Oxford Citizens for Peace & Justice

January 27, 2026

“If you want peace…”

In a January 25, 2026 press conference, “the man who could have been Vice-President of the United States”, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, declared that we are at an inflection point in our country. “What’s the plan Donald Trump? What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state? …We’re peaceful but we’ll never forget. We’re angry but we won’t give up hope. And above all else, we are clearly unified… We believe in law and order in this state, we believe in peace, and we believe that Donald Trump needs to pull these 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another person, and we’re up here telling another story of a Minnesotan who is just trying to live their life without the interference. To Americans who are watching this right now… I’ve got a question for all of you. “What side do you want to be on?“ The side of an all-powerful federal government that can kill, menace, injure and kidnap its citizens off the streets, or the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to this government, or the side of a mother whose last words were, “I’m not mad at you.”, the side of tens of thousands of citizens who showed up to march when the wind chill was 40 below… We’re no longer having a political debate, we’re having a moral debate…this is an inflection point, America. If we cannot all agree that the smearing of an American citizen, and besmirching everything they stood for, and asking us not to believe what we all saw, I don’t know what else to tell you…This is not “We need to see both sides,”, this is not “We need to wait for that,” this is basic human decency.”

If you need more information about the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by ICE agents, there are many available sources, go to your trusted source of information, watch Governor Walz’s press conference, watch the video recordings of the shooting, listen and watch carefully, trust your eyes and ears, put the story into your own words, name the feelings you are having.
If you are having difficulty being able to tell the story, in your own words, of what happened to Renee Nicole Good or Alex Pretti in Minneapolis or, closer to home, Imam Ayman Soliman, who was an ICE detainee in the Butler County Jail for 73 days, listen to their stories from sources you trust. Gather with others in your family and community who also want to tell the stories, and say them out loud, write them down.
Put a name to the emotions the stories invoke. Governor Walz gives some choices…tired, resolved, angry, curious, scornful, wonder, horror…
What are your deeply held beliefs about right and wrong? Strongly held emotions often signal affirmations or violations of the principles we live by which, for me, include violence is not the answer, individual rights do not justify the proliferation of any deadly weapons–from guns to drones to missiles, no one is above the law, and many others.
Honor your truth, the stories of the lives and deaths we hear about every day now, and the emotions you experience. Trust your reactions, and affirm that you matter, your reactions matter. If you believe that any part of these events, these situations, are wrong, acknowledge that how you behave, once you have this truth, is an action, a reaction. Most of us have many choices about how we can act. We have more choices especially if we have privilege because of skin color, or gender, or citizenship status, or social class, or religious affiliation.
Make a choice and, when you are ready, take one small action, or your thousandth big one. Maybe you were born an activist and have been acting for peace and justice for decades. Fortify yourself, keep on protesting and writing and running for office, and connect with or mentor a family member, friend or neighbor, and grow the movement. Just a few options:
Democracy requires civic engagement. Vote for representatives, including primary voting on or before May 5, 2026. Communicate with representatives, so when you have a clear message on how your US Senators should vote on the government funding bill this week, call and tell them: Jon Husted, 202-224-3353; Bernie Moreno, 202-224-2315. Call US Representative Warren Davidson, 202-225-6205, to tell him what you thought of his “Yea” votes on HR 7147 and HR 7148 last week. In the future, call him before the vote happens
Attend peaceful protests. 1,500 of your neighbors attended “No Kings 2” in Uptown Oxford this past summer, I hope we saw you there. There will be an uptown event for “No Kings 3” this spring. Until then, gather in solidarity at smaller vigils, and protest virtually by contacting representatives, OR…
Join organizations whose missions you can support, become a member, make a donation as you are able, attend programming. For me, I join members of Butler County Immigrant Justice, who have been bearing witness, speaking their truths to the power of the Butler County Commissioners, each Tuesday morning at 9:30 at the government building at 315 High St in Hamilton, demanding the end of Sheriff Jones’ contract to house ICE detainees in the Butler County Jail. Or call the Commissioners at 513-887-3247 and send the message you want them to hear.
OCPJ is one of those organizations. Join us on Wednesday, February 18 at 6:00 pm in the Havighurst Room of Lane Library Oxford to discuss the book by Dr. Brianna Nofil, The Migrant’s Jail: An American History of Mass Incarceration. As of January 27, 2026, you can pick up a FREE copy of the book at the Reference Desk on the 2^nd floor of Lane Library Oxford, donated by OCPJ, first-come-first-served. The book is also available through the Libby app, if you have a library card. Joining us on February 18 will help you be ready to interact in person with Nofil, a professor of American history at William & Mary, who will be the Strippel Program speaker this year. Greet her in 322 McGuffey Hall on Wednesday, February 25 at 5:00—she gives a great talk on the history of “collaboration” between County Sheriffs and the federal government to house immigrant detainees as early as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the primary motivation being profits for local governments.
With the destruction of federal safety nets that were created so that all of our neighbors have their basic survival needs met, fill the resource gaps locally by donating to TOPSS, Oxford Seniors, the Oxford Free Clinic, and other non-profit service providers who are overwhelmed by the growing challenges for the most vulnerable members of our community.
Turn your focus globally and become more familiar with terms like genocide, imperialism, war, colonization, trillionaire, and places like Venezuela, Greenland, Ukraine, Somalia. Repeat everything I’ve suggested above, in relation to war not only on American cities and citizens, but the entire world.
Turn to your faith community and focus your spiritual calling explicitly on human rights, justice and peace
Make a financial donation at the level you are able to, to support good work you endorse. But make sure your own well-being is stable first.
Acknowledge the courage it takes to do all this when more and more of our neighbors and representatives in governments seem to believe that violence IS the answer. These suggestions make us vulnerable in different ways than we already are. Sign up for trainings through groups that have been doing this for decades, to be as wise and impactful as possible. Groups like 50501, States at the Core, SURJ.
Alex Pretti’s parents described him as a “kindhearted soul.” They also rejected the DHS’ account of the shooting, calling the statements “sickening lies.” ”We are heartbroken but also very angry,” their recent statement began. “Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact.”
Demonstrate these values in your profession—as teachers, nurses, law enforcement officers, elected officials, caretakers for your grandchildren or your grandmothers.
Our truths are who we are and how we live…understand them, embrace them, change them if they don’t work, and join with others who share them to amplify your impact and chance of being able to live by them.

Our mission is to educate and act locally to recruit and organize a citizens’ movement with the sustained political power to construct a world of peace with social, economic, and environmental justice. Our geographic home is Oxford, Ohio (the home of Miami University).

Our office and resource center is located at 16 S. Campus Avenue, Oxford, OH 45056 (upstairs in the front of the Interfaith Center). You can contact our facilitator, Ann Fuehrer, at facilitator@ocpjohio.org, for information.

Memberships and donations are the main source of support for the Peace and Justice Resource Center and for many OCPJ activities. Your financial support and participation are critical to OCPJ’s efforts to further peace and justice through education and action. Please consider joining or making a donation to OCPJ and/or the Bloom Peace Education Fund. Renew or join now, and participate–because… well, quite simply, we need you.

RECENT PROJECTS:

*Bread not Bombs 2025

On November 1, our 39^th Bread not Bombs gathering was a wonderful celebration of the power of individuals to come together in community to act for justice. Some twenty volunteers, members and friends of Oxford Citizens for Peace and Justice, cooked rice and beans, set up tables, greeted guests, served and cleaned up the buffet, and sold swag from our market. Eighty of us listened to and sang along with the music of Judy and Warren Waldron, and acknowledged the accomplishments of the three recipients of our annual Peace and Justice Awards: Rick Momeyer, Sue Momeyer, and members of the recently-formed group, Butler County for Immigrant Justice.

OCPJ’s Board has given annual Peace and Justice Awards since 1986, to recognize the efforts and successes of local activists. The focuses of our three recipients for 2025 are varied, but all of them demonstrate the importance of their roles in citizen movements that empower individuals to resist and transform oppressive institutions.

Rick Momeyer first came to Oxford as a member of SNCC in 1964 to participate in Freedom Summer training. His commitment to political action was an important part of his identity as a member of the faculty in the Department of Philosophy at Miami over more than four decades. In Rick’s own words (excerpted):

Once gainfully employed by Miami University in 1969, I largely practiced the kind of engagement urged by Think Globally, Act Locally. Highlights include:

Protesting police brutality on April 15, 1970 when I observed a Butler Co. sheriff’s deputy drop a gas grenade in a group of 3 students quietly talking to each other standing outside of Rowan Hall that other students had occupied protesting U.S. military aggression against Vietnamese. It mostly got me a night in jail, a public threat from the U pres to fire me, and the ire of my 8 month+ pregnant wife. But it did seem to encourage further protest as to how the U dealt with peaceful protestors who admittedly broke a lock to enter a U building.

Working with a handful of students to establish a Tenants’ Union.

Faculty advisor to the YSA (Young Socialist Alliance), the Gay People of Oxford, and the Miami Secular Students Association.

As a member of the CSA (Committee for Socialist Alternatives), along with Sue, we collectively persuaded the BOT of MU to disinvest in corps that did business in or with apartheid S. Africa. Success! Until at the next BOT meeting, they rescinded the resolution under political and administrative pressure.

As only one of many, I managed to finally persuade admin to dump the racist, stereotypical “mascot redskin.” Also, with many others persuaded admin to extend partner benefits to gay and lesbian couples–the first public u in OH to do so, and well before such marriages were legally affirmed.

Whenever there were efforts to diversify the faculty by hiring women (rarely done before 1975), or Black people (virtually never done before 1970, Heanon Wilkinson being the exception that proved the rule!) I was glad to support them. At one point I found a very able Black philosopher to hire, only to have the Dean’s promise to do so pulled back.

I count in the success column helping to create and sustain a functioning socialist collective known as the Philosophy Department which lasted nearly 30 years. The dept. annually pissed off admin by distributing salary increments either equally, or giving more to the least paid. Similarly, other dept. duties, course assignments, teaching schedules, leaves, were distributed by consensus.

I loudly, repeatedly, protested in the U senate admin’s rollback of employee benefits when fees were imposed for health insurance and there was no adequate compensation. To no avail.

I count it as a success that as pres. of MUFA in the mid 80’s we sufficiently organized the faculty to the point of collecting enough authorizations to hold an election on collective bargaining. It was an expected failure to not win the election, but we saw it as only the beginning and we would do better next time. “Next time” was 35 years later.

The one enduring success I can claim–and here most of the credit goes to Art Miller–was getting MU to own the history it had inherited when it bought out Western College. Conferences and the Memorial are the tangible product; the use of Freedom Summer and the training of volunteers which MU touts generally slides over the institution’s hostile reception to both in 1964.

On the face of it, this is an activist record of limited success. But I try to think of it as just one aspect of a longer struggle for justice and equality that are among the very hardest goals for human beings to achieve, and that no one person can achieve or claim credit for; all persons of conscience, whatever their inspiration, are in this struggle together, and of necessity, for the long haul. Personally, I regard activism for progressive change as much like teaching: as much as anything else, it is planting seeds we hope will bear fruit in the future, but rarely do we find out whether they germinated, still less taste the fruit! And too, I am inspired by the frequently offered advice of a man who for several years was the best friend I had, well before he, John Lewis, became a world historical figure: sometimes it is a good thing to get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble.

Sue Momeyer also came to Oxford in 1969. I sat down with Sue to talk about her decades-long commitment to justice. She did not write out her thoughts as Rick did, so the recounting is much shorter. Before Sue came to Oxford, she and Rick had spent the summer of 1965 with the North Shore Summer Project (NSSP) which organized earlier that year to survey Chicago’s northern suburb communities to determine attitudes towards open housing in private transactions, and a campaign to promote non-discriminatory property listings. The NSSP gained more than 10,000 residents’ signatures on their petition calling for equal housing opportunities across the northern suburbs.

I first met Sue in the mid 1980’s when she was the Director of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Oxford. I joined the Board of the organization at that point, and I had a wonderful experience on that first Board I ever belonged to, in large part because of Sue’s effectiveness. Sue served in administrative roles with Planned Parenthood for another 20+ years, and even now, long after officially retiring, she and Rick recently co-hosted a Voices for Choice event to support Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region.

For Sue, the personal is political, and her commitment to family planning, reproductive rights, and women’s healthcare was a calling that spoke to her, and allowed her to act on her values. Starting out in Oxford as a “faculty wife” and public school English teacher, she was a member of a consciousness raising group in the early 1970s. She began at Planned Parenthood as a counselor in 1975, and her role evolved as the form that Planned Parenthood took in. Southwest Ohio changed, because of the larger political context. Sue enjoyed providing the services, but not the politics. She was pulled into politics, and the resulting threats of violence. She was once sent a bomb in the mail, and regularly wore a bullet-proof vest to work when there were large protests at Planned Parenthood’s Mt. Auburn Center. Sue dates the pollicization of Planned Parenthood from the 1980s to this past summer, as the organization’s role was increasingly isolated as being an abortion provider. Sue asserts that family planning must be an essential service of Medicaid, but it is no longer covered. Ohio voters passing state Issue 1 in 2023 was crucial. The significance of Planned Parenthood providing abortions has only increased.

Sue generously spoke with an ILR course OCPJ sponsored several years ago, “Bodily Autonomy and Reproductive Justice: What’s the government got to do with it?”. The class’s positive response to her passions and insights signaled, to me, the significance of Sue’s role in the mission of groups like OCPJ in building larger citizens’ movements for justice.

Butler County Immigrant Justice is a recently-formed, nonpartisan grassroots group formed to resist butler County’s ICE contract that allows the county to hold immigrant detainees in the Butler County Jail. The group advocates for immigrants who are detained without a chance to be heard in a court of law and pose no threat to our common welfare. By using the Butler County Jail as an ICE detention center, Butler County is participating in an unjust system that harms our country and our community. Goals include terminating Butler County’s contract with ICE, and raising awareness with the Butler County Commissioners and the public about the negative impact to our community. The group stands for justice and due process for all, and fair and humane immigration laws. They stand against treating individuals with undetermined legal status as criminals, incarceration of these individuals in the Butler County Jail, forcible separation of families, and racial and ethnic profiling.

To act in solidarity with BCIJ, a number of OCPJ members and friends have officially joined the group. We can attend County Commissioner meetings and state our views—the group has been speaking at weekly meetings for four months, and a number of OCPJ members have made statements there. The meetings are every Tuesday (though the next one is on November 13 because of the Veterans’ Day holiday) at 9:30 on the second floor of the Government Services Building at 315 High St. in Hamilton. We can also call the Butler County Commissioners at 513-887-3247 and voice our views, or write a letter to a newspaper editor and share our views with friends. Contact BCIJ at ButlerCountyImmigrantJustice@gmail.com

The OCPJ P&J Award to BCIJ was accepted by co-founders Anne Jantzen, Ann Brown and Helen Madsen.

The 2026 Bread not Bombs gathering will mark its 40^th year. If you missed out this year, save the first Saturday in November to join us! And check out OCPJ’s facebookpage https://www.facebook.com/groups/185403008216446for photos from the event.

ARCHIVE OF PAST EVENTS:

*August 2, 2024 Letter-to-the-Editor, the Oxford Free Press

“Oxford Citizens for Peace and Justice reading challenged books at Books on the Bricks”

Submitted by Barbara Ann Caruso, Board President, and Ann Fuehrer, Facilitator, Oxford Citizens for Peace and Justic

For the second year, members of Oxford Citizens for Peace and Justice (OCPJ) will be part of the August 2^nd Red Brick Friday Books on the Bricks. OCPJ’s focus at the event will be on exhibiting and reading aloud books that have been banned or challenged somewhere in the United States. In 2023, the American Library Association (ALA) documented the highest number of titles targeted for censorship since ALA began compiling data more than 20 years ago. 4,240 unique titles were challenged last year, up from 2,571 targeted in 2022. Common reasons given for challenging the availability of children’s, teen and adult books are LGBTQIA+ themes, being sexually explicit, or advocating for racial justice. Some of the challenged books are authored by Nobel, National Book Award, and Pulitzer Prize winners.

In a June 13, 2024 Oxford Free Press story, Taylor Stumbaugh identified the important efforts of Oxford Area PFLAG, the Talawanda School District, and Oxford Lane Library to maintain titles locally from a wide variety of authors and perspectives. We support the choices being made by local decision-makers. These efforts are increasingly necessary, because of bills making their way through the Ohio state legislature: House Bills 556 and 662, both of which are opposed by the Ohio Federation of Teachers. These bills would limit the decision-making power of teachers and librarians, and prohibit display and discussion of materials deemed obscene or harmful to juveniles. Stumbaugh quoted local resident Megan Kuykendoll, who is a professor, parent, and PFLAG officer. Kuykendoll, according to Stumbaugh, doesn’t want her kids to live in a community where public libraries’ shelves are devoid of queer identities and LGBTQ representation. ALA statistics show that the #1 challenged book in 2023 was Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe. It has been challenged because of LGBTQIA+ content, and it has been deemed to be sexually explicit.

Come join us uptown on August 2^nd at 6:00 pm to see which of your childhood favorites have been challenged or banned, consider yourself lucky to have had access to them growing up, and join activism to keep them available now! For more information about OCPJ, visit our website at ocpjohio.org, or email facilitator@ocpjohio.org.

BOOKS SHOULD BE READ, NOT BANNED!

August 2024 Oxford Citizens for Peace and Justice facilitator@ocpjohio.org

If you want to check out examples of children’s picture and chapter books, identified as challenged, for a variety of reasons, by the American Library Association, or by Hannah Natanson in an article in the July 12, 2023 issue of The Washington Post, check out these. They are all available in the Lane Library system:

Allan, Nicholas Where Willy Went biology of sex

Brannen, Sarah S. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding LGBTQIA+ content

Browne, Mahogany L. Woke: A young poet’s call to justice anti-racism

Curtis, Christopher Paul The Watsons go to Birmingham—1963. Black history

Gale, Heather. Ho’onani: Hula Warrior. Challenge traditional gender roles

George, Jean Craighead Julie of the Wolves. Socialist, communist, evolutionary, anti-family

Hanford, Martin Where’s Waldo? Topless female

Harris, Robie. It’s perfectly normal: Changing bodies, growing up, sex, and sexual health biology of sex

Harris, Robie It’s so amazing!: A book about eggs, sperm, birth, babies and families biology of sex

Kellogg, Steven. Pinkerton, Behave! Violent image

Kendi, Ibram X Antiracist Baby. Anti-racism

L’Engle, Madeleine A wrinkle in time. Nature of presentation of religious content

Love, Jessica. Julian is a mermaid. Challenge traditional gender roles

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Adult content

Lukoff, Kyle. When Aidan became a brother. LGBTQIA+ content

Merriam, Eve. Halloween ABC. Demonic content, promotion of violence

Neal, DeShanna. My rainbow. LGBTQIA+ content

Newman, Leslea. Heather has two mommies. LGBTQIA+ content

Parr, Todd. The Family Book. LGBTQIA+ content

Paterson, Katherine. The Great Gilly Hopkins. Profane language

Polacco, Patricia. In our mothers’ house. LGBTQIA+ content

Richardson, Justin. And tango makes three. LGBTQIA+ content

Rodgers, Mary. Freaky Friday. Advocacy of violence

Sendak, Maurice. In the night kitchen. Portrayal of child nudity

Silverstein, Shel. A light in the attic. Advocacy of violence

Smith, Jeff. Bone adventures. Violence, racism, political viewpoint

Thorn, Theresa. It feels good to be yourself. Challenge traditional gender roles

*ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Spring 2024 ILR. “Climate crises and environmental justice: Who is left out in the cold?”

The theme for this year’s Altman lecture series at Miami is “Environmental Justice.” The title of the March 19 lecture is provocative: Julie Sze, of the University of California, Davis, “Climate Justice as Freedom.” In this ILR class, Ann Fuehrer, Facilitator, Oxford Citizens for Peace and Justice, invites students and guest speakers to discuss: What is environmental justice? How is environmental justice threatened by climate crises? What are threats to environmental justice in Oxford–how are climate changes related to homelessness? Does Oxford’s Climate Action Plan address justice? Is EarthFest about justice? In Sze’s lecture title, freedom from/to what?

April 3: Course overview, frameworks of Intersectional Environmentalism and Environmental Justice, Under Western Eyes.

Ann Fuehrer & Barbara Ann Caruso

April 10: Environmental justice and sustainable development

Naaborle Sackeyfio

April 17: City of Oxford Climate Action Plan

David Prytherch

April 24: Local, individual and group activism

Peggy Branstrator & Carla Blackmar Rice

May 1: Reflections on the course and EarthFest—where now?

Ann Fuehrer & Barbara Ann Caruso

Resources:

Before April 10: The Intersectional History of Environmentalism, Video, with Leah Thomas

Before April 17: Towards a Sustainable, Resilient Future: A Climate Action Plan for Oxford, Ohio

“Environmental Justice”, the 2023-2024 John W. Altman Program in the Humanitie

April 18 lecture: “Black Ecofeminism and Abolitionist Ecology”, Jennifer James, Assoc Prof of English, George Washington University, 5:00 pm in Shriver Center Heritage Room
April 19 lecture: “Everything is going to have to be put back”: Responsibility and repair in the Anthropocene, Michelle Neely, Assoc. Prof of English, Connecticut College, 1:00 pm in Shriver Center Heritage Room

April 20 festival: Earth Fest, Uptown Park, 11 am-2 pm

*FREEDOM TO LEARN AND READ!

BOOKS SHOULD BE READ, NOT BANNED!