July 20, 2006

Bill Houston, with the sign he often wears in the Saturday peace vigil on Xenia Avenue, recently ended a two-week fast to protest the war in Iraq. He is with his wife, Hazel Tulecke.

By Diane Chiddister

Many things have changed in the almost 70 years since Bill Houston accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He was nine years old then, and part of a devoutly religious Southern Baptist family in Georgia. Now, Houston is retired after teaching math at Antioch College for 29 years, belongs to the Yellow Springs Friends Meeting and no longer believes in God.

But some things have not changed, Houston, 77, said in a recent interview. Most important, Houston still feels pulled by the pledge he made all those years ago to live a life that reflects core moral teachings.

“What that means has changed tremendously for me, but I still feel a kind of obligation to do better on that than I have,” he said. “There’s something there that speaks to me.”

Houston especially cares about upholding the Biblical commandment that humans should not kill one another. He believes that there are no exceptions to that commandment, even in war, and that belief has led Houston to pacifism.

On July 4 Houston took his commitment to pacifism a step further. He began a two-week fast to protest the United States military involvement in Iraq. The fast ended this week on Tuesday, July 18.

Houston’s fast was part of a nationwide effort, Troops Home Fast, coordinated by the antiwar group Code Pink, in which more than 3,000 people began fasts on July 4 to protest the war in Iraq. Some people fasted for a day, some will fast for weeks or months, and others have pledged to open-ended fasts to express their opposition to the war, according to an e-mail message. Fasters include Daniel Ellsberg, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Bonnie Raitt, Alice Walker, Howard Zinn and Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier who died in Iraq.

To Houston, the Iraqi war, with its cycles of terrorism and counter-terrorism, its rapes, bombings and beheadings, illustrates what he deeply believes: that violence leads to more violence, and that war is never an adequate solution to complex human problems.

“The killing on both sides, the terrorism, the torture — it just goes on and on,” he said.

Houston has opposed the war in Iraq since its beginning, he said, and his opposition has only deepened as sectarian violence has increased and tens of thousands of civilians have died. The war in Iraq seems to him to have destabilized rather than stabilized the Middle East, and he feels especially concerned that the United States government’s threats against Iran will further widen the conflict.

“There are so many ramifications to the war that one hardly knows where to begin,” he said.

This week’s deepening conflict in the Middle East also reflects the escalating nature of violence, Houston believes. While this recent conflict was sparked when the terrorist group Hezbollah entered Israel and kidnapped two soldiers, to say that the conflict began then is “to terribly oversimplify,” the problem, according to Houston. He believes that, like many conflicts, the Israeli/Lebanese one “goes back and back” in history as both sides respond violently to what they perceive as violence having been committed against them.

“More of us need to know how to confront problems nonviolently,” he said. “It’s something we need to work on. People like Gandhi and King have shown us some of the next steps we need to take.”

Houston is the first to admit that he doesn’t know how effective fasting is as a nonviolent strategy.

“Like most people I have my own doubts,” he said. “I don’t think that Brother Bush and Brother Cheney care if I fast.”

Gandhi described fasting as “the sincerest form of prayer,” according to a Code Pink e-mail, and while Houston doesn’t pray in the traditional way, he does meditate and finds that fasting provides opportunities to reflect on “how to relate to other people better,” he said. Some people choose to fast in order to deepen their commitment to a cause, he believes, and others find that fasting sparks new ideas for nonviolent actions.

A longtime social justice activist, Houston has fasted for two-week periods before, and he said that in the past he experienced some nausea and loss of energy, but not much. This time around, at age 77, he has found the nausea to be more pronounced, but he still swims 16 laps at the Antioch pool each day and rides his bike around town. And after fasting on only water the first week, he added juices the second, partly out of consideration for his wife, Hazel Tulecke, who was worried about his health, he said.

While he can’t say that his fasting will influence the world, Houston said he feels grateful to be part of a national effort for peace.

“Things will be better off when more people are able to act out of love, common sense and solidarity rather than revenge and hatred,” he said.

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com