Widespread Resistance to War Threats: INDIAN ISLAND

(excerpted from a letter by Gary Novak, Port Townsend, Washington, published in the March 1998 Catholic Agitator, the Los Angeles Catholic Worker's newspaper)

Gary Novak found his own way to protest the war plans for Iraq.  He started handing out dollar bills stenciled with the words, "Say No To War," and handing them out downtown.  That was one leaflet they didn't throw down on the street.

On Saturday, January 31, Novak took his stencil and felt pen and started decorating the signs leading up to the gate of nearby Indian Island Navy Base.  The guards called police, as they were not amused.

Novak was jailed until the following Monday, and then finally released without charges after first refusing to participate in his own arraignment because of the lack of necessary law books for prisoners.  Novak writes: "I went to the Navy base on Wednesday and the signs still say, 'Say No ToWar' in very fine print.  The fine print can be important.  I plan no more actions unless they begin bombing.  Then I plan to work on my handball for awhile with the county catering my meals.  I don't think people with dependents should go to jail, and I think long sentences are a waste of time, but I would rather be in the inside with the powerless than on the outside if this tragedy takes place..."

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last updated July 10 1998