Spirit in Action
Wix Covey - Northwoods Peace Fellowship and Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice
Wix Covey is one of the founders of the Northwoods Peace Fellowship, centered in Wausau, Wisconsin, and he also serves on the executive committee of the Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice
- Broadcast on:
- 14 Jan 2014
- Audio Format:
- other
I have no hands but yours to tend my sheep No handkerchief but yours to dry the eyes of those who weep I have no arms but yours with which to hold The ones grown weary from the struggle and weak from growing old I have no hands but yours with which to see To let my children know that I am up and love is everything I have no way to feed the hungry souls No clothes to give and give, the ragged and the morn So be my heart, my hand, my tongue, through you I'll let be done The enders have I none to help, I'm down The tangle knocks in twisted chains The strangle fearful minds Welcome to Spirit in Action, my name is Mark Helpsmeat Each week I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion Creative action and progressive efforts, I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service Above all, I'll seek out light, love and helping hands, being shared between our many neighbors on this planet Hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life I have no way to open people's eyes Except that you will show them how to trust the inner mind My guest today on Spirit in Action is Wix Covey Wix is one of the founders of the Northwoods Peace Fellowship, centered in Wasa, Wisconsin And he also serves on the executive committee of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice The attack on the Twin Towers was a wake-up call for Wix He had felt abused by our government as a soldier during the Vietnam War Something that took him 20 years to come to grips with He eventually found a calling and personal peace work as an elementary school art teacher Today, he'll be sharing the life experiences that led him to become a public peace activist And how he integrates non-violence and peace work into his life Wix, welcome to Eau Claire, I'm glad that you have a spring break over there in Wasa So that you could join me here for Spirit in Action Thank you Mark, it's good to be here and it's a pleasure to kind of be part of your ideas that you're putting out on the airwaves I think that Wix, over the last five years, you've discovered a new passion for activism Something that maybe doesn't have much roots in your life You're one of the co-founders of the Northwoods Peace Fellowship, which is centered, I think, in Wasa And you're now active also with the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice What led you to get involved in all of this stuff? I was working at my school, I teach elementary art in Wasa, when the Twin Towers were hit by the airplanes in 9/11 I was walking past the faculty room and a friend of mine came and said, "Come and look at this" And as I walked in, he and I watched the second plane run into the second tower As the words were being spoken by the media and the people over there and the screaming and yelling that was going on He had focused their camera at the ground and looked at the people, we were just in kind of shock So that's basically what started me thinking that something really bizarre was going on that I had no clue about That's when I think my head came out of the sand, so to speak, and I began to start reading a lot And start asking questions and looking at the newspapers, you know, before all that happened, the Twin Towers fell down And I thought to myself, I wonder what's behind this, I wonder what our country's role was, I wonder who's doing it And it really got me concerned, earlier in my life I was drafted in Vietnam, I spent two years in the military from 1967 to 1969 I was not sent over to Vietnam, which I am thankful for, but I did go through basic training And it was a large impact on myself for the next 20 years, and it was especially important to realize that None of the healing happened until I started seeing some of the documentaries that came out in Vietnam So it was 20 years worth of time when I was basically wondering what good was this, what were we doing there And I guess I had myself just going on with my life and trying to take care of my family and work and teach art and do things like that And trying to be productive along that line, and then when the Twin Towers got hit, something kind of triggered inside me That was based on that a long time ago, so I think it stirred up some things that I needed to resolve and deal with So this piece work is inner piece work for you too? Very much so, when I was in high school I started reading Cahill Gaybron, The Prophet, I read a lot of the Daudy Ching by Lao Tzu And I was really drawn to that sort of philosophy, I never, when I was in high school, never gotten a fight or elementary school So I'm basically just a very peaceful type person, and I don't like conflicts, verbal and things like that But I've had a deal with that throughout my life, and especially when basic training is very traumatizing because of that Because of what was going on and how troops were being trained during the draft That was totally against my nature, and so a lot of inner work had to be done to make myself a little more calm from that So it's very much inner work, and it's in my teaching also, I think my philosophy for teaching deals would be kind to one another, be kind to yourself, treat each other with respect Certainly, I have to have that in my own life before I can begin to model it for other kids and request that they do that too A lot of your growing up happened in Minnesota, and I think a few years of high school in Hawaii What kind of religious or spiritual atmosphere did you have at home? Did you consider being a conscience objector for Vietnam War? No, I didn't because my father had been in World War II, and he was an officer, and a lot of the people that he knew were there also In thinking about it over the last couple of weeks, because I was just at a conference and a peace activist meeting last Saturday down in Stevens Point I was part of a group that was talking about conscious subjection, and a small group of people met And I was trying to gather my thoughts for that, and I was also at another conference at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County It was more of a sort of a forum on the war in Iraq that was sponsored by a group of people at the school supporting the troops, was the name of the group And we had probably 75 people in the audience, and they had six panel members talking, and so I was thinking about this And I came away with both of those experiences thinking to myself that I wish that I had had people that had been in the service Like my father being one of them, and anybody that he knew, and other people that had alternative viewpoints on the good war or Vietnam or anything I wish that those people had been around when I was like 17 or 18 to talk to me about the multiple ways that war can impact people So I wasn't really aware of conscious subjection, my head was not in the mode to ask the questions maybe, but as I signed, when I was 17 I signed the Selective Service Forum and mailed it in, I didn't think anything of it When I got my draft notice, I said well guess what I have to do to go in, I wasn't aware of the options, so CO was not something that I thought about, but I do think about it now What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? I learned that Washington never told a lie, I learned that soldiers seldom die, I learned that everybody's free, and that's what the teacher said to me That's what I learned in school today, that's what I learned in school What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? I learned that policemen are my friends, I learned that justice never ends, I learned that murderers die for the crimes, even if we make a mistake sometime, and that's what I learned in school today, that's what I learned in school What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? I learned our government must be strong, it's always right and never wrong, our leaders are the finest men, and we elect them again and again, and that's what I learned in school today, that's what I learned in school today What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? I learned that war is not so bad, I learned about the great ones we have had, we fought in Germany and in France, and some day I might get my chance, it's my learning school today, that's what I learned in school Were you raised in a religious home? My father was a spiritual person and my mom was also, we didn't go to church, for a little bit I went to the Episcopalian church when I was young, but basically I think it was more of a spiritual journey for my father, who I credit to being very spiritual and very much that way, but there was no organized religion that was presented, we didn't go to church or anything like that, but I read a lot about things and sort of formulated my own inner viewpoints of things as an individual I was kind of wondering how much of the culture of Minnesota played in your worldview, I think you were in vicinity anyhow of the Twin Cities, a bit outside of there, and there's a Scandinavian culture that kind of says you buck up and just do what you're supposed to do and you don't say too much about it Was that part of the culture that you grew up in, or maybe your family was isolated from that? We lived out in the country and I think what was really significant about that is I got to walk out into the woods and spend a lot of time outdoors and so I felt a really nice connection with nature and the environment I don't really think that the Scandinavian issue was what you brought up was very much part of what was going on, but the thing that was significant was that I think in my youth the television had just come out in the 50s and by the late 50s we were watching Victory at Sea, we were getting sort of the militaries very much promoted in terms of what they did for the Second World War So I think the culture of a strong military, the culture of our military being the good guys against the bad guys, I think that was something that I was witnessing a lot I know when I was a kid I was building models of airplanes and ships and tanks and things like that and I thought that was what we were supposed to do and I thought people that went in the military That was our job, I thought that was our obligation to make our country strong So that was I think the foundation of my youth, I went hunting a lot and I think some of it was for me, but most of the time was to shoot things and I think that was really misdirected But that was what happened when I was a kid You said Wix that when you were in high school, you were one of those people never getting a fight, just kind of a calm, peaceful person How did basic training affect you? How did that sit when you were all sudden being yelled at and pushed and told the fire your gun? Maybe before we get into that, when we left Minneapolis I was about 16 and my mother was very sick, we ended up moving to Hawaii back in 1960, that's when Hawaii became a state Hawaii's way of living is very laid back and I went to a public school there that was the largest public school on the island, it was also within a period of six months, this was a new school And it earned the title of being the most violent school in Hawaii, there was daily fights, there was people that came into my typing class, there was one guy that came in with a gun and threatened to kill somebody and it was taken out But the significant experience in Hawaii was that I was a minority, I'm Caucasian and Caucasians make up about maybe 20% of the people there What that sort of gave me as a young person, as a teenager from the age of 16 to 18 when I was there for high school, was an extreme acceptance of other cultures, other races, and I really embraced the diversity and I loved it I loved being around different people, different cultures, different ethnic groups, and I think that is a very strong part of my foundation, that's also where I started reading a lot about Oriental philosophy and things like that, although I'm not a Buddhist or a Taoist, but I do read a lot of things on that I think that was very significant in terms of enabling me to accept different people, all walks of life, all around the world When I got drafted four years later, my number was like 167 on the lottery and I graduated from college in 1967 with a degree in geology And I knew that I was going to get drafted, a friend of mine just before I took off to go to the mainland hitchhike around for about six months before I got drafted, a friend of mine blew his trigger finger off And that's how he got out of service, this is a very strong image with me still today and other people were doing similar things So he was thinking about the damage it was going to do to him and physical damage on himself to stay out I was in a sort of gray zone with what I was going to do, I hitchhiked around the country for six months and worked different places and ended up out on the east coast And I knew I was going to get drafted and I went to a draft office and said I know my numbers coming up because they were on like 186, mine was the next number I said I'm here, I want to go in, get this over with And so I felt words like do your duty to your country be patriotic, we're kind of pushing me in that direction And my uncle had not been able to go into the Second World War because of physical things are going on in his body And he basically said I'm really proud of you, I'm glad you're doing this for your country I wish I could have done it but I couldn't, so vicariously he was kind of living through my joining into this armed service thing People had no clue what was going on in Vietnam and I had no clue what was going to happen in basic training To answer your question, basic training was a very traumatic experience for me I was in for like 20th month, I went in October of 1967 and Johnson escalated the war three months later There were drill sardins that were basically screaming in y'all and at us The physical stuff I could do easy, but it was the mental harassment and constant in your face Basically they were, they were very cruel It was back in 1942, I was a member of a good platoon We were on maneuvers in Louisiana one night by the light of the moon The captain told us to fall to river, that's how it all begun We were, knee deep in the big muddy, the big fools has to push on The sergeant said sir, are you sure this is the best way back to the base? Sergeant go on, I fought at this river about a mile above this place It'll be a little soggy, but just keep slogging, we'll soon be on dry ground We were, waist deep in the big muddy, the big fools has to push on Well the sergeant said sir, with all this equipment no man will be able to swim Sergeant don't be a nervous nelly, the captain said to him All we need is a little determination, men follow me, I'll lead on We were, neck deep in the big muddy, the big fools has to push on All at once, the moon clouded over, we heard a gurgling cry A few seconds later, the captain's helmet was all it floated by The sergeant said turn around men, I'm in charge from now on And we just made it out of the big muddy, with the captain dead and gone We stripped and dived and found his body stuck in the old quicksand I guess he didn't know that the water was deeper than the place he'd once before been Another stream had joined the big muddy about a half mile from where we'd gone We were lucky to escape from the big muddy, when the big fools had to push on Well I'm not going to point anymore, I'll leave that for yourself Maybe you're still walking, you're still talking, you'd like to keep your health But every time I read the paper, them old feelings come on We're, waist deep in the big muddy, the big fools has to push on We're, waist deep in the big muddy, the big fools has to push on We're, waist deep in the big muddy, the big fools has to push on We're, waist deep, neck deep soon even a tall man will be over his head We're, waist deep in the big muddy, the big fools has to push on To this day I deal with that and I try to figure out, why were they doing that? Their job was obviously to break us down and to make us follow directions Regardless of what happened, and I was about 23, but the majority of the people that were in my company were 17, 18, 19 And these kids had come off the Baltimore block, most of them were Hispanic and black There was a few Caucasian people there, but a lot of these people had no other choice but go in the army There were people I talked to that basically said, the judge said, either you go to jail or you go in the army So as we're walking and doing our drills with 10 to 12 people in our squad A person in front of me and back to me were of that caliber and I don't know that they trusted me either In terms of like what I'd be able to stand up and support them in a combat situation Because of my lack of fighting ability, my lack of, you know, kind of internal conviction that this was a good thing to do Basic training was very, very traumatic for me It took me a long time to get over that and I did not go over to Vietnam I had a college degree at the time and when we were getting our assignment, which is an MOS, whatever you're going to be doing There were several really large books that were about 3 inches thick and you sat next to a specialist who was in charge of kind of Putting you where you needed to belong Now because I had a college degree, I had the privilege with about 10 other people in our battalion of 5,000 Those are the only people that had any college degrees, there was myself I had a 4-year degree, there was another guy with computers that had a 4-year degree and there was like a bunch of people that had Maybe a couple of years in college and we were all told we needed to meet with an officer because they wanted us to be officer candidates because of our education As we were going to get our MOS, they marched us into another building It was a small building about the size of this room So the room was probably about 15 feet square and a captain came in We were in there for about an hour and basically scared the hell out of everybody He said, "Do you want to be on the front lines? Be shot, your life expectancy is about 15 seconds on the front line right now in Vietnam" And everybody's going, "Oh my God" and he said, "Well, do you want to be in a tank?" Your tanks get blown up and he basically was trying to, he did a good job of throwing fear into me But what the option was was to become an officer And later on, we found out that their life expectancy is like 15 or 10 seconds on the front line Because of the shiny metal on their shoulder, but he didn't tell us that He ended up telling us a couple of other stories that were very destructive and very insightful for me And that's why I said no waves, I never ever do this He basically said, one of the stories was that one of his other officers, a good friend of his had been sent over to Vietnam And he had just spent the night screwing his wife and he said, "This is what you get to do as an officer" And people are looking at each other thinking like, "What is this? What has this got to do with morality?" And that's officer supposed to hold up this now So he said about three or four other things that were even worse than this I said to myself, "Now I can't do this" And so nobody signed up and he was best because his job was to get most of us to go into OSES He left with some very unkind and damaging words to everybody And basically told us to get the hell out in stronger language and go back and hope he ended up in Vietnam You have to realize that not all officers are like this, but this is the person they sent to talk to us about going to OSES And it obviously made an impression At that point I felt like I was going to go over to Vietnam and then I was going to be in a world of hurt I didn't know what it was like but had no clue. I ended up getting a man who was going to assign my amos to me And he asked me a couple of questions and I said I had a degree in geology and he said, "Oh I've got a deal for you" And he opened up this book to page 350 out of 500 and he knew exactly where to go And he said, "I'm going to put you in this program here, you won't have to go to Vietnam" And he ended up putting me in a science and engineering program and I did geology at the Waterways Experiment Station down in Mississippi for about a year and a half We worked with 1,300 civilians or 50 geys like ourselves that had engineering degrees Mostly some of us had geology degrees The people that were the officers there were PhDs in physics and nuclear physics And they were developing all sorts of weaponry stuff there But I was very fortunate not to have to go over to Vietnam I feel when I know now that I would have made it through psychologically or maybe physically either You must have had a number of people you trained with who ended up going over to Vietnam Did you follow up on any of their stories? Two days before I left basic training in Fort Bragg, we were called out And there was like 200 of us sitting on bleachers and we were at our orders where we had to go And if your orders set Fort bulk, you knew you were going to advance infantry training and you were going to go to Vietnam There was a number of people sitting around me at the time and I got my orders to go to Vicksburg, Mississippi I didn't know until that time that I was not going to Vietnam So I was basically petrified as these other people So there were about five of us out of that 200 that didn't go over to Fort bulk And the rest did As people started carrying their names called off I remember the big man right next to me that was probably 250 and probably the strongest guy in the whole company broke down in tears And other people did the same thing Did I follow up on what happened to them sort of? About eight years ago or five years ago I went over to visit my mother and other relatives over in Virginia And I went to the walls, the first time I ever had gone to the wall since it was made I didn't want to go there for a number of years just because I felt it was too hard It was just too difficult to trip to make, but I did go And we went on a bright beautiful sunny day and there were a lot of people walking around It was awesome, it was probably one of the most sort of internally peaceful and healing things that I've done And I didn't see anybody on the wall, I didn't look up anybody's name, I know a couple, but I can't remember their last names, but I'm sure they're there When I go back next, the thing that was nice about the wall was that there was all these neat little things that people had brought And little drawings, flags, roses, and since I'm an artist, I felt right then that I wanted to do a piece of artwork and put it up there As sort of a memorial to those folks that were there We spent probably two hours there and I went with my sisters and the rest of my family were there, there were probably ten of us there And it was like silence, it was like watching people see the reflections in the wall, it was just amazing And it just kind of captivated me and my sisters were crying, I was crying, I watched people look for other folks, I watched people rub names I was sort of sitting down where the wall goes into the ground and it's just like a real small, there's just a few names there Then it widens up maybe a hundred yards farther down into a ten foot tall wall That experience was very moving and yet that isn't the experience that I want to have the next time I go I want to go at night, which is when veterans come and support one another and do that kind of healing I think that needs to happen I also have a sketchbook that I've worked on a lot with Images of the Vietnam Wall and Images of Abu Ghraib and things like that Changing the names, putting some of the names of the perpetrators of our war that are going now in Iraq Superimposing them on top of the names that are on the wall But it was very unsettling to do that work and I couldn't go any farther with it I felt it was very destructive internally for me and then I had to stop doing it Those are right at the times when the images of the Abu Ghraib prisoners with the hoods came out I did a lot with that and I did a lot with the image with Uncle Sam pointing the finger The pointer finger saying "I want you" I did a lot of revising and working with that and those images that were happening But it didn't offer any healing for me, it just put in a downward spiral So I had to stop that and I flipped the book over and on the other part I started cutting out pictures of people that were happy, that were smiling, that were compassionate with one another And put in some different scenes that I've captured that were very positive And so I think that was good Wix, I want to review some of your history Following the Vietnam War on up to the present After you left Vietnam, you went to graduate school for a few years You visited your wife's family over in Utah for a few months Then you had about six months in Europe I guess that during your military service you actually weren't abroad So was this visit to Europe your first time out of the country? Yes, we'd gone to Canada a couple of times But basically it was the first time over in Europe we stayed six months And we traveled to maybe eight or ten countries It was a very very eye-opening Wonderful to see the wide variety of people And how people accepted us over there as I was 26 maybe and Alice was about 21 So it was a very inspirational time in our life And it was very formative It really kind of tied in with what both Alice and I experienced in Hawaii With different cultures and different peoples And it made me real sensitive as to how I want to treat people and be remembered as When I travel other places I want to be that kind of person That accepts and embraces folks when they come down the sidewalk at me And because you never know the person you next meet It's a book and you can't necessarily judge what's inside by the cover, you know? You then came back from Europe and you moved to Oregon You started working as a land use planner there Why were you doing that when what you were trained in, what you just got your MS in Was oceanography and it just doesn't quite compute for me I think you're quite a few miles inland When I finished my oceanography degree I was basically burned out I did not want to do it, again I did not want to go on a boat And be out in the open ocean bouncing around I kind of figured that out halfway through my thesis It was a good thing that I did it And I just needed to move on and do other things And I think this experience was a city and county planner As a natural resource land use planner And what my job was to basically look at all of the science That a planner needed to back up their land use plans with And their zoning ordinances and things like that Like soils for septic situations Natural disasters like floods and things like that That happen in central Oregon that we need to be aware of It actually was a lot more enjoyable And I think that's where my calling really was It was to take complex scientific information And distill it down so somebody that wasn't a scientist could use it So I felt that was a better role for me than to be straight hardcore science And I was sort of the bridge between taking that complex amount of information And distilling it down so somebody could use it in another way In this case for a planning use It was a good thing for me to do I got a good feeling from doing that You know the reason I'm asking you a lot of these questions is I really want to know what makes you motivated and a hard worker In terms of making peace possible in this world You went from being a land use planner to art school So you've gone from hard sciences all the way to pure art Was this a growing in your spirituality? Was this a growing in your purpose in life? Is this after effect of having been in the military? I think it was a gift to be able to go and try something new at the age of 26, 27, 28 Because I was not satisfied with what I was doing in science Or in natural resource planning There was something that all the time that I went in school in oceanography There were people around me that light bulbs went on You could see the passion in what they were doing and what they were talking Their work, I didn't quite have that It didn't quite click, you know I was good at it and I could do it But when I first went into art I went to community college and banned And there was two professors there I was about maybe five years younger than they were But everybody else was maybe 10 or 15 years younger than we were They really encouraged me I felt under their direction and then the next two years when I went to art school in Portland That I found my passion I found something that I said this is what I want to do It was a gift I was able in the throes of my life to make a career change I was supported by my wife, I was supported by the people that were teaching me The instructors said you've got to go do this And I had some money from the GI Bill, thank goodness, you know, every little bit counted And so I was able to make a shift in my purpose in life That was a real gift When I got through art school we were trying to find a job And we traveled around and the calming organ had really bottomed out I was going to go do anything just to stay in Oregon and to work And there was nothing available for somebody with my background, even as a scientist We were camp way up high on the hills and Al said you know I saw you teach my kids, you know, because she was a teacher in Hawaii when I first knew her She said you, I think you'd be a good teacher, so we ought to go back And I just thought about it and said yeah that might be kind of fun So I went to Portland State and I got a teaching certificate I went through and have loved it ever since I don't feel that I could have been a good teacher right out of college At 21 or 22, I think I needed as life experiences I needed to go in the army and do that I needed to start raising my family All those experiences just that was older when I went in teaching I think it was really helpful and that helped to make me more sensitive to what kids needed The underlying thing about teaching is There's a lot of piece work that involves You have to be very centered as a person And that's what my inter-spiritual path is all about And my working with Tai Chi and Yoga and other things that I do That all helps me be a better teacher So it's very, very, you need to be very centered in order to deal with people And let them be creative Because you can squash somebody's creativity just like that Just a statement, people have done that to me It's something that the piece of work is in the classroom That's where I find my job is right now Even though I'm associated with all these other groups and do a lot of activist work It's like what Gandhi said, teach the children peace So after several years in Oregon, you ended up landing in Wasah, Wisconsin And you're working in an elementary school Are you really free to teach peace in your classrooms? I think right after 9/11, after the tack in the Twin Towers About the only colors you could use out of the entire rainbow were red, white, and blue Were there ways that you were able to teach peace in that kind of environment? I like your analogy with red, white, and blue The perception is that there was a lot of control on the teachers That they can't do what they need to do to validate peaceful things in the classroom That maybe the administration is holding them down and not letting them do peace work I think that in some cases that might be true In my classroom, the peace work that comes about is by me coming every day Setting myself up in my walks in the morning, I tell myself Today, I want to thank God I'm alive Please make sure that I do no harm to anybody, which is a Gandhian thing Let no harm fall on me, let me surrender to thy will And specifically, let me not judge people Let me accept people the way they are Make sure that I'm filled with loving kindness when I'm talking to people Those are things that I tell myself every day before I go into the room And I make sure that I say to myself in addition Let me be filled with peace and harmony And all that I think about, say, and do If I don't do that and if I don't do my Tai Chi in the morning and don't stretch and don't go for a walk I'm off until about 10 or 10.30, I just can't function very well And so I get centered and centering myself That makes my peace work start radiating out So when kids come into my classroom, you can be nice And just by looking and talking to them The main thing that I try to model is what I want them to be like in my classroom And I do that by being kind to them, talking to them respectfully, treating them with peace And trying to create a harmonious balance And when people start acting out and when there's discipline problems in the classroom That's my chance to say, "What's our rule?" Our rule is to be kind to each other and other people And if you violate that, this is my house My classroom is my house You're violating my house, where I live, where I work And they get it Oftentimes there are other situations between one or two people They turn out to be really pretty and severe And they have to stand for recess or something And that's another opportunity to try to work some peace into it I've had kids that are just rude to each other, they kick each other, they bite each other They hit each other, they cut each other That doesn't happen too much, but there's a lot of suffering going on in the classroom And my job is to try to balance that out and say, "Okay, what's going on? Why is this happening?" That's where the piece really works well, for me After 9/11/2001 happened Did that change what your kids in your classroom were focused on? Did it change the kind of art and aspirations, the fears, all that kind of stuff? Did that end up arriving in the classroom where you were? The bottom line in my classroom is that I don't want to see violent images in there I think it's destructive, I don't want to see guns, knives, anything that deals with that killing And so when somebody starts doing those in a piece, I'm saying it's not appropriate for school, you can't do it Now, maybe that's shutting down something that needs to come out But I think there's a lot of violence in the schools, high schools in particular With some of the killings that have gone on with students that call mine, for instance So, how did 9/11 turn things around a little bit? I remember some images that were planes flying, helicopters, things like that That's an appropriate thing I think for kids to draw and deal with if they're healing from it But I think what's happening with that is they're watching video games There's all sorts of things that maybe aren't tightened into a 9/11, but maybe the undercurrent of 9/11 It turns out that going back a number of years before that when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out That within days after that movie, they were out in the playground They were doing karate things, they were kicking each other Basically fighting with each other was an immediate transfer to the playground And so that violence was happening in movies and now it's from cartoons and stuff I think it's so easily transferred into schools It's real important to block it and stop it so that that doesn't get out of control, get out of hand And become something that happens in either the classroom or in the playground I've had a couple of kids even in this young and first grade who are tuning into that Army, combat, Iraq, computer game that is all over the internet And there's some people watching that and there's some bizarre reactions with kids Trying to use strategies to solve solutions based on that Army game that people are playing They turn very violent, very quick, I mean I don't understand, that's not a good solution I'd like to ask you some of the stuff about this group that you helped found The Northwoods Peace Fellowship, what you actually do, what's the purpose of this group? We met about two or three years ago and we decided that what we wanted to do was to offer our community whilst on the surrounding area, Central Wisconsin Some alternatives that were based on peaceful interactions in the community and with individuals And so we started thinking that our role would be to offer venues like forums and public discussions and movies and our DVDs of situations that are going on now to enlarge people's awareness in the community And so that's one of the things that we do is we hold forums, we try to connect with other groups in the town like the United Nations Association at the UWMC and some members have worked with Israel and Palestine, we've had people come up and talk about that semi-resouli was there with the Muslim peacemaker teams Right, and so over the past two years we've had Kathy Kelly come, John Deere, Simon Herach from Fellowship of Reconciliation from New York There's been a whole host of different things that we've been part of We're also involved with, we participated about 10 of us about a year and a half ago with draft counseling There was a workshop that was put on by J.E. McNeil from the Center for Conscious and Warren in Washington D.C And we got trained to participate and help people make some decisions on alternative things for the Selective Service and if a draft were to come up, maybe to give them some other options, small other alternatives for that And that's directly related to what I want to do personally because that was never offered for me Truth and Recruiting is something that ties in with that And so we are trying to get into the high schools and doing things along that line that a number of people around the state are doing And that's been real exciting We have people in high schools, one in particular that has a peace studies group That's very active and has done some good things to make their commons area where they have lunch and stuff They've gotten recruiters out of there so it's more of their space and the recruiters are now required to stay into the Career Center office There were a couple of people in the peace group that took it upon themselves to write an alternative proposal for administration And it was a very easy sell for them That is a kind of offshoot of where we want to go, and we also want to do some things involving the community As far as art related, that are peace related and art kind of tying those two things together Using the visual arts or performing arts or something along that line And that's just getting off the ground I want to come back to what you said about peace studies. Is this a curriculum that's actually active or is this kind of ad hoc extracurricular activity? It's an extracurricular class that's offered before and after school And three teachers have been doing that too in particular since 9/11 A group of students came up and asked them if they would like to discuss some of the issues that they keep reading about in the papers So anywhere from 5 to 15 kids show up before and after school, they have now got credit for this The people that are teaching it are drawing from many different sources and they're just pulling in short readings They're having discussions and they're doing some activism around their school And they've also done some activism and coordinated some major things in the community dealing with the war in Iraq We try to coordinate with those folks, we try to coordinate and find out what they're doing at the University of Wisconsin Marathon campus There's a number of people out there that are doing activist stuff And so it's just to try to get the word out About six of our members went down and we're part of the School of America's Watch back this last November So we're doing some major things on that right now We want to set up some more awareness sessions and so we've been showing some videos that tie in with that And try to get discussions going with our community had pretty good response 15/20 people have come So thinking locally and acting locally What kind of reaction have you received in the past and are you getting now from people in the community? Part of what I've witnessed in the past is a fair number of people being fairly positive or responsive About anti-war statements and that kind of thing But some people are having pretty violent reaction against peace groups When we started having vigils out on the square in downtown Watts the square is one block The buildings have been cleared off of that and occasionally we'll do vigils out there Over the last three years it's changed a lot A lot of people now are greeting us with positive comments and waves and honks When we first got out there it was quite a wide variety of mixtures of different things From people flipping us off to screaming and yelling us To people coming up to us basically harassing us on the street One of the people that's been doing vigils was actually assaulted by somebody Took the guy to court and won that case I noticed in my own personal discussions with people where I'm working When I'm downtown there's a lot more discussion going on People that want to find out more about the issues I think it's increasing a lot People want that information I just attended a forum at the University of Wisconsin Marathon campus That was put on by a group of students that were very much in favor of supporting the troops And they went their question was can you support the troops without supporting the war? So they had six panel members on there There was an activist, this man that I just mentioned There was a university professor, there was a Vietnam veteran that's real active in the state There was a local representative for the Republican Party was there And there was also a Green Party member there So there were six people all together And the one I didn't mention was there was a young woman who was going to school there Who'd lost her brother in the Iraq war There was about 75 people that came to that 20 or more were young people There was maybe a handful of veterans there from World War II All the way through Vietnam and Korea and stuff And there was a bunch of parents I came away with very mixed feelings It became very polarized between those four and those against There was no common ground that was found other than we needed to make sure we support everybody there I came away very much in turmoil from that and I wrote some letters to the editor And my hope was that by writing that that I would try to raise up above the things that began to get ugly And kind of us against them Basically said we need to take care of everybody We need to make sure that we take care of all things, all people And we need to make sure that we do not hurt our fellow human beings And I was really happy that the young people were there because This is the statement I made I wish when I was a young person contemplating going to the military that I'd had a discussion like this It may or may not have changed the direction I went But at least I've heard other stories Because there were a lot of stories that were for going over there Especially with younger people that were just signing up to go into the Marines or whatever But there was also a number of veterans there that said just the opposite It would have probably really forced me to stop and think about the act that I took Except going in and being drafted I hope that dialogue continues in our community And that it gives young people the chance to learn more about this kind of thing Ted was raised in Ohio where brave men regularly grow He wasn't surprised to get a ladder and calling him to the war He was most polite and he wanted to do right So he wrote right back and said I've learned from my people that I must not fight But I'd like to work instead Oh, I'm not afraid to go Folks, I'm not afraid to die I just got something else in mind that I would like to try Give me a shovel instead of a gun I'll say so long for now If I die, I'll die making something instead of tearing something dead He said goodbye to those he loved Wiped his mother's tears Don't fret folks, I know what I'm doing I'll be back in a couple of years He picked a piece I can eat and look back He bravely left for the war Took a Bible and a shovel and a lot of hope He knew what he was going for I'm not afraid to go Father, I'm not afraid to die I just don't want to be the one to make another son's mother cry Give me a shovel instead of a gun I'll say so long for now If I die, I'll die making something instead of tearing something down He worked among the people of that far off Asian land Many who would be the enemy Became the friend of the brave young man He helped in the crops and he worked in the shops And talked whenever he could Of how he dreamed of a peaceful world Life would be sweet and good I'm not afraid to be here for it I'm not afraid to die I just can't shake this feeling inside We can live together if we try Give me a shovel instead of a gun I'll lend you a hand for now If we die, I'll die making something Instead of tearing something down He fell in love with the brave young woman Took her to be his bride She shared his dream of a world going right Worked right by his side But the war got to the love so low A bullet left the young grown dead In her tears of grief The bride heard a gentle voice that said Tell him I wasn't afraid to go my love I wasn't afraid to die I just didn't want to be the man To make another man sworn and cried Put my shop beside my grave Maybe someone else would find To be brave enough to die Make it something instead of tearing something down Put my shop beside my grave I'll save so long for now Don't worry, my love We're gonna make it I know we're gonna make it So my heart [Music] Wix, I think you got active recently With the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice How'd that come about and what is that group about? Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice is a group of probably 150 or more peace groups With many, many different focuses Our Northwest Peace Fellowship group is a member of it I was invited to be on their executive committee By Bonnie Block who came up to our community About two and a half years ago and gave a non-violent workshop That we sponsored because of the large turnout that we had With that workshop and it's been a really nice thing to be a part of The state and other things that are going on Right now one of the key things that they're working on Is a series of five or six peace planks Is what they call them And like to have a sustainable society To have a society that's non-violent What they did was they kind of took a sample or a poll Of all the 150 groups and just kind of created A list of the important key ideas That kind of fell into these five different areas And were kind of working on getting that out As the main idea that this organization is working with The organization has also got a number of other things that they're working on One of which is to bring the troops home now The referendums that are up in 18 or maybe more now Cities in Wisconsin that have a ballot measure Saying that we're going to put it up to a vote of the people Do we want to bring the troops home now? So it's a very large organization with very, very significant people Involved with it doing a lot of different things in our state Evidently which you participated in some non-violence training How do you train someone not to be violent? What do you actually learn in a non-violence training? That's a real good question because it's so huge And there's so much stuff What I learned was that many of the conflicts that we have And have had have a non-violent component to them Like for instance, there were many people in the Second World War That helped the Jews to flee the Nazis both in France And Denmark and those people were basically working kind of underground They were attempting to take the messages that Gandhi and those folks Martin Luther King, the messages that were trying to create another solution To the problem than violence What we learned was that people have successfully Counteracted violent oppressive people and governments and groups And this with a price and violence has its price too The work sessions were unawareness It was look at what's happened in our past Not everything is violent Here are some of the main things that have happened to balance that out In the midst of real heavy duty violence like in the Nazi regime And there were people that were doing things to kind of counteract that That we can get examples from We ended up looking at some of those examples We also looked at some, we had a talking circle We went around and shared experiences personally that we had With situations that could have turned violent that didn't That was very, very insightful I was driving with my whole family to go to Milwaukee to pick up my son We were going to go to my son's naval graduation down at Great Lakes Naval Center Because he had just gone through basic training We were driving in Milwaukee and it was a really bright sort of sunny day I came up to an intersection that was about five different way intersection It was very confusing, there's a lot of red lights And I ran a red light And I was half weeks through the red light before I saw it turning red And at the same time, I see this car coming at me from the left If I would have kept going straight, I would have hit him And I'd probably killed the guy, you know, I was going about 30 So what I did was I turned the car hard to the right And ended up thinking that any second that I was going to feel the crash in this guy's car I didn't feel the crash in the car, and we ended up being parallel to one another For about ten feet And then as we're coming up to a median center, I go to the right, he goes to the left And he's going into oncoming traffic, except there's no traffic in his lane And so I'm looking at the sky and he's looking back at me You know, our mouth is wide open, our eyes are wide open, and we are scared to death And he's a black man, probably about maybe 25 or 30 So I pull off, I'm totally in shock at this point Because number one, I didn't hit him, and we're both still alive And there's no accident or anything, but at the same time, it's still very dangerous Because I'm making this turn, we're just about flipped I turn into the nearest little tiny lot, it was an empty lot That this guy comes around the corner and pulls into the lot And I'm thinking, my God, this could be, you know, I wonder if the guy's okay, you know So I get out of the car, I walk to this guy, he's walking towards me, and we're in a black part of Milwaukee And this is a black-white confrontation And the guy is screaming and yelling at me, putting his fingers, saying, "You almost killed me!" And he's swearing at me, everything like that And I open my arms like this, and I walk up to him, and I say, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, are you okay?" And I put my arms around him, and at that point, he just melted to the ground It was very, very significant He was crying, I was crying, I got down to the ground on my knees, and I'm asking, "Are you okay?" He says, "Yeah, I'm okay," and I said, "God, we just about killed each other," I said And I'm glad we're alive, I mean, it was like this epiphany of There was a good situation, that was a non-violent situation I hope I meet that guy sometime in the future, and maybe this conversation, maybe he'll hear it Because I want to see this guy, because I think it was an act of incredible magnitude for me It was a gift from the beloved above to saying, "You guys need to work something different out" And maybe he went away with the same thing, saying that this is this old geyser That's, I'm shred whiter at the time, you know, I'm 62 right now, but I was probably 58 back then I could have just as easily been shot at, stabbed, kicked, beat up, but it went in a totally different direction We get off off the ground, we shake each other's hands and say, "Thank you" And he goes back in his car, I get my car, and my wife is in my car My son's girlfriend is in there, my daughter, and they're all going, "Wow, what was that? What just happened?" You know, and I said, "I don't know, but it was sure cool!" So we all have the ability to change what we're programmed to do, and what we think we should do And it's just based in our heart, and our heart is basically telling us, be peaceful, keep this thing alive, you know, and you don't have to strike out and be violent So I shared that at a peace studies group that I was with, and with the non-violence group, too And so I think every time I share a story like that, it empowers me to do something different And so I think just going to a non-violence workshop is going to bring up things you never even thought of It's going to give you another perspective on things, it's going to show you that There are other people, other places at different times that have all done things like that That just because we see on the news and in the newspaper and on TV that everybody's working on each other and being violent, we don't have to do that We don't have to buy into that solution to the problem We make our own solutions and make our own choices, and that's what the non-violence workshop is all about Here's the other option I really want to thank you for giving us some other options, some visions of other options I want to encourage you to keep doing your good work with the North Woods Peace Fellowship With the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, but also just in the schools Where you continue to do your peace work by working with the students, giving them that door that is art Well thank you Mark, this has been a really nice experience for me It was very moving to hear the things we talked about and hear how you created this opportunity for me to share this with other people And you do such good work, thank you You've been listening to an interview with Wix Covey of the North Woods Peace Fellowship and the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice You can hear this program again via my website, which is northernspiritradio.org Where you can also find links related to this program and other programs Music featured in this program includes What did you learn in school today by Pete Seeker Waste Deep in the Big Muddy by Pete Seeker And Brave Man from Ohio by a brother and minister by the name of Andy Murray The theme music for spirit inaction is "I have no hands but yours" by Carol Johnson Thank you for listening, I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit You can email me at helpsmeet@usa.net May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light This is spirit inaction I have no higher call for you and peace to love and serve your neighbor Enjoying selflessness To love and serve your neighbor Enjoying selflessness Music [MUSIC PLAYING]
Wix Covey is one of the founders of the Northwoods Peace Fellowship, centered in Wausau, Wisconsin, and he also serves on the executive committee of the Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice