SAU Amnesty ends year with message of peace

by: Jenna Stevens
Features Editor

As the new year arrives so does a new round of new year’s resolutions. While most people have already discarded their plans for weight loss or thrifty spending, one group on campus is making sure that they remain true to their pledge for peace by sending holiday cards to prisoners of conscience and attending a local labor rally in hopes of holding on to the idea of justice for all.

St. Ambrose’s Amnesty International group is working diligently to bring about social change in a non-violent manner. In honor of the 2005 holiday season members sat down together to write holiday cards to those individuals who were being held unjustly as prisoners conscience.

“The cards are being sent to prisoners and human rights defenders around the world," said Dan Marie, president of Amnesty International. This year, the group sent holiday cards to two human rights defenders in Mexico who were either imprisoned or threatened because they spoke out against deforestation. 

Other cards were sent to a Christian evangelical being imprisoned in Eritrea. 

"We also sent holiday cards to activists in Belarus and prisoners of conscience in Indonesia and Morocco,” said Marie.

All of these individuals are being held in prisons  because they chose to speak out against their government and its practices and stand up for equal rights for all people.

Typically the letters being sent out by Amnesty International are sent to the government leaders in the countries where these people are being held. This time, however, the cards went directly to the prisoners.

“One of the main goals of the holiday card campaign was to help the prisoners of conscience know they had not been forgotten by other people in the world when they read the cards sent to them,” said Marie.

These cards contained messages of hope and offered prayers of good will and hopes of a speedy release. Due to the incredible boundaries of religion and customs, members had to be careful to remain neutral in their messages and to avoid all political subjects.

Approximately fifteen members showed up to help out and over fifty cards were mailed to different prisons and holding areas around the world. Amnesty is also planning to host a write-a-thon sometime this semester in hopes that more prisoners can be reached and eventually released.

Amnesty members also attended an Employees Rights Event on December 10 at the Rock Island Laborers Hall. This event included a number of local and congressional candidates all of whom are working to bring about higher paying jobs and better health care for all employees.

The afternoon even featured a guest speaker from Iowa who had been fired from her job for trying to organize her co-workers into a labor union in order to gain a better benefits program to offset the rising cost of health care here in the Midwest.

St. Ambrose students  helped out with the day’s activities which included working with participants to write letters designed to lobby local government leaders about the Employee Free Choice Act.

“The bi-partisan bill would protect those who are trying to form unions and would also enforce harsher punishments on employers who don’t comply,” said Amnesty International member Amanda Elkins.

While most of us have already given up on this year’s resolution, St. Ambrose’s Amnesty International group is keeping their promise by standing up for prisoners of conscience and workers rights.