The Irish tell a story of a man who arrives at the gates of heaven and asks to be let in. St. Peter says, “Of course, just show us your scars.” The man says, “I have no scars.” St. Peter says, “What a pity. Was there nothing worth fighting for?”
—MARTIN SHEEN
“For as long as he’s been a public figure, and long before that, Martin Sheen has been a tireless champion for social justice. His go-the-extra-mile commitment to service has inspired countless people around the globe, including his West Wing family.
MELISSA: Martin and I met before The West Wing. That was, in fact, the second project we worked on together. The first was a 1998 film called Monument Ave. that starred Denis Leary and was directed by Ted Demme. I remember Ted saying that he told Martin, ‘This is a low-budget movie. You can’t get arrested because we can’t afford to change the schedule!’ ”
MARTIN SHEEN: I was doing a movie with the British film director John Borman and I had a day off. I did some demonstration over in New York and got arrested. Borman heard about it Monday morning and he said, “I shall have no more of this arrest rubbish! You finish the film before you begin that nonsense again!”
So, when Martin signs on the line, “that nonsense” is part of the package.
MARTIN SHEEN: During the war in El Salvador, I joined an organization in Los Angeles with the laity and the religious concerned. We had this Wednesday morning coalition. We’d gather at La Placida for a prayer circle, then march on the federal building and shut it down. In those days, they let you get away with a lot. We’d chain ourselves to the door and stop business for the day. It’s very effective. We’d get booked and told to come back for a court appearance and so forth. I was there for a week, so by the time I had to appear in court to deal with all this, it was up to thirteen arrests. My lawyer and dear friend Joe Cosgrove came up.
(MELISSA FUN FACT: Joe played one of the defense lawyers in the death penalty episode “Take This Sabbath Day” and played a key role in securing permission for production to film on the steps of the US Supreme Court.)
MARTIN SHEEN: So, Joe’s defending me and we drew a very interesting judge. I don’t know what level of the federal bench, but it was in the same building I’d been shutting down. She looked at the record and says to me, “Ramón”—every time I’m arrested, the only ID I have is under my real name, Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez—“I’m looking at this series of offenses and…you’re just going to start this again. I don’t think it’s going to do any good to send you to jail for a while, is it?” She’s actually talking to me like a human being.
I say, “Probably not, under the circumstances. I mean, Your Honor, you know what’s going on in Central America…” She says, “Oh, I do. Will you do community service?” I said, “I will.” She sentenced me to 150 hours of community service. I got sent to Bread and Roses in Venice, California. The Sisters of St. Joseph had a soup kitchen. I had to work off 150 hours, which I did in short order. I stayed for another ten years. I didn’t leave until West Wing.
Of course, I went back and volunteered, and my son Ramón joined up as a short-order cook. When he was in high school, my grandson Taylor would come during days off and we’d serve the homeless. It was a wonderful experience.
Somebody asked me the other day, “What’s your favorite gospel quote? What advice do you take from the scriptures?” I said, “There’s only one.” It’s a long verse, but it’s a very short line. It’s Matthew, I think it’s 25 or 26. “Lord, when did we see you hungry?” That’s it. It’s like the character Emilio played in the film The Way. To that character, kindness is an instinct. Service can become an instinct. Where you cannot not do it and be yourself.
Martin has supported numerous causes over the years, but when asked which ones he would like to highlight, he shared these two.
MARTIN SHEEN: Since my early adulthood, the Catholic Worker has been an organization I support. Dorothy Day founded it. Because they oppose so much government activity, particularly military, you don’t get any tax deductions. There’s a wonderful one here, the Los Angeles Catholic Worker. They feed the homeless, they have a soup kitchen, and they’re always in jail, protesting something, God love ’em.
As a young actor in New York, I used to go there to eat. It was the only place that you could get a nice meal every night, a hot meal without having to pay. They were on Chrystie Street at that time. I was at the Living Theatre. (The Living Theatre is the oldest experimental theater group in the United States. It was founded by an actress named Judith Malina—no relation to Josh; we checked—and an artist and poet named Julian Beck.)
Julian Beck and Judith Malina would say they “had this great friend down there on Chrystie Street…” I went there for months and months. One day I said, “I’m here all the time, eating, and I never get a chance to pay you guys. What can I do?” He said, “Come and help us fold the paper.” I said, “You guys got a paper?!” That was the Catholic Worker paper. It all started on May Day, I think, in 1933. Now they’re all over the country, God bless ’em.
MELISSA: Martin is the person who got me involved in advocacy for treatment courts more than a decade ago. (Treatment courts are alternatives to incarceration that provide lifesaving treatment to people with substance use and mental health disorders.) His passion for the work was undeniably infectious, and still is. Over the last thirty-plus years, Martin has given speeches and testimony at a variety of conferences, rallies, media appearances, and other gatherings—including before the US Congress—in support of treatment courts. Like his character on The West Wing, the man knows his way around an inspiring speech. Having heard many of the following remarks in person, I can attest that it’s hard not to drop everything and join Martin in his fight for this cause. Here are just a few examples from Martin’s three decades of treatment court advocacy:
“[Treatment courts represent] the most realistic, the most innovative and the most productive program to emerge from the justice system regarding drug and alcohol abuse in our nation’s history.”
“I come to my support of drug [treatment] court through my work with social justice. My first exposure to them opened my eyes to the miraculous recovery of people that, before drug [treatment] court, were just thrown away and added to an already overcrowded and tragic prison population.”
“Now you’re talking about courage. Now you’re talking about change. Now you’re talking about possibility. Now you’re talking about drug [treatment] court. In the end, we are made worthy of the long-promised blessings reserved for those who do justice and show mercy. Keep going forward. There’s enough people following you and history is going to be the judge of what you did. Stick to it like a stamp, and remember: Fear is useless. Faith is necessary. Love is everything.”
THE CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT
Catholic Workers live a simple lifestyle in community, serve the poor, and resist war and social injustice. Most are grounded in the gospel, prayer, and the Catholic faith, although some houses are interfaith. There are 159 Catholic Worker communities across the United States and 28 Catholic Worker communities abroad.
ALL RISE
All Rise is a national nonprofit championing justice system reform for people impacted by substance use and mental health disorders by promoting treatment instead of incarceration. All Rise leads the establishment of treatment courts, the most successful intervention in our nation’s history for leading people living with substance use and mental health disorders out of the justice system and into lives of recovery and stability.