Prisoner of Conscience: A Memoir

By Kenneth Kennon

Book Overview

This memoir relates one American's compelling journey of conscience that culminated in a federal prison sentence for a peaceful act of resistance. Kennon was one of twenty-five Americans in a single... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1401025161
• ISBN13: 9781401025168
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Xlibris, Corp.
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 2.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.7" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Put Your Person Where Your Heart Is

Send-off gatherings around the country celebrated the 23 prisoners of conscience who enter federal prison camps this fall 2002. Five others are already serving time for the November, 2001action at Fort Benning. Plane tickets and hotel reservations are already in had for November2002 when thousands more will participate in Sunday afternoon's funeral procession. Some ofthese will also participate in nonviolent civil disobedience risking jail time for their convictions. For those who are looking into the actions at Fort Benning and in DC, Kenneth Kennon's bookfills the bill. During the summer of 1998 Kennon spent six months in La Tuna FederalCorrections Institution for trespassing into Fort Benning. While living and working there, hekept the journal which forms the basis of the book. The introduction describes the soul-searching necessary to participate in nonviolent civil disobedience. While incarcerated, his dayto day experiences of beauty, kindness, work and rest are described alongside the malignity ofprison life. The importance of Communities of Resistance which assist in discernment, organizing, andsupport for those involved in nonviolent civil disobedience is woven throughout the text. Kennon's willingness to follow God's call led him into fellowship with those who oppose theSchool of Americas. Read for yourself this journey. Read for yourself the preparation anddiscernment that preceded his nonviolent civil disobedience. Read for yourself the support hisfamily, his church, and countless others brought him in prison. This Community of Resistance also provided him with many, many books during his prison stay.Authors old and new enlivened him on a daily basis. The books themselves became resources tothe entire prison community. His comments on these texts throughout the memoir add to thereader's appreciation for his journey and for the texts themselves. Original poetry and other writings enriched the memoir with visual images and deeperreflections. ""Over the years I have studied corrections as a sociologist and visited inmates as aclergyman. It is a very different experience being a prisoner,"" writes Kennon. He paints prisonlife with a mixture of pain and humor that captures the ironic picture of a correctional institutionbent on retribution without rehabilitation. An epilogue gives a glimpse into what has happenedsince his release and a brief update on the struggle for peace that caused him, and scores of otherAmericans, to become prisoners of conscience. People are changed in prison. Kennon's description of the shifts in his own spirit during thesesix months encourages the reader to attend to the shifting sands of contemporary life. ...

A Courageous Memoir of Conscience

In November of 1996 Kenneth Kennon, then pastor of a church in Arizona, was sentenced to jail for `crossing the line' at Fort Benning, GA, during a protest aimed at closure of the School of the Americas (SOA), (since renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). Many SOA graduates, trained in counter-insurgency warfare, had been involved in atrocities against civilians during civil wars in Central America during the 1980s. Ken, who has a long history of peaceful protest, had been director of the Sanctuary Movement in Tucson, which provided an Underground Railroad for refugees from Guatemala and El Salvador who were the victims of such atrocities. Ken's involvement with Sanctuary and SOA watch is described in the early chapters.But the central part of the book is based on a diary of his day-to-day experiences in federal prison, days often punctuated by petty harassments and intimidations. Especially hard to take were the unpredictable changes of routine in his work assignments, apparently designed to keep him off balance, the difficulty in obtaining necessary medical care, and the illegal shredding of his mail. Throughout his ordeal, Ken's moral was bolstered by his faith, by correspondence with fellow SOA supporters, and by telephone calls and visits from friends and family members, especially his wife, Mary Ellen. Sprinkled through the text are poems, often inspired by the beauty of nature as viewed from the unique perspective of the prison experience. Since his release Ken continues his work as an SOA Watch activist --he is a pillar of strength for the peace movement generally, and his memoir is an inspiration.