Today I joined my Catholic Worker friends Don and Roberta in a public protest of military training of war and killing at Marquette University. Afterwards Don and Roberta were going to drop of a letter to the President of Marquette University asking that Marquette University be Faithful to the Gospel and No Longer Host Departments of Military Sciences. They were going to drop off the protest signs at their car and I told them I would meet them at the President’s office in the administration.

I saw a Marquette University Security officer that was checking us out was now in the corridor of the administration building. So I entered by another entrance and had made it to the elevator when I heard him call out my name. I ignored him and stepped into the elevator. The security officer put his foot in the door holding the elevator and asked me to get out of the elevator. He was calling me by my name yet kept asking me my name. I asked him why I was being stopped. He said I was banned from Marquette. Having once been ‘banned’ by Marquette University and arrested for breaking the banning order, I knew what being banned met. I was unbanned by Marquette and even had a letter to that effect from the legal counsel of Marquette University.

Facts do not matter to a security officer who are “just following orders”. Eventually two other security officers arrived and they physically lifted me up and pushed me out of the elevator and side door. I saw one of my friends observing what was going on and knew that if I occupied the three officers my friends could go up the elevator and to the president’s officer.

I stayed at the doors keeping all three security officer occupied. Eventually my friends came and said we could now go. While I was occupying the security officers they were able to enter the President’s office and were able to personally deliver the letter they prepared to him. He said he would read it.

So being a scapegoat has side benefits. By being a decoy and attracting the attention of the security officers my friends were able to deliver the letter personally to the President of Marquette University, something they would not be able to do if I was with them.

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