MEMO FROM THE EDITOR
MEMO from the Editor Hardened Criminal Bonnie Urfer is a soft-spoken, kind, gentle woman who cares deeply about her fellow human beings. If you had called on her recently—during visiting hours,...
...When I asked her how many times she has been in jail in the last couple of years, Bonnie said, "I lost track a while ago...
...She also wrote a remarkable piece—"Memoirs of a Normal Childhood"—for the Last Word page of our October 1986 issue...
...I violated my probation...
...When she worked at The Progressive, Bonnie occasionally took a few days of personal leave or vacation to participate in antiwar actions—sitting in at a missile site, following a nuclear-bomb convoy from the factory to its destination, attending a major demonstration...
...In the spirit of peace and justice, in the spirit of speaking truth to power, in the spirit of the resistance of the White Rose, I ask you to change your allegiance and meet the needs of the people...
...If you should visit Bonnie Urfer next time she's in jail and ask her what such a nice person is doing behind bars, she would probably tell you what she told a local newspaper reporter during her last stretch: "I'm under no illusions that anything I do is going to end the arms race...
...Meanwhile, Bonnie and another Nukewatch staff member, Jane Simonds, have organized an effort they call the Women's Jail Project, which offers support to women inmates by organizing workshops behind bars, conducting asser-tiveness training, providing personal help, and defending inmates' rights...
...I refuse to pay any fines to the U.S...
...Her offense was violating the terms of her probation on a previous sentence by "trespassing" on a military site...
...When the U.S...
...But she expects to be back—many times...
...For three years in the mid-1980s, Bonnie was a member of The Progressive's business staff, serving as assistant to the circulation director...
...If you had called on her recently—during visiting hours, of course—while she was serving a thirty-day sentence in the sixth-floor cell-block of the Dane County Jail in Madison, Wisconsin, you might have been moved to ask what such a nice person was doing behind bars...
...Box 1592, Madison WI 53701-1592...
...I think, all in all, they just decided they didn't want me there any more," Bonnie says...
...I will continue to break the law...
...I will always serve my community by defying this Government as it follows in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler in its plans and preparations to indiscriminately murder millions of innocent people...
...Government rids this land of all nuclear weapons, weapons of indiscriminate mass destruction, I will reconsider my actions...
...Government, knowing the money will be used to further the destruction of this country...
...If you ask me what Bonnie Urfer is doing behind bars, I'll tell you that she's doing time for you...
...It's important to me in a personal way...
...According to court records, her latest stint— which began on her thirty-sixth birthday-was her seventh...
...And for me...
...This is what Bonnie told the court: "I broke the law...
...I refuse to pay court costs to this Federal court, knowing that you selectively prosecute individuals while the Government itself does nothing about its own violations of international laws, Nuremberg principles, and numerous international treaties to protect the people of the world against mass murder...
...But I could not live my life without having tried...
...I refuse any suggestion of community service...
...Bonnie Urfer was released from the Dane County Jail six days ahead of time...
...I will continue to violate my probation...
...I couldn't not do something...
...A couple of years ago, Bonnie decided that she needed to make peace her full-time work, so she left the magazine, much to our regret, and moved across town to the Progressive Foundation, where she joined the antiwar Nukewatch education project directed by The Progressive's former managing editor, Samuel H. Day Jr...
...It has been reprinted by a number of organizations that deal with the problem of child abuse...
...Since then, Bonnie Urfer has become a hardened criminal...
...Readers who want to know more about these activities or would like to set up similar programs can write to Bonnie Urfer at the Women's Jail Project, P.O...
...Bonnie doubts it, noting that she created some problems by fasting during her confinement and by protesting against the habit of having male deputies wander through the women's cellblock during shower hours...
...The jailers said she received time off for good behavior as a "model prisoner...
Vol. 52 • April 1988 • No. 4
