Steve Clemens

Steve Clemens's picture

Biography

About me

I'm a resident of Minneapolis and a peace and social justice activist. I'm a member of the Community of St. Martin and serve on the Boards of Pax Christi Twin Cities Area and the Iraqi/American Reconciliation Project (IARP). I also served as a member of the MN Peace Team during the RNC in 2008. I was part of the Iraq Peace Team in December 2002 and traveled to Afghanistan in March 2011 to plant trees for peace with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers.

Personal Web site: 
Mennonista blog
Column: 
Mennonista

Creating peace via Skype

By Steve Clemens, Mennonista

We were told to expect the AYPV boys at our office lodgings at 4:30 AM because the Global Day of Listening was scheduled to begin by 5:30. They arrived a little late because they had been on the phone to others around the world since 10 PM last night. The plan for today was to continue the conversations over Skype connections on the internet.

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Mennonista

Planting trees, burning candles

By Steve Clemens, Mennonista

In the morning we walked in groups of five for about 30-45 minutes through our area of Kabul en route to our morning activity. I awoke at 4 AM to use the bathroom and when the call to prayer was broadcast from the nearby mosque about 40 minutes later, I knew it was time to get up because the dogs on the street also joined the chorus.

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Mennonista

Three powerful perspectives on Afghanistan

By Steve Clemens, Mennonista

I couldn't afford to give in to jet lag after my arrival in Afghanistan this morning after 3 flights and layovers totaling 40 hours before reaching my floor space in a Kabul office of a small nonprofit human rights organization formed by some very dedicated Afghan women eight months ago.

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Mennonista

Have visa, will travel [to Afghanistan]

By Steve Clemens, Mennonista

"Praise the Lord and pass the tree-seedlings [or other nonviolent equivalents of ammunition]." Finally, after a nerve-racking 2-week wait, I received my visa (and Passport back) from the Afghan Embassy in Washington, DC.

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Mennonista

30 years ago I climbed a fence and went to prison

By Steve Clemens, Mennonista

At the dawn of the Reagan Presidency, just after the death of my father-in-law, I was sentenced to 6 months in Federal Prison because I climbed a fence. Five months earlier 8 peacemakers committed what was to become the first of many "Plowshares" actions, a nonviolent attempt to "beat [nuclear] swords into plowshares". The where and why of the story explains the consequence.

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Mennonista

Learning from Cuba: What has become of the revolution?

By Steve Clemens, Mennonista

My friend Colin really liked an oil painting of Che Guevara that he saw in a little shop in the "Old Havana" part of the city. Che was one of the intellectual and military leaders of the revolution to overthrow the corrupt Batista regime in Cuba in the late 1950s.

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Mennonista

Learning from Cuba: Observations and reflections of my pilgrimage, part 3

By Steve Clemens, Mennonista

Author's note: From November 27-December 4, 2010 I traveled (legally!) to Cuba as part of a 18-member delegation from St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis. We went to celebrate the installation of Griselda Delgado as the new Episcopalian Bishop of Cuba.

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Mennonista

Learning from Cuba: Observations and reflections of my pilgrimage, part 2

By Steve Clemens, Mennonista

Author's note: From November 27-December 4, 2010 I traveled (legally!) to Cuba as part of a 18-member delegation from St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis. We went to celebrate the installation of Griselda Delgado as the new Episcopalian Bishop of Cuba.

MORE »
Mennonista

Learning from Cuba: Observations and reflections of my pilgrimage, part 1

By Steve Clemens, Mennonista

Author's note: From November 27 through December 4, 2010 I traveled (legally!) to Cuba as part of a 18-member delegation from St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis. We went to celebrate the installation of Griselda Delgado as the new Episcopalian Bishop of Cuba.

MORE »
Mennonista
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