Holy Innocents Commemoration Witness at the Pentagon

Dear Friends,

Early this morning from 7-8 AM, fourteen peacemakers from the DMV area held a nonviolent witness at the Pentagon, the center of warmaking on the planet,  to commemorate the feast of the Massacre of the Holy Innocents–-past and present. Yesterday,  President Biden signed the House and Senate approved NDAA 2022 military spending bill of $768 billion. This exorbitant expenditure is an abomination– an affront to God and a crime against the poor! see: here 

We carried with us the spirit of many friends from the Atlantic and Southern Life communities and elsewhere who ordinarily would be present for this witness, but were not able to travel due to the pandemic. The witness was organized by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker.  

We gathered for our witness in the “designated protest area” on the southeast side of the Pentagon displaying signs and banners as civilian workers and soldiers passed by. Luci Murphy led us in singing several opening songs: Down by the Riverside,  Bring Our Soldiers Home (Tune: Hark the Herald Angels Sing) by Joelee Adlerblum–Revised 3/2014) and an alternative version of O Come All Ye Faithful, copyright: Just Peace UK. Watch here.

I offered a brief statement of purpose for the witness which was followed by Rev. Chuck Booker reading a Gospel account of the massacre of the innocents, (Mt. 2:13-18). We then sang the “Coventry Carol” and Frank Panopolous read a poem by Sr. Anne Montgomery (Presente!): “Feast of the Holy Innocents-1991-In Memoriam: Mass Graves.” (see below) The “Cry of Ramah” was then sung by all, followed by Paul Magno and Merwyn and Kirstin DeMello reading a declaration: “Redeem the Times.” (see below) In remembering the massacre of the innocents today, the names were read of seven children of the Ahmedi family who were killed on Aug. 29, 2021 by a Lockheed Martin Hellfire missile fired from a General Atomics Reaper Drone. After each name we responded; “We Remember You!”

Binyamin: boy, 3-year-old

Armin: boy, 4-year-old

Ayat: 2-year-old girl

Sumaya: little girl, age unknown

Malaka, 3-year-old

Farsal: 10-year-old

Farsad: 10-year-old

We also remembered the thousands of innocent civilians who died as a result of US drone attacks and air strikes over the last twenty years. The New York Times recently published a two-part series exposing a vast cover-up by the Pentagon of hiding the numbers of civilians killed by these US bombings. See: here. We called for the Pentagon, weapons contractors and the US government to repent for these sinful criminal attacks and make reparations to all the victims’ families. 

We also read the names of 13 homeless people who were among the 69 people who died without the dignity of home in D.C. in 2021. We also remembered the 141 members of the homeless community in D.C. who died after moving into housing in 2021. 

Paul then offered a prayer remembering South African Nobel Peace Prize recipient Archbishop Desmond Tutu who died on Dec. 26. This was followed by a prayer from Kathy Boylan calling on all soldiers and military chaplains to leave the military and refuse orders to kill. Chuck then offered a poem, The Work of Christmas, by Howard Thurman.  We ended the witness with a concluding prayer, Luci singing a powerful version of Mother’s Day by Peter Jones (see:here), and the “Vine and Fig Tree” song. 

During this Holy Season we are reminded once again of the promise of Emmanuel, God is with us. And we are invited by Jesus to make the Word flesh and to nonviolently resist the Herod’s of this world and all forces of death. We are ever mindful of the hope-filled message of the angel Gabriel to Mary of Nazareth, that nothing will be impossible for God! As we approach the end of 2021 and begin 2022, let us pray for each other, keep our eyes on the prize and do all we can to makes God’s reign of justice, love, peace and nonviolence a reality.

In Christ’s peace and hope,

Art 

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Redeem the Times Declaration
(Note: We are indebted to Dan Berrigan and Ardeth Platte–Presente!–for their contributions to this declaration).

“Redeem the times,” proclaims the late peacemaking prophet, Jesuit Priest, Daniel Berrigan, along with countless others. “The times are inexpressibly evil.  And yet, the times are inexhaustibly good, solaced by the courage and hope of many. The truth rules, Christ is not forsaken.”

The violence, massacres and disregard for the truth and human life stops here today at the Pentagon. Now is the time for national repentance and personal and societal transformation. In solidarity with sisters and brothers around the world, we resolve to:

–renounce and resist all killing, violence, racism and torture;

–end environmental destruction, poverty and economic inequality;

–respect the human rights of all people, especially immigrants and refugees;          

–train and form diplomats, truth commissions, developers of international economies, trade specialists, nonviolent reconciliation teams, hospital ships, institutes for justice and peace, renewable energy implementation, mass transit lines, etc.;

–commit in policy that our country makes reparations to all victims of its military interventions worldwide, abolish war and weapons forever, hammer all swords into plowshares and convert the war economy so our planet and people may live;

–build homes for all, assure healthy food for all, develop health care and education for all, plan an economy for full meaningful employment;

–implore the U.S. and all nuclear nations to sign, ratify, and implement the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; 

–celebrate God’s creation with joy.

As we move into a New Year, we invite you to join with us as we strive to create the beloved community and a nonviolent world.

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FEAST OF THE INNOCENTS: 1991–In Memoriam: Mass Graves

by Sr. Anne Montgomery, RSCJ

A voice in Ramah — a voice in Panama, Iraq–
weeping,
as yet again, Herod proclaims new birth
a threat,
the young expendable,
beginnings buried:
bulldozed into ditches,
shoveled into unmarked graves,
cast into the sea,
or flamed to ashes.

But in the sand and sea,
grass and cinders,
in silences,
the question will not die:
“Where is the one who is born?”
the child who sees with one eye__
or not at all,
who walks with one leg–
or never again,
whose dreams were shattered by shrapnel,
hunger stilled by pain.

The year’s death reminds us of an old story,
a nightmare that will not go away,
but, dragon-like, rises from the sea,
blinds the dawn,
blasphemes God’s name and dwelling
with fire from heaven
on those, uncounted, who do not count:
“You the nameless, do not exist.”
So it has been decreed,
for to allow the naming,
to confess reality and promise,
means new birth,
new time,
new humanity.
And so on this hill, clothed by the year’s new grass,
the Child gives each of you whom no one can name
or even number,
a new name–beyond our comprehension–
and to us who gather here, a hope, a challenge,
a new way back to an old land.

It is for those with a journey to make,
and on it the redeemed will walk.
They will meet with joy and gladness,
sorrow and mourning will flee. (Isaiah 35: 9-10)

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The Work of Christmas 

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock, 
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among others,
To make music in the heart. 

Howard Thurman is an African-American theologian, pastor, and mystic who lived from 1899 to 1981. He is best known as a mentor and spiritual advisor to the Civil Rights Movement, and Martin Luther King Jr in particular. Thurman wrote many great spiritual texts, including Jesus and the Disinherited (1949), Disciplines of the Spirit (1977), and more. This poem is from The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations.