By SJ Otto
I first moved to Wichita sometime 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 Eagle, February 1, 1983.
Thank you for this. I have been wondering about my old crowd in Wichita and have done a few google searches over the years.
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