone! It reminded me of the
constant surveillence that surrounds our lives. How real that is in my
life.

Robert Meeropol wrote a statement following the release of the transcript
of 43 of 46 witnesses who appeared in front of the Grand Jury
investigating his parents. The release of the documents coincided with an
interview in the New York Times with Mort Sobell, his parents
co-defendant. In last weeks interview, he admitted that he, along with
Julius Rosenberg passed along non-atomic military intelligence to the
Soviets during WWII, in an effort to defeat the Nazi’s. From all that was
released, it is clear that Ethel Rosenberg was not involved in this
passing of information, and that although there was passing of military
information, Julius did not “steal” or transmit the “secret of the Atomic
Bomb”, for which he was executed. Robert says that the biggest lesson be
taken by his parents case is the the U.S. government abused it’s power in
truly dangerous ways that are still very relevant today. He says they:
*created and fueled anti-communist hysteria
*capitalized on that political climate by targeting his parents, then
making them the focus point of the public’s Cold War-era fear and anger
*Facilitated Judicial Misconduct
*Hounded witnesses for their political beliefs and associations rather
than about alleged illegal activity
*Used the ultimate weapon- the threat of death- to try to extort cooperation
*Used Ethel as leverage to try to get Julius to cooperate
*Created the myth that there was a “secret” of the Atomic Bomb
*Executed Julius when he refused to cooperate
*Executed Ethel when she refused to cooperate, despite knowing that she
was innocent.

All of these thoughts are in my head, my heart. I want to protect my
family. I want to live in the North Woods, and spend my step-sons young
years together. I am diligent about my commitment to walking peaceful
footsteps. Sometimes it is violent to remain silent.

Tonight, probably because of all the election hype, I rented Bobby. It is
a movie about the day Robert Kennedy was shot, a commentary on the state
of the U.S. in 1968. The Kennedy’s are highly questionable in my mind, but
Bobby’s rhetoric is pretty right on (although I find myself wanting to
change all of the references to “man”, to “people”). So I close tonight
with some poignant words from someone who may have really stood for
something. I wish Obama spoke like that.

The Menace of Violence

“What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No
martyr’s cause has ever been stilled by an assassin’s bullet.

Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our
common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept
newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify
killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make
it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and
ammunition they desire.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we
excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered
dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to
practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by
their own conduct invited them.

Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is
clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a
cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly
destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of
institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the
violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men
because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a
child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the
winter.

This is the breaking of a man’s spirit by denying him the chance to stand
as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.

I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a
single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done.
When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he
is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he
pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your
freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others
not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but
with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we
share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but
not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common
desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet
disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.

Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our
fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to
enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own
hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible
truths of our existence.

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to
find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We
must admit in ourselves that our own children’s future cannot be built on
the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can
neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great
to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land.”


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