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Campus events will examine issues of war
February 27, 2008
How often do you think about the war in Iraq? What would you do if you were forced to go to war?
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The "Peace and War in the Heartland" events will take place from Thursday, Feb. 28 to Saturday, March 1. They will begin with a Feb. 28 chapel talk by Frank Kroncke, who was one of the "Minnesota 8" anti-war radicals who raided Selective Service draft boards and destroyed draft files during the Vietnam War. The service will begin at 11 a.m. in Boe Chapel.
A military draft simulation will also take place Feb. 28 from 4-7 p.m. in the Crossroads of Buntrock Commons. Participants will receive a draft number and will follow that number through several steps simulating the draft process until they ultimately learn the fate that accompanied the number they drew. The whole process will take participants less than 10 minutes. The Heart of the Beast Theatre, which is based in Minneapolis, will run the draft simulation.
The next event will be a group excursion Feb. 29 to see the play Peace Crimes at the Minnesota History Theatre. St. Olaf will provide transportation for students, who may sign up outside Stav Hall or by e-mailing wellsm@stolaf.edu. Participants will meet in the Crossroads of Buntrock Commons, and vans will depart at 6:30 p.m.
Those events will be followed by a series of panel discussions March 1. All of the discussions will take place in the Trollhaugen Room in Buntrock Commons. They are free and open to the public, although meals are not provided. The discussions include:
- 10:30 a.m.-noon: "Faith and War," a discussion with Kroncke and the Rev. Tom Duke, Ph.D., of the St. Paul Area Council of Churches and the St. Paul Interfaith Network
- 1-2:30 p.m.: "Social Justice and the War," a discussion with Mel Duncan, former director of the Nonviolent Peace Force, and Mary Beaudoin, former director of Women Against Military Madness
- 2:45-4:15 p.m.: "Veterans and the War," a discussion with Chante Wolf of Veterans for Peace and representatives from Iraqi Veterans Against the War
- 5 p.m.: Dinner and a concluding discussion
The series of events was brought to campus through the efforts of Kroncke. He is the executive director of "Peace and War in the Heartland," a project focused on engaging draft-age young people in campus discussions about war and peacemaking issues. The project is being co-sponsored at St. Olaf by the Progressive Christian Fellowship, the Political Awareness Committee and Student Congregation.
Magdalena Wells '08, one of several students helping to organize the events at St. Olaf, said the goal is to provide a forum for students, faculty, staff and community members to think about the ethics of war, the current war in Iraq and the "very real work of peacemaking."
"From the comfort of the Hill, it can be easy for many students -- myself included -- to distance themselves from the war in Iraq and the daily reality of conflicts around the globe. As people of conscience who are being prepared to lead 'lives of worth and service,' I think it is imperative that we wrestle with these issues and never let them become 'someone else's problem,'" Wells says.
She points out that for 20-year-olds, the U.S. has been in Iraq for more than a quarter of their life. Student Joel Bergeland '08 points out that most people don't think of the war in those terms. The upcoming events are, he notes, "designed to help move the war closer to the audience."
