By Thea Jarvis

The scenario is not difficult to imagine.

United States ground forces, already stationed in Central America for military exercises in Honduras, make their way to the Nicaraguan border. In a full-blown invasion, the U.S. attempts to undermine the pro-Sandinista army and make sure and certain aim at the ruling Nicaraguan government, headed by elected president Daniel Ortega.

There are those who will applaud the action. There are those who will protest.

Among the protesters is a growing number of individuals who have taken what is now known as “The Pledge of Resistance”; they are committed to direct, non-violent action in order to dissuade the United States government from following a course of military intervention in Central America.

Specifically, resisters across the country, when contacted by the national network that a direct national military action has taken place, will convene that night at a previously designated church to pray, share information and support one another.

The following morning registers will gather at field offices of U.S. senators and representatives for non-violent vigils lasting from 7a.m. - 7 p.m. During that time, pre-selected individuals will visit with congresspersons and their staffs to dialogue and request opposition to the military intervention. Certain protesters will remain in the offices until these members of Congress have expressed their support, or the until the demonstrators are arrested.

Vigils will continue at congressional field offices until a peaceful solution has been achieved. Continuing dialogue and further civil disobedience will be ongoing.

“There’s already a war going on (in Nicaragua),” believes Ann Coco, staff member of Atlanta Clergy and Laity Concerned who is the state coordinator for the Georgia contingency plan. Ms. Coco spent three weeks this summer in Nicaragua and saw firsthand the violence committed on the border between Nicaragua and Honduras.

Because the border area is a mountainous region, she explained, U.S. backed contras, the anti-Sandinista military forces, can easily block off roads leading into mountain villages and surround them. They enter villages, “murdering and killing” the peasants, kidnapping fathers and sons for military conscription, she charged.

“It’s really dangerous. People are being gunned down in the fields,” she said. Recent evacuations of border villages by the Nicaraguan government appear to confirm her personal experiences.

The contingency plan Ms. Coco is helping to organize in Georgia does not mean heightened level of warfare is inevitable. “We don’t know and we just want to be prepared,” she explained, adding that “Grenada came out of the blue,” and so could stepped-up intervention in Central America.

Preparations, which began at the national level and are coordinated with regional leadership, have included careful direction for those who plan resistance. Broad networking, civil disobedience training sessions, informational workshops and extensive communications with government leaders have been integral to setting up the contingency plan. The plan has been openly presented to churches, every member of Congress, the Department of State and Defense, the CIA and the President.

In “Sojourners” magazine last summer, editor Jim Wallis explained the purpose of the Pledge of Resistance in an article detailing the contingency plan he was personally involved in shaping.

“We hope either to prevent a direct U.S. invasion of Nicaragua or to make such military action so politically costly it will have to be halted. By announcing a credible and coordinated plan of massive public resistance, we hope to forestall an expanded war against Nicaragua. If the U.S. military undertakes direct action against Nicaragua, we will undertake non-violent direct action against it on the largest scale possible. In so doing we hope to bring the issue before the American people, pressure Congress to act, and demand an immediate end to the invasion and the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Nicaragua.”

Since last year, the Pledge of Resistance has been expanded to include a U.S. invasion or major military escalation anywhere in Central America. U.S. air strikes against Nicaragua, invasion by U.S. ground forces of El Salvador or Nicaragua, massive bombings of El Salvador, invasion of Nicaragua with U.S. backed proxy forces, or a naval blockade of Nicaragua are examples.

Why would people get excited about such activity?

“I went down (to Nicaragua) and personally I think (the Sandinista government) is doing a pretty good job,” offered Ann Coco. The real meat and potatoes of the contingency plan, however, goes beyond one person’s political persuasion or the subjective interpretation of complex internal events.

“I’m very much for self-determination. What right do we have to go in and tell them how to run their country?” Ms. Coco asked. “It’s their government - they had an election. Why are we going in to overthrow it? It goes against self-determination, which is supposed to be one of the principles of democracy.”

The contingency plan focuses on the “people who are caught in the middle” of the chaos in Central America, Ann Coco emphasized. Its aim is the absence of a military threat, allowing them to “rebuild their country, plant their crops and live in peace.”

The Pledge of Resistance network is likewise personal in focus. It evolved from a weekend renewal in 1983 during which a number of Christian peace representatives gathered in Northeastern Pennsylvania for a retreat experience. The group had come together just after the U.S. invasion of Grenada and concerns for a similar happening in Central America were running high.

The initial support for the contingency plan spread easily. By 1984, Witness for Peace, the Inter-Religious Task Force on Central America, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Pax Christi, the New Call to Peacemaking, World Peacemakers, Clergy and Laity Concerned, the American Friends Service Committee, SANE and “Sojourners” were all involved on the national level.

But the groundswell of support - close to 50,000 have signed the Pledge of Resistance nationwide - comes from individual, personal commitments made by those who are seriously concerned about peace in this hemisphere.

“This is the best approach to avoid a crisis -- organizing, educating, discussing -- an active movement to prevent a crisis rather than a reaction when it begins,” said Sister Kathy Tomlin, Christian Council staff member and local plan coordinator for the Fifth Congressional District of Georgia.

She sees involvement in such resistance as “an opportunity to bring faith and politics together and become active in preventing a castrophe.”

Many Georgians have already put themselves on the line about Central America; Ann Coco estimates that close to 400 have signed the Pledge of Resistance. But, Sister Tomlin acknowledges that there is a certain reserve that restrains people from endorsing the contingency plan.

“Although there is a lot of interest out there, until the bombs begin to fly or the invasion is called, there’s a hesitancy to be involved,” she feels. “We’re so much better at putting out fires than preventing them.”

One community in her congressional district that has not held back from accepting the plan is St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Atlanta’s West End. There, pastor Father John Adamski found his parish council “quite supportive” when the Christian Council asked that St. Anthony’s serve as a gathering church for the Fifth District.

“I felt it was important to stand against militarism,” Father Adamski said of his position. “In my mind and to the majority of members of our parish council, our church should serve as headquarters. We were standing against a military solution and our people were concerned about reconciliation.”

St. Anthony’s will be one of many communities to participate in an upcoming “test” of the contingency plan’s networking viability. Around mid-March, when Congress meets to vote on further aid to the contras currently fighting to overthrow the Sandinista government, a national directive will go out urging those who have signed the Pledge of Resistance to lobby their representatives in Washington for a vote against the aid package. This will involve intensive mail and phone communication in an effort to stop the aid, which has been heavily promoted by the Reagan administration.

Sister Kathy Tomlin thinks the grass roots effort could be a major stumbling block to the executive agenda. Already the FBI has infiltrated churches and arrests have been made on reaction to the sanctuary movement, which is a church network of shelters for people fleeing violence in Central America who are considered illegal aliens in the U.S.

“I think there is some deep concern (in Washington) about the power of a popular movement about Nicaragua,” she said decisively.