From The
Idiot Factor:
I first
moved to Wichita some time in 1980. One of the fist political activists I met
was Mary (McDonough) Harren. She was the go to person involved in the local
peace movement here in Wichita. Back in Lawrence where I came from, the big issue
was the war in Latin America, supporting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and
opposing military aid to the government of El Salvador. Mary was involved in
that also. She was involved in other issues, such as the movement for a nuclear
freeze. We lost Mary last week to cancer. She was 91 years old. She lived a
full life and was a major player in the anti-war, anti-imperialism movements.
She was
arrested several times for trespassing with people who were using civil
disobedience against nuclear weapons. She was arrested in August of 1982 at
Offutt Air Force Base, near Omaha.
She
was a member of Democratic Socialists of America. She believed in socialism and
a world where the needs of the common people were not more important than the
needs of the greedy wealthy people who profited from making and selling
weapons.
“The peace
movement,” she said, “is holding out a vision, a hope of a better world for
human kind, other than spending your life building arms, that this is not the
most creative thing, that this is not what were meant to be doing with our
lives, is to defend private or personal property at the expense of the rest of the world.”[1]
Mary and I
have worked off and on with the peace group here in town (Wichita). The name
has changed many times, but she stayed with it and so did I. Today we have the Peace and Social Justice Center of Kansas. I remember when they added on "social
justice", several years ago, so we could work on some local social justice
issues. Today’s Wichita peace group is located in the house that used to be
Mary's.
I used to
visit that house when Mary lived there. Her, other friends and I would visit,
drink wine and discuss foreign policy issues. Even before she turned it over
the Peace and Social Justice Center, she had many political events there.
When I
first met Mary, both of us were Catholics. At some point I got tired of the
Catholic political shtick. Both of us had problems with many of the church’s
positions, such as being anti-abortion and the churches’ position on Sandinista
Revolution in Nicaragua. Eventually John Paul II came out strongly against
Liberation theology, which both of
us supported. I finally had enough and dropped out of the religion. She stayed in and refused to give her
faith up.
She stood
by her catholic beliefs, even when the local church did everything they could
to dissuade her. The local Bishop of Wichita excommunicated her for supporting
abortion rights. She was a member of Catholics for Choice.
She once
told me "What are they going to do? Arrest me for going to church?"
Mary has
been politically active going all the way back to the Vietnam War. Other issues
she has taken on include speaking out about the use of the atom bomb in
Hiroshima. Over the years she has worked with The Catholic Worker, Pax Christi, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and Code Pink. Mary
raised seven kids
and her husband Donald
Harren died before I moved back to Wichita, in 1980.
Mary
slowed down a lot as she got to her 80s and beyond. Still, she was always a
part of the peace movement here in the Wichita area. She will be missed.
Mary
accepting a reward from the Global Learning Center.
___________________
[1] Bill Hursch, “Wichita Woman Wages Own War To Ensure Peace,” The Wichita
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