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Litter or Life? Letters of Support and Media Hits |
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Thursday, 04 June 2009 22:35 |
No More Deaths has been receiving a steady stream of emails and phone calls in support of Walt Staton and Dan Millis—two volunteers who have both been found guilty of littering after putting water out for migrants. We are working on setting up a letter writing campaign, more details will be published soon.
Other letters can be sent to
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to be posted here.
NMD in the Media:
Letters of Support:
Twenty-five years ago, while vacationing with friends at their cabin in a lovely juniper-pine forest, I glanced up from my book to see my then three year old toddler who had been playing nearby, was nowhere in sight. After calling and searching in the nearby area, my friends struck out in opposite directions, while I remained at the cabin site immobilized in the grips of a fear that went beyond tears, or hysteria, or comprehension. It was late afternoon and the nights had been cold, and in the days before cell phones, we were hours beyond rescue efforts. Imagine my relief, when he showed up with his dad. They had gone for a little walk.
This could have just as easily been a desert scene, where we had also spent many happy hours camping and exploring. Unfortunately, in the ensuing years, death became a reality there for or over 2,000 people. Those indelibly terrifying moments for me are as fresh in my memory as when they happened. No one deserves to lose a loved one in that way. Whether there legally or illegally, I would hope that somewhere in the collective heart of our citizenry, they could at least agree that those who died those tortured and gruesome deaths didn’t deserve to die that way.
My little boy grew to be a wonderful man. His name is Walt Staton. Yesterday, a federal court convicted him for laying out jugs of water on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. I am so grateful that he was not lost to me those many years ago. I hope –no, I know – that many mothers today, owe the life of their loved one to his efforts.
A proud and grateful mom,
Sue Theaker
I have proudly volunteered for the Fish and Wildlife Service and and I congratulate them on their triumphs and I grieve their losses in preserving endangered species.
While volunteering for the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge I took a hike on my days off, one July fourth a couple years ago. Next to a public hiking trail I found a migrant body that had been there a month, according to the Pima County deputy who came to recover it. Now I find that there are many endangered humans there as well as endangered animals, and I have a concern for them all.
My religious convictions do not interfere with my love for wildlife, but if there is any conflict between environmental concerns and human life I must stand with the latter. I stand with Walt Staton and the others who have been ticketed for littering on the Buenos Aires.
Michael Pratt
Dear Walt and Dan,
Thank you both for being a compassionate presence in the Buenos Aires Wildlife Refuge. Your acts of courage and conscience placing water jugs in order to reduce death in the desert make us proud to be human in a sometimes inhumane world. If you have saved even one life your work is rewarded tenfold.
We stand with you both.
Barbara and Ed Hook
It is sad to read in the articles sent to me from No More Deaths, that Dan and Walt have had to face legal action for helping people from dying in the desert.
All human life is sacred regardless of a person's country. God has no borders in showing love and care to other human beings. It seems to me that the border patrol and all people involved in combing the desert for humans should be thankful for the support from people like Dan and Walt, who try to save lives. No one wants to see another human being suffer, no matter what work they do.
I support the work that you do Dan and Walt. Thank you for putting your life on the line for others and your help in keeping them alive. I pray that the United States can find more humane ways to help people who have to leave their country to support their families. This is a broader issue that has to be addressed. Human life should not be objectified so that death is a viable answer -- until the laws can support human life, I say humanitarian aid is necessary.
Thank you Dan and Walt,
PJ Boone-Edgerton Longoni
I would like to register my support for Walt Staton and the No More Deaths Program. I worked with Walt for a year as a Youth Adviser at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Tucson. I can't think of anyone more dedicated to the preservation of human life. Indeed, humanitarian aid is not a crime! Too many people are willing to sit back and say, "oh, how sad those people died." Dehydration is a terrible way to die. To cite Walt for littering is ridiculous. Why not be honest and cite him for what he is really doing-helping the unfortunate. This is indeed a governmental ploy to keep humanitarians from helping those who need aid.
Shame on the U.S. Border Patrol!!
Love, Peace, Laughter & Joy & a little humane treatment,
Amanda Kopplin
It is a travesty of justice to convict humanitarian aid people of a crime. Offering any suffering human water, food, first aid and consolation is a basic humanitarian value of all religions of the earth. I applaud the heroic efforts of these two men and would happily join them in their efforts to prevent human suffering. I have been in that desert and also the formidable mountains where so many lives have been lost. I also have left water and food packets on those trails. The only difference is that they were caught and I was not! Thus, they represent me in their brave insistence that what we do is not a crime. The sooner the culture of our government divests itself of the xenophobic hubris and arrogant policies, the sooner we can rescue our nation from its declining reputation in the world.
Gretchen Collins
I have just read from the No More Deaths announcement following the trial of Walt Staton for littering, that:
"During jury selection nearly one third of the original 31 potential jurors were dismissed after stating they had strong emotions about providing humanitarian aid to migrants and would be unwilling to convict someone who was engaged in humanitarian aid."
If that is a fair criterion for dismissing potential jurors, then quite logically the reverse is equally fair. Were jurors asked to state whether they had strong emotions about providing humanitarian aid to migrants and would be unwilling to find someone innocent who was engaged in humanitarian aid to migrants?
I would guess that half of those jurors who were selected, if honest, would answer yes to that question, and would be dismissed. If they were not asked that question, then this was definitely a stacked jury. Then only those unwilling to find the defendant guilty were dismissed, and those unwilling to find the defendant innocent were not dismissed.
Richard Calabro, Green Valley/Sahuarita Samaritans
When people in the United States who have water and food every day and several times a day decide that the gift of water to a thirsty person is a crime, what do they think when giving a drink of water to their children or to a neighbor, or in some cases, to a runner who stops at their door and asks for water.
To convict Walt Staton, Dan Millis, and other humanitarians of a crime for making water available to thirsty people in order to save lives, is not only a miscarriage of justice, this action makes justice into a joke.
No one should have to face death in the desert whether it be a lost migrant or a lost hiker or anyone else.
It is my hope that Arizona courts will take into consideration that humanitarian aid is never a crime. It is also my hope that the administration of Buenos Aires remembers that people have lived and moved across that old ranch for longer than any of us can remember.
Marie Gery
To No more Deaths and Other Humanitarian Aid Groups:
My name is Dr. Grania Marcus and I am writing in support of Walt Staton, a humanitarian aid worker with No More Deaths, who was convicted today of "knowingly littering garbage or other debris" for placing gallon-jugs of clean water to help prevent the deaths of migrants from dehydration while crossing the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. He faces 1 year in prison and a possible $10,000 fine. This is an outrageous action that has a chilling effect on critical efforts to save lives, and it should be condemned by all people of faith. This week, when hundreds of groups are in Washington D.C. responding to, and helping shape, the Obama Administration's efforts to reform our nation's immigration laws, there should be a mortorium on bringing cases related to the well-being of immigrants who are simply trying to survive and support their families.
I spent 3 years on the Border from 2004-2007 as a volunteer working for Frontera de Cristo Presbyterian Border Ministry in Douglas, AZ, and Agua Prieta, Mexico. I am an Elder in the PC(USA). Frontera was a part of the No More Deaths Coalition. As the deaths of migrants continued to rise each year--men, women and children--we were confronted by a humanitarian disaster that few Americans were aware of. We joined together with many groups motivated by their faith to save lives, mainly by putting out jugs or barrels of water, working with the Border Patrol to regularly carry water and snacks in their vehicles, by establishing humanitarian aid stations in the desert, both in Mexico and the US, and by founding migrant resource reception areas at Ports of Entry.
For Christians, Matthew 25, "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me" is one of the central teachings Jesus gave to us and we can do no less as people of faith. The Hebrew Bible, too, is replete with references to God's desire that His people welcome and care for the stranger and the most vulnerable in our society.
I pray that these kind of misguided prosecutions will end, and be replaced by Comprehensive Immigration legislation that will end the unconscionable deaths of over 5,000 migrants since 1995.
Thank you for your continuing life-saving work.
Sincerely,
Dr. Grania B. Marcus
I stand in support of Walt and his powerful witness in humanitarian action to support migrants in the Sonoran Desert. Would that more individuals would, as Walt did, act mercifully out of such heartfelt desires to help the stranger.
Citing our own Judaic and Christian sources:
Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Exodus 23:9
But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. Lev. 19:34
Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Deut. 10:19
For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. Matt. 25:42-45
And citing the holy Qur'an:
But those who entered the city and the faith before them love those who flee unto them for refuge, and find in their breasts no need for that which has been given to them, but prefer (the refugees) above themselves though poverty become their lot. And whose is saved from his own avarice-such are they who are successful.
(Quran 55:9)
And let not those who possess dignity and ease among you swear not to give to the near of kin and to the needy, and to refugees for the cause of God. Let them forgive and show indulgence. Yearn ye not that God forgive you? God is Forgiving, Merciful.
(Quran 24:22)
Be ye staunch in justice, witnesses for God, even though it be against (the worldly interests) of yourselves or (your) parents or (your) kindred, whether (the case be of) a rich man or a poor man.
(Quran 4:135)
Let those who have ears to hear, listen.
Peace be with Walt and those who support his ministry.
MaryHelen
I am stunned that Walt Staton was convicted of littering for putting life-saving water in the desert so that people won't die! How can someone who is doing no harm but actually giving humanitarian aid and even picking up litter be convicted of littering?????
Stuart R. Thomas
The convictions of Walt Staton and Dan Mills are outrageous. Everyone needs to rally around them and around groups like No More Deaths. These legal proceedings are a vicious evasion of justice and human rights. Litterbugs of conscience unite!
Michael Stancliff
Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition
New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
Arizona State University
What truly is the point of spending precious tax payers money to convict folks of littering when they pick up more than they leave. Especially considering that what they leave is analogous to throwing a life preserver to a capsized victim attempting to flee Cuba. What laws do the authorities and juries abide by, a perversion of the laws of man, or those of common human decency?
We should be paying these folks for picking up litter and not prosecuting them for being humanitarians. History continues to repeat itself and we look back with disbelief on what we did, and then do it again in some other form.
Nat White
Flagstaff, AZ
Dear Walt,
I admire your for your courage on the "No More Deaths" campaign. I hope the legal troubles will soon be solved and our new government will be serious about a fair immigration reform.
My thoughts and positive vibes are with you,
Margarita Medina
Seattle
My wife and I have known Walt and his family for many years now. We grew to love that young man and it was always a pleasure as guest to his home to visit with him. This has nothing to do with why I write this message.
This young man is an asset to this planet on so many fronts and to place this wonderful bundle of positive energy in prison says in America, we consistently punish the best and reward the rest.
Guido & Toni Romano
Florence, Oregon
It is indeed sad when people who offer humanitarian aid are arrested and jailed for doing so. It is an even greater travesty that this is happening in the United States where we say we value human rights. It is an abuse of human right to prevent people from carrying out humanitarian aid. Please show mercy and dismiss the charges and sentence for Walt Staton.
Sincerely,
Ceil Roeger, OP
Promoter of Justice, Peace and Care of Creation
Dominican Sisters of Houston
It is with great disappointment that I read the following words last week: “Walt Staton, a volunteer with the Tucson-based humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, was convicted today of "knowingly littering garbage or other debris" after he left clean drinking water for undocumented migrants crossing the desert on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.”
In my daughter’s dictionary “litter” equates with “bits or scraps of paper or other garbage scattered around carelessly”. (Scholastic Children’s Dictionary, 2007). When Walt and other No More Deaths volunteers carefully place containers of life-giving water in areas where they are most likely to be opened and consumed by thirsty and suffering human beings, they are not littering but purposefully providing humanitarian aid. I have been with No More Deaths volunteers when they go out on trails to place water and conscientiously retrieve any opened gallon containers that they find. These volunteers have great respect for the desert and the natural landscape, a respect only trumped by their respect for the dignity of human life.
The third definition of “litter” in my child’s dictionary is “a stretcher for carrying a sick or wounded person.” Perhaps the jury and judge were thinking of this definition when they convicted Walt. If this is the case, one has to wonder how it is possible to be ticketed and fined for bringing aid to a person in need, and how we the public can allow this to happen.
Sincerely,
Laura Dravenstott
No More Deaths Denver
Please know that I am in total support of Walt Staton and Dan Mills.
Thank you, Walt and Dan, for living the philosophy of non-violent action for creating positive social change.
James
You know the conviction is wrong-headed and cruel. Allow these volunteers to leave water where it will save lives! -- Erik Breilid
Hi, I'm a Unitarian in Florence, Oregon who wants to let you know what you're doing is a good thing and I want to offer my support. A few years ago there was an elderly gentleman in southern Oregon who put out milk jugs full of water along the highway at a steep pass where cars often overheated. He was written up in the local newspaper as a hero...a good samaritan. Putting out jugs of water for people has to be more important! The only difference is they are "Mexicans". I tend to think all of this hype about "illegals" is more about prejudice than it is about resources and money. People are people and when they are suffering, we need to do what we can to ease their pain.
Creig Harrison |
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