Long-time Quaker peace activist David Hartsough and Veterans for Peace organizer Will Covert visited Fr. Louie Vitale at an El Centro, California prison where he is serving a five month sentence for taking nonviolent action against torture training at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona.  Representing Pace e Bene and marking International Human Rights Day, Hartsough shared with Vitale news of the 427 signers of Pace e Bene’s Circle of Peace, a growing group of people across the US supporting the action that he and Fr. Steve Kelly took and echoing their call for an end to torture.  (The full list has been mailed to Vitale and Kelly; please consider adding your name to this growing circle.)  Below is a report on their visit.

December 10, 2007
International Human Rights Day
 
Dear Friends,
 
I had a good visit with Louie on Saturday morning, December 8th. Here are a few highlights of our visit. I was accompanied by Will Covert of the San Diego Chapter of Veterans for Peace.
 
Louie looked good, rested and in good spirits. He wore an orange jump suit – similar to those worn at Guantanamo Bay.  He had received the books I had asked the publishers to send to him – from Orbis and the Jim Douglass books.

Louie has plenty of time for prayer, reflection and contemplation.  He suggests that the movement needs to go deeper into our understanding of nonviolence and be willing to accept suffering upon ourselves rather than inflict suffering on others.  Louie walks his talk by suffering his five month jail term. In general, he believes our witness would be stronger when we serve jail time  rather than paying fines or “bailing out” when arrested for civil disobedience.
 
I encouraged Louie to write letters to both Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid (both of whom he knows personally) to urge them to take a strong leadership position and to take the moral high ground by ending the war in Iraq, ending the senseless killing, bringing the troops home NOW and to stopping the torture NOW!
 
Louie seems to be having more interaction with other inmates, most of whom are Latinos who have been charged with either bringing people or drugs across the border.

Louie Loves Letters!

Louie deeply appreciates the love and greetings from all on the outside including Quakers, Martin de Porres Catholic Worker House, the participants in the Die Ins, The Pace e Bene Circle of Peace, etc.  He is receiving about 30 letters a day.

The guards remove anything with glue on it (like address labels) so write or type your address on the letter. Any article or Zerox copies you send may be removed (I sent five pages from Gandhi’s “All Men Are Brothers” which were removed.) Pretty subversive stuff!  Louie’s address is:
 
R.A.D.F.

Louis Vitale
ID#292487
Booking #879645
P.O. Box 679
El Centro, CA 92244
 
Send Books!

The library in the jail is ridiculous. The other inmates also think it is a joke. So asking publishers to send good books to Louie would be welcome. 

Louie can make collect calls or make some calls by phone cards he buys, but calls from the jail are very expensive and he cannot know ahead of time when he can make calls.

Visiting Louie

For those who considering visiting Louie, the visiting hours are: Wednesday at either 10am or 9pm or on Saturday at either 11am or 7pm (for a maximum visit of half an hour).

You must be registered to visit an inmate at least one hour before visiting hours begin and he is only allowed to have one visit per day. Do not test the system by arriving later than one hour before visiting hours as you will not be admitted. Will and I arrived seven minutes late due to a snow storm in the mountains east of San Diego and were refused admittance. Absolutely refused! It was only through pure luck (or Divine Providence) that we were able to get in to visit Louie at all. Check with Brother David Buer at 314-803-6735 or buer [at] intermind [dot] net  to schedule your visit.
 
If you have good contacts with a newspaper or journal, who might like to do a story, they could receive a collect phone call from him.  They should write Louie and give him their phone number and possible times he could call.

Louie sends love and greetings to all and encourages all of us to continue all nonviolent means to end the war in Iraq and to stop torture.
 
It was a great spiritual boost to spend a half hour with Louie. Thanks for your continued love and support.
 
Peace,

David Hartsough
davidhartsough [at] igc [dot] org
San Francisco, CA