This past Thursday, September 21, United Nations designated “International Day of Peace,” was the start of Declaration of Peace Week which focuses on congressional action demanding the establishment of a comprehensive plan to end the war in Iraq. Throughout the country (see www.declarationofpeace.org) people held candlelight vigils.
In Monroe some of us gathered in front of the Monroe Superior Court at Main and 7th in Stroudsburg, with candles and a poster reading: “Bush Won’t Listen, Congress Must Act.” We light candles as a way to light the darkness and record our desire to build a presence for peace in our planet. As to congressional action, President Bush has already told us that he does not care what we or the world community think about the war, and thus it is up to us to demand that Congress act to stop this war, by refusing to fund it.
We held a vigil, read the names of the 126 PA soldiers dead as of that day, along with the names of Iraqi children and elders who died as a result of our invasion. Notably, the Iraqi dead who have been identified by the International organization, Iraq Body Count, are sometimes only named as children of dead woman or some other familial relationship. For every identified civilian on the list, there are nine others who are not identified but who are confirmed dead civilian victims of this planetary atroccity. We brought ten pages out of 160 pages of dead CIVILIANS, part of a memorial to give honor to all the dead, named and unnamed. If Col. Tommy Franks does not do body counts, we do, and we wish to remember those whom our government (and the coalition) has refused to count or to name. Until they are all identified, we show no respect to their memory.
After the reading of the names Janet Lawson spoke about a new “strike of legs” being conducted by the women of Pereira, Colombia, reminiscent of the strike against war of faraway Lysistrata’s Greece. These are women of gang members in Colombia who are refusing to sleep with their men unless the violence stops. We spoke briefly about Dennis Kucinich’s effort to establish a Department of Peace, which would gather the nation’s energies on peace rather than on war and invasion, so that we can finally stop being a warrior society.
María Román Pérez sang the chorus of a song she is writing about our need to be united beyond ethnic and racial lines, and read verses from it. Ronald Yates, head of the local NAACP, shared some thoughts, as did Frank and Joan Jeffers, Sue Lyons, Julie Weber, Ann Francois, David Payne, and others I may have forgotten. We ended by singing in Spanish and English, “We shall not be moved.”
Now we move to Monday with Nonviolent Direct Action…Join the declaration!
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
The Pocono Progressives (in the person of Silvia A. Brandon Pérez) joins LEPOCO’s Tim Chadwick and Robert Daniels II in Philadelphia. We will be joining the Brandywine Peace Community for PHILA. DIRECT ACTION to DECLARE PEACE. Here is the proposed schedule:
10:30 AM, Old First Reformed Church, 4th & Race Sts., Olde City, Philadelphia, PA - Gather to Declare Peace, followed by march through Center City, with a stop at Phila. Federal Building (office of Senator Arlen Specter), walk-around of Phila. City Hall, raising Our Voices for Justice: “Feed Our Cities, not The War,” and then a Sit-in for Peace, Stand Up to Santorum: Demonstrate and Support the Nonviolent Civil Disobedience at the office of Senator Rick Santorum, Widener Building, 1 S. Penn Square, insisting on the demands of the Declaration of Peace, * A National Campaign to Establish by September 21 (International Peace Day) a Comprehensive Plan to End the War in Iraq and “Bring the Troops Home Now” * A Pledge to Take Nonviolent Direct Action if a Comprehensive Plan to End the War is not established and underway by September 21, 2006
All endorsing organizations are invited to carry their identification banner.
Respectfully submitted,
Silvia A. Brandon Pérez
abuelita revolucionaria
because what else is gray hair good for?