From West by Northwest.org Voices of Peace We Sang, "O May We Never Rest Content till All Are Truly One" By Peg Morton Sep 30, 2003 While the 2003 Oregon legislature debated on how to fill a gigantic budget gap, Gweneth Van Frank Carlson and her co-worker, Jerry Smith, traveled north from Eugene to Salem, Oregon, the state capitol, to express in any and every way they knew how, the quandary state budget cuts had already created for people with disabilities, their families and caregivers a situation that could only worsen if state cuts to human services were to go any deeper. Already twenty-three disabled people had died from lack of medicine or a decision to take their lives. Dressed elegantly in a bright red beret, black blouse and black pants, gifted with high intelligence and a dramatic personality, Gweneth passionately set out to defend the state’s vulnerable citizens in her role as an eloquent spokesperson for Support Oregon Services Alliance (SOSA), a statewide coalition formed to save Oregon’s human services budget. Her co-worker, Jerry Smith, and others, mostly people living with disabilities, joined her. Their songs echoed in hallways and the State Rotunda. They visited offices; interrupted hearings and attended coalition meetings; attempted to camp out in the rotunda (disabled people are losing their homes); arrived at hearings in pajamas (to demonstrate that more and more disabled people are needing personal care), and set up a graphic display. Gweneth got to know legislators and capitol police on a first name basis. Always respectful in her manner, often outrageous in her acts, Gweneth sometimes elicited sighs of annoyance, but more often grins and friendly appreciation. Her intense commitment was ignited by her compassion for others and her personal experience. Blind since the age of 28, Gweneth knows first hand the importance services provide to people with disabilities. She now had to persuade a Republican dominated Oregon legislature to preserve the services for which Oregonians had been proud: independent living environments for disabled and elderly people, mental health services, medication for low income people, and the well known Oregon Health Plan, which has been a model for the country. Thousands of people had already been cut from these and other programs and were now living without medications, without services. Hundreds of caregivers were without jobs. Suicides and deaths were expected to increase. Service providers have pointed out that cutting money from the budget will in reality lead to increased state expense, at a cost to all Oregonians, as those deprived of medications and in-home services turn to more costly nursing homes, emergency rooms, or end up in jails or on the streets of our cities. Instability in local communities can only increase, in the midst of untold suffering of disabled and elderly people and their families. The next step in this unfolding action to save the Oregon human services budget came when I decided to fast on the steps of the capitol building for a week. I am a peace activist, and Gweneth and Jerry had appeared before our groups, asking why we were not participating in this important action, pointing out the relatedness of our issues. I am a retired mental health counselor and also a war tax resister, and was touched by her descriptions of what was happening to disabled people in our state. I began to travel to Salem with them. In July, inspired by the 56-day fast of Michelle Darr of Salem on the capitol steps during the Iraq War, I decided to spend a week on a juice-broth fast right there, to call attention to the human services issue. Two other women, Kathleen Piper and Carol Seaton, fasted consecutively after me, so that the display and our presence was there for a full three weeks and two days. As we sat there, we were supported by an ongoing stream of people, from Eugene and Portland as well as Salem. They came to sing in the rotunda, to stand holding signs, to make personal visits of friendship, to bring supplies, and to camp out and protect us at night The nights were incredibly beautiful, with cool, clear air and skies (a relief from the intensely hot summer days), and glimpses of the new moon. Many disabled people were among our supporters, taking turns sleeping near us and telling us their stories. For example, one of my new friends is living with AIDs. He was removed from the Oregon Health Plan, because, they said, he had not made a payment. It turned out that he had, but the information had not been transferred from the computer to the records. Meanwhile, he was off his medications for two months. Another friend informed me that he too had been removed from the Oregon Health Plan. He lives with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, is subject to panic attacks and fears being around people. He is homeless. In another imaginative action, one day nine of us opened a House session, uninvited, by singing a part of the 1993 version of “How Beautiful Our Spacious Skies,” rewritten by Miriam Therese Winter. Standing in the balcony, we sang, “Disabled (changed from “indigenous”) and immigrant, our daughters and our sons, O may we never rest content till all are truly one. America! America! Oh grant that we may be a sisterhood and brotherhood from sea to shining sea.” The gavel banged down as we began, and soon we were surrounded and led out, still singing. One legislator clapped, and two came out to visit with us. The others were, perhaps, annoyed, but certainly we had raised their awareness of our concern! Media coverage for this fast and vigil was extensive, and an important part of publicizing an issue that had not been receiving adequate attention and grassroots support. A lobbyist said, “You are lobbying outside while we are lobbying inside.” A disabled woman living with mental illness said, “I have no voice in there. You are providing a voice for me.” Countless people have since told me that they held me in their prayers and their thoughts. It became clear to me that, we were doing the right thing at the right time. *** When I returned home, the legislature was still in session, struggling. More participants in the Eugene peace activist community joined the grassroots struggle. There was a carefully planned news conference, followed by a line into a cyber-cafe, where we each could enter letters to our legislators on a computer. There were many letters to the editor. The legislators finally voted the budget and went home. A fairly large number of Republicans joined the Democrats to pass a budget that would restore a significant amount of services. Taxes were raised to accomplish this. We were informed by some legislators that our presence outside the walls of the State Capitol was helpful in keeping them there, struggling for better results. Now the right wing of the Oregon Republican party is working on a tax initiative that would undermine these legislative accomplishments. So the work continues. Meanwhile, each of us has been personally influenced in one way or another by our actions. As I sat there on my fast, in the shade of the north side of the building, my body cleansed itself out. With expanses of quiet between visitors, my soul was cleaned out also, and welcomed the Spirit to flow through me and out in a way that had never happened to me before. I gave more fullness of attention to those who spoke to me than is usually there. I thought, “This is the way I am meant to be.” I have thought of legislators, enclosed in their marble buildings, dealing with financial figures, and corporate executives, inside their elaborate glass walls, walled away from the suffering, the real stories of real people. And now my question is: To what extent am I, and perhaps other good people working for justice and peace, separated from the people and groups for which we try to advocate, separated by time spent in front of computers, on the phone, in meetings, inside the walls of our all too homogeneous faith communities? Yes, organizing work is important, but do we, or how can I, find the space to be “the way I am, and we are, meant to be,” to be more fully human? Editor's Note: News Links about Peg Morton's Fast Visit the Register Guard: Activist starts fast for social services by David Steves Oregon Public Broadcasting: Capitol Fast Focuses on Human Services Funding by Kristian Foden-Vencil Search for Peg Morton's other pages at West By Northwest.org. © Copyright 2000-2004 by West by Northwest.org