Norman Lowry
Norman Lowry, jailed twice in recent years for protest at a military recruiting office in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was released Monday, June 27, after serving nearly 18 months for trespass and probation violation after his second arrest.
A few weeks later, Lowry wrote, “After searching God’s heart & being freed from the spiritual sludge of my last incarceration, I am convinced of God’s leading to simply stay the course & continue to say my simple & small ‘NO’.” He returned to the recruiting office on August 1 with the following statement, and remained there until police were summoned and he was again arrested.
Lowry intended to refuse to post bond, and expects to remain in jail until trial.
Spiritual Protest #3: Saying a simple “No” to the extreme violence, racism/bigotry & poverty-production of the United States of America (“Perfect Revolution” – per MLK Jr. & Gandhi).
“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience … Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves … [and] the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.” – Howard Zinn
To the Lancaster PA U.S. Military Recruiters:
It is my honor, today, to continue my unwavering commitment to continued Spiritual Protest at your facility (Protest #1 – April 16, 2009; Protest #2 – January 15, 2010).
My pertinent questions continue to be:
1. How can any aware & knowledgeable person call it anything but tyranny, that the United States of America maintains (with its mere 4.6% of total world population) its commitment to “Total Dominance” of the entire world (fiscally, militarily & politically), by spending in excess of 60% of the entire world’s military expenditures (not counting the hundreds of billions tacked on, monthly, to the U.S. “Credit Card” – payable by who knows who – who knows when)?
2. How can any aware & knowledgeable person call it anything but tyranny, that the U.S. total policy & resultant sanctions (fiscal, military & political) continue to cause the deaths (murder/genocide) of 200,000+ people every day (that’s 70,000,000+ deaths per year); half of whom die, simply due to having food & water withheld (as sanction)?
3. How can any aware & knowledgeable person call it anything but tyranny, that the so-called “U.S. Justice & Prison Systems” house 25%+ of the world’s total inmate population (not including military & torture populations); in a population base of merely 4.6% of its total population?
4. How can any aware & knowledgeable person call it anything but tyranny, that 80%+ of all U.S. crime is “white collar,” while 80%+ of U.S. prison beds are filled with “blue collar” criminals?
5. How can any aware & knowledgeable person call it anything but tyranny that one of the nation’s top policing policies (the so-called “war on drugs”) is anything but a cover-up for mass racism/bigotry, for making the minorities poor & for the commercialization of the prison system; all in spite of consistently deescalating crime rates?
It seems quite obvious that our loving Creator (who would prefer to be merciful) is allowing the systemic collapse of the United States of America. We are past the point of fiscal insolvency, yet our arrogant leadership seems content to “keep alive” the absolute lie that there is any hope for honest fiscal recovery. Pathetically, there is the larger lie; that somehow a military solution shows some possibility, when the U.S. military remains simply the world’s largest murder-for-hire establishment.
It is time for the United States of America to wake up, choose humility, repent of our extreme violence, racism/bigotry & poverty-production (before our Holy Creator), accept His discipline & resultant healing…or face imminent destruction!
After presenting this notification to you, it is my intention to simply stand by your front entrance…praying. I will not leave your property, except by arrest.
My choice of today’s spiritual protest is Love. I love you enough to confront & will not waiver in my commitment to do so!
Blessings…
Norman Edgar Lowry Jr.