Brian Terrell: "I go in solidarity with prisoners every place"

The following remarks are excerpted from a letter Brian Terrell shared with friends, family, and antiwar activists everywhere this week, as he prepares to surrender in connection with the anti-drones action at Whiteman Air Force Base. You can also read his interview with the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan: "Terrell: American Drone Strikes Must Stop": "The challenge of this is, we have the technology to kill at long distances. . . . There is an Arab proverb that says that a true prophet is a person who can love at long distance."

Friends,

A last message as I prepare to 'surrender' to federal authorities in Yankton, SD, for six months on Friday:

Thank you for the outpouring of support, prayers and solidarity in the weeks since my sentencing. My own responses to these many kindnesses have been haphazard and diffuse - if I have not replied to each one individually, it is not for lack of gratitude.

I have tried to use this time well. At home on the farm I have planted garlic, trimmed the goats' hooves. done some winterization, spent time with community and friends here. I have also traveled to Syracuse to support another courageous and creative act of resistance against drone warfare at Hancock Air Field and made a tour of the midwest, speaking in Minneapolis, Madison, WI, Chicago, and Columbia, MO.

There seems to be in these last weeks a new openness to speaking about the issue of the drones. It is as if with the dreadful distraction of the presidential election over, people are wiping the sleep from their eyes and are shocked to see the evil that had been festering while they were not looking.

I have had countless media interviews, both in the 'movement' venues and in the mainstream where I have experienced a more sophisticated level of discourse than usual. One you might want to listen to is with David Swanson.

TeleSUR, Latin American TV out of Caracas included an interview with me in a pre-election news feature. They talked with activists in Occupy, SOAW, etc, on the state of the US. My interview is about 18 minutes in. The footage by Rodger Routh that TeleSUR used is on Youtube.

My timing could not be better and I am happy to have had the opportunity to speak to so many people and to be making a modest contribution to this crucial discussion.

* * *

As I go away I am especially grateful for support of Betsy and our grown children, Elijah and Clara, and to Veronica and Becky at the Farm. I go in solidarity with the many friends working for peace, those around the US, Europe, Pakistan resisting the drones and my colleagues in Voices for Creative Nonviolence, some who are right now in Gaza and in Iraq and with Catholic Workers everywhere. I go in solidarity with prisoners every place, my heart especially hurting for friends I marched with in the streets of Bahrain last February who are now in prison there enduring torture and abuse that I will not be facing in my more privileged cage in Yankton.

I go without regret and with only a little anxiety. I look forward to a time of reflection and contemplation after several busy years. Hold me in the light, as the Quakers say. My love and prayers are with you all.

Brian


The mailing address for Brian Terrell until the end of May will be:

BRIAN TERRELL 06125-026
FPC YANKTON
FEDERAL PRISON CAMP
P.O. BOX 700
YANKTON, SD 57078

Terrell at Wm. Woods, Mizzou: Ground the Drones!

Ground the Drones; End the Wars.
Reflections from Brian Terrell

Thursday, Nov 15

Afternoon event: 4 p.m.
Model Courtroom, Burton Building, basement
William Woods University, Fulton

Evening event: 7 p.m.
Room 113 Arts and Sciences Bldg.
MU Campus – Columbia

On Nov. 30, Brian Terrell will begin a six-month federal prison sentence for nonviolently protesting drones as weapons of war. He was arrested in April at Whiteman Air Force Base in western Missouri for trespassing, trying to deliver an indictment condemning drone flights—controlled from there and several other U.S.-operated bases globally. The weapons, used more than ever under the Obama administration, have killed thousands of people (hundreds of them innocent non-combatants) in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere.

Terrell lives on a Catholic Worker farm near Maloy, Iowa, traveled to Central Asia last year and is co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Learn more about these weapons and why he was willing to risk imprisonment to protest their use.

Sponsored by the William Woods Dept. of Legal Studies, MU Peace Studies Program, Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and the St. Francis Catholic Worker Community. For info, call Jeff at 573-449-4585 or Cynthia at 573-592-4293 or see vcnv.org.


This is on of a series of events where Brian Terrell will talk about the need to end U.S. drone killings. See also:

Madison, WI: Madison: Talk by Brian Terrell on Drone Warfare
Chicago, IL: Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community An Evening With Rosalie Riegle and Brian Terrell