Jeanette Fordyce

CORRECTED 10/17 (see below) | Arrests might not seem like a badge of honor to most people, but Steve Clemens noted that he had been arrested with at least ten previous honorees of the Vincent L. Hawkinson Foundation for Peace and Justice.  The Hawkinson Foundation's annual award is given to individuals who have made a long and significant contribution to the cause of peace and social justice.  More than 120 people came to honor Clemens and five young scholars for their peace and justice work on Sunday, October 14, at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Roseville.

“This award is an encouragement to keep on doing this work, not to sit on one’s laurels,” said Clemens. “This award is a community effort rather than an individual accomplishment.”  As a peacemaker and activist for more than 35 years, Clemens has risked numerous arrests and gone to prison for his anti-war efforts.

Along with many others he tried to block the White Train carrying nuclear warheads to a submarine base off the Georgia coast in 1985.  He was part of the protests of weapons manufacturer Alliant Techsystem, with arrests in 1997, 2003, and 2004. He traveled to Iraq, before the United States went to war, as part of the Iraq Peace Team and spoke to 65 groups after his trip.  He is active in the Iraq and American Reconciliation Project and traveled to Afghanistan in 2011 as part of an international peace delegation.  He is planning on returning to Iraq soon.