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Conference clergy arrested for blocking air base access
March, 2003
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Conference clergy Andrea Ayvazian and Peter Kakos (front row, second and fourth from left) at their arraignment at Chicopee District Court after being arrested for blocking traffic trying to enter the Westover Air Reserve Base. January 16, 2003, The Union-News, All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. |
By Tiffany Vail
For Andrea Ayvazian and Peter Kakos, two Massachusetts Conference clergy
members, their recent act of civil disobedience outside the Westover
Air Reserve Base was a last resort in their campaign against a military
strike on Iraq.
The two were part of a group of nine who were arrested after they blocked the front gates of the Chicopee base, standing in the access road to prevent those reporting for duty from reaching the base.
“We have written and spoken to legislators and congresspeople, we have pleaded our case through the media, and nothing seems to change,” said Kakos, pastor of Edwards Church in Northampton. “So we did this, both to raise the consciousness of the people in our area and to inspire others who feel so strongly about this.”
Kakos said the group targeted Westover because it is in their neighborhood,
and because troops and materials are being flown out of the base
to the Middle East.
“We committed a minor act of non-violence to protest a major act
of violence,” he said. “I believe that we are the only group that
has
committed an
act of civil disobedience in New England” over Bush’s planned strike
on Iraq.
Ayvazian, Dean of Religious Life at Mount Holyoke College, also felt that the blockade was a last resort.
“For me, any action of civil disobedience must come after every legal avenue has been exhausted,” she said. “I felt I was called to be at that gate after all the letters and teach-ins and marches and phone calls did not work. I felt that I had done everything else I could do.”
The group of 19 demonstrators met at a Dunkin Donuts near the base early on the cold morning of January 15th, Martin Luther King’s actual birthday.
The women dressed like Iraqi women, and the protestors held signs pleading that we not bomb our “brothers and sisters” in Iraq.
The nine willing to risk arrest then walked out into the base access road, blocking traffic, which backed up about a quarter-mile.
Military officials opened another gate and began diverting traffic there, so three of the protestors drove to that gate and blocked traffic there as well.
First, officials from the base came out and asked the protestors to move. When they said they would not, the officers said they would call the police.
About 15 minutes into the protest, the police arrived and again asked the group to move. When they refused, they were handcuffed and arrested. They were arraigned in Chicopee District Court a few hours later, where eight of the nine arrested have requested a trial.
“We could have been dismissed with unsupervised probation, but eight of us have asked for a trial,” Kakos said. We are pleading that we are innocent because of the necessity defense – taking an action which is seemingly unlawful to prevent greater harm.”
Kakos said the group felt a trial would raise more awareness.
Ayvazian said she believes the arrests have gotten attention.
“People are talking about it at work, in the churches. Even if people don’t agree with us, it has inspired more conversation and dialogue,” she said.
Kakos said even though all of his parishioners do not agree with his anti-war activism, they have been understanding.
“The folks in church really to a person felt that they knew I was acting from my conscience, and not strictly politically, and they respected that,” he said. “That Sunday I planned, after worship, many opportunities for dialogue. My aim is not to convert my congregation to the cause. I’m not trying to browbeat them – I’m out there to change the government.”
Ayvazian said Mount Holyoke knew when they hired her that she was a political activist who has been arrested for acts of civil disobedience several times in the past. She said she cannot separate her politics from her faith.
“I feel called as a person of faith to live and manifest my values and Christian beliefs,” she said. “I think we had very powerful modeling in that man we call Jesus. I try in small and humble ways to follow his model.”
Ayvazian and Kakos were also recently
two of 12 clergy who signed a half-page
ad
in the Weekend Gazette in
Northampton, calling
on Bush
not to send
troops to Iraq.
Other United Church of Christ signers were
Peter Ives and Kelly Gallagher of First
Churches, Northampton,
Lois Happe
of Florence
and Clare
Overlander of
Northampton.