As Sojourners has extensively reported, torture and other denials of basic human rights are spreading like a global epidemic. We would like to invite you to join us in putting feet to our concerns during Easter week, April 1-10. We will gather to act nonviolently in Washington, D.C., to urge an end to the American government’s support for torture-practicing dictatorships.
The campaign will begin with training, prayer, and planning. Expected actions later in the week include peaceful demonstrations outside the White House, the Congress, and other locations. We will use torture tableaux, leafletting, appeals to policy-makers, conversations with tourists and government officials, self-education, and other actions in support of meaningful legislation. We hope all events will be infused with a spirit of worship.
We feel a particular responsibility to speak and act against the regular practice of torture and political repression in countries that receive large-scale American military and economic aid. Such aid serves to strengthen these regimes and makes us side with oppression rather than with liberty and justice.
We hope to make extensive use of Easter week imagery in conveying our message. Our hope is to have an effect on the flurry of legislative activity that traditionally occurs just before Easter and on the thousands of tourists who visit Washington at cherry blossom time. Smaller weekly actions are planned for about two months after the main event, to provide a continuing Christian presence, praying and acting for human rights.
The goals of the campaign are:
• To make more people aware of U.S. support for torture and repression.
• To develop personal relationships with individual officials and to encourage their concern and action.
• To hold the Carter administration to its human rights statements.
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