Steve and Lana Jacobs, members of the St. Francis Catholic Worker community that shelters the homeless and runs a local soup kitchen were arrested today by University of MIssouri police for digging graves on the lawn of the university's ROTC building. Steve Jacobs wearing a black t-shirt that said, "Who would Jesus bomb?" was arrested at 9 AM and Lana was arrested about an hour later after going home and bringing another shovel back to the ROTC front lawn. Along with other members of the St. Francis Catholic Worker Steve Jacobs unloaded two black coffins covered with a U.S. and an Iraqi flag respectively and placed them on the lawn. He also placed tombstones on the lawn commemorating more than 1500 U.S. dead and more than 100,000 Iraqi dead in the current war. He began digging the graves for the coffins until police arrested him. He did not resist arrest. Flyers explaining Jacobs's actions were distributed by supporters who also held anti-war signs on the public sidewalk in front of ROTC's building located in Crowder Hall.
"It is better to dig symbolic graves than make real ones" Jacobs told reporters in front of ROTC. His flyer distributed to the public encouraged ROTC students to "refuse to obey their commander-in-chief, George Bush, whose authorization of torture makes him a war criminal, unfit to make ethical decisions concerning life and death".
After S. Jacobs was arrested and the coffins, tombstones and shovel were confiscated by police his wife went home and got another shovel and returned to the ROTC lawn and and began digging another grave. She dug for another 10 minutes before police arrived and arrested her.
They both were charged with Class B misdemeanor property destruction and given Court dates in state court on June 2, 2005.
Mr. Jacobs stated after his arrest; "My only regret is that I may have killed a worm with my shovel".

For more information call Steve or Lana Jacobs at (573) 875-7878

ROTC Flyer attached:

Forgive us friends for disrupting your daily routine but the times are extraordinary in their capacity for violence and death. A malignant "patriotism" smothers the voice of reason, kills tens of thousands of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to protect us from weapons that did not exist and justifies the torture of prisoners. The trail of blood and death starts at various Pentagon branch offices and particularly here at ROTC, which prepares more young soldiers to spill more blood with more unholy violence. Killing is an abstract concept to students now, but no training, however scientific or sophisticated can prepare young students for the evil that is inherent in killing other human beings and it's haunting aftermath. So, we bring these coffins and dig these graves at the place that teaches killing in order to speak to your consciences. We ask you to take your ability to make moral decisions out of cold storage and refuse to obey your commander-in-chief, George Bush, whose authorization for torture makes him a war criminal, unfit to make ethical decisions concerning life and death. For war violates the holiest of moral laws; the admonition to "Love they neighbor as thyself" which cannot be done with bullets and bombs.
We ask you to consider our "crime," of interupting the study of war and digging up some dirt. Which is the greater crime: what we have done here today or what young ROTC soldiers will be ordered to do when occupying foreign lands that did not attack us, arresting, torturing and killing someone overseas while the wealthy elites who orchestrate and profit from these wars hide the killing behind the flag? For us the answer is clear; it is better to dig symbolic graves than make real ones.

My name is Steve Jacobs. As a Navy hospital corpsman I took care of combat vets from 1973-76 working with amputees and those with post-traumatic stress disorders. I worked in Columbia's Veterans Hospital 12 years as a psychiatric RN. I saw vets turn to drugs and alcohol to try and escape the intrusive nightmares and memories of combat. My patients suffered crippling survivor guilt, anxiety, depression and divorce. Several committed suicide. They went to jails and prisons because they were unable to control their aggression and hostility to their families and society. Many drank themselves to death on America's city streets. Most of the combat vets asked the same existential question. It's the same question that concentration camp survivors from WWII asked. "Why did I survive when so many didn't?" After several years I realized the answer to that question was so they could tell the stories of the ones who didn't survive. So others would learn from them the futility and brutality of war. They told of being swept up in the hysteria of war and the kind of "patriotism" that refuses to question the motives of our wealthy leaders who orchestrate and profit from the killiing.
They told me their stories. Now I am telling them to you. Some killed civilians by mistake and see them every night in their dreams. Some killed civilians on purpose and though they were never legally punished, the memories of those they killed judge them in their dreams. They are haunted men. Some killed their buddies by mistake in the chaos of combat. Some froze in fear for their lives and were unable to assist dying comrades. Some did all they could do and still couldn't save their buddies. As Pope John Paul II said prior to the invasion of Iraq; "War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity." There are no winners in war. Everybody loses except maybe the wealthy elites who avoided combat, but who profit from their investments in defense corporations.
After 9-11, Dick Cheney said to a Time reporter, "We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we're going to be successful. That's the world we operate in, and so it's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective." He was talking about using torture. U.S. intelligence agencies used it in Vietnam and few survived it (see Operation Phoenix). It was taught at Ft. Benning's combat training school for Latin American officers at the School of the Americas (see declassified training manuals from 1996 Intelligence Oversight Board). These are the tactics of authoritarian regimes practiced by history's most notorious villains in the Gestapo and KGB. They are war crimes. So is attacking countries that did not attack you. Participation in invasions of Iraq, occupying their country, stealing their resources (oil), killing civilians are war crimes. You may not be punished in a world court for war crimes but the memories of any killing you might do will remain and if you have a working conscience, you will judge yourself. I don't want that to happen to you. You have a choice to serve humanity in a capacity that nurtures life or you can choose to be a destroyer of life.

For more info call Steve or Lana Jacobs at (573) 875-7878.