Report of Holy Innocents Commemoration Witness at Pentagon, Dec. 28, 2022

“When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled,  since they were no more.” (Matt. 2:16-18)

Dear Friends,

Early this morning from 7-8 AM, fourteen peacemakers from the DMV area and beyond 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. We carried with us the spirit of many friends from the Atlantic and Southern Life communities, the Catholic Worker, and elsewhere who ordinarily would attend this witness, but were not able to be physically present. The witness was organized by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker.  

As a beautiful sunrise unfolded, 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 and a small group of Pentagon Police kept watch over us. I offered a brief Intro 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 Paul Magno and Michele Dunne read a poem by Sr. Anne Montgomery (Presente!): “Feast of the Holy Innocents-1991-In Memoriam: Mass Graves.” The “Cry of Ramah” was then sung by all. This was followed by a Litany (see below) that was read by Merwyn DeMello, John Kelly, Mary Grace, Mike Walli, and Erik and Libby Johnson. In memory of Phil Berrigan (Presente!) who died 20 years ago on Dec. 6, 2002,  Kathy Boylan and Frank Panopoulos read an excerpt from Phil. Carol Gilbert and Mike Brown then read a declaration: “Redeem the Times.” (see below) We concluded the witness by singing A Child Will Lead Us, Do Not Be Overcome By Evil and Vine Fig Tree and offering the Lord’s Prayer.

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 2022 and move into a New Year, let us keep our eyes on the prize and do all we can to make God’s reign of justice, love and peace a reality as we strive to create the beloved community and a nonviolent world.

In peace and hope,

Art

________________________________________________________________________

Intro

Good Morning. We greet everyone going into the Pentagon and the police in a spirit of peace and nonviolence. Today, Christian churches commemorate the massacre of the Holy Innocents, recalling how Herod, fearful of being removed from power, sought to destroy the child Jesus by ordering the slaughter of boys under two years old in and around Bethlehem. We, members of the DDCW, Pax Christi, Assisi Community, the Atlantic Life and Southern Community and other peace groups, come to the Pentagon, the center of warmaking on our planet, to remember the innocents who have died–past and present–due to greed, oppression, racism and war. Today, in this time of perpetual war, nuclear peril and climate chaos, the lives of countless  innocents, like those in Bethlehem, are endangered. These include the Palestinian innocents and children who continue to suffer and die today due to the ruthless U.S.-backed Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as well as all children living under systems of violence, oppression and white supremacy. Our faith compels us to nonviolently resist this onslaught. We are ever so mindful that children are always the first victims of war. We call into our presence this morning all the Holy cloud of Witnesses, including those who have witnessed here at the Pentagon proclaiming Jesus’ Gospel of Nonviolence in resistance to a warmaking empire. 

 _______________________________________________________________________________________

Litany

Refrain: War Hurts and Kills Children, Help Us Abolish War! 

During the last three decades, the United States has engaged in immoral and illegal military intervention and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, U.S. intervention resulted in over several million Iraqi deaths and countless injuries from bombings, sanctions, torture and occupation; over four million refugees; immeasurable trauma for an entire society; political and social instability; and an endless cycle of violence. 

Refrain: War Hurts and Kills Children, Help Us Abolish War! 

Since the U.S. began its criminal military intervention in Afghanistan in 2001, tens of thousands of Afghan civilians were killed and wounded and there has been political and social instability. Like Iraq, an entire population has been traumatized by U.S. warmaking. 

Refrain: War Hurts and Kills Children, Help Us Abolish War! 

In Yemen, the U.S. continues to provide direct military support and weapons to Saudi Arabia in its brutal war against the Houthi rebels. The war in Yemen has killed over 150,000 people. According to UNICEF, more than 11,000 boys and girls have been killed and injured during the war and 2.2 million are malnourished. A Lockheed Martin made bomb was used in the Saudi bombing of a school bus in Yemen on Aug. 9, 2018 killing over 40 children. 

Refrain: War Hurts and Kills Children, Help Us Abolish War! 

We also remember the thousands of innocent civilians who have died as a result of U.S. drone attacks and air strikes over the last twenty years. Last year, the New York Times published a two-part series exposing a vast cover-up by the Pentagon of hiding the numbers of civilians killed by these U.S. bombings. According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ), U.S. strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen from 2002 to 2020 killed between 10,000 and 17,000 people. On August 29, 2021, 7 children were among the 10 family members of the Ahmadi family that were killed in Kabul Afghanistan by a Lockheed Hellfire missile fired from an General Atomics Reaper Drone. 

Refrain: War Hurts and Kills Children, Help Us Abolish War! 

The 2023 NDAA military spending bill of $858 billion, which was recently passed by the House and Senate, was signed by the President. The U.S. proceeds with an estimated $1.7 trillion nuclear modernization program over the next several decades, which will include 12 new Columbia-Class nuclear submarines to replace existing Ohio-Class Trident subs at an estimated cost of over $109 billion. The Pentagon recently unveiled the new B-21 Raider which will be a dual-capable strike stealth bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear weapons. Each B-21 will cost $729 million. Estimated costs for 100 B21’s over the next 30 years will exceed $200 billion. Pope Francis has declared that the mere possession of nuclear weapons is immoral. These exorbitant expenditures for weapons and war is an abomination–an affront to God and a crime against the poor!

Refrain: War Hurts and Kills Children, Help Us Abolish War! 

According to UNICEF, over 700 million people live in poverty worldwide and 356 million children live in extreme poverty. According to the Poor People’s Campaign, there are 140 million poor and low-income people in the U.S.  According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, over 11 million children in the U.S. live below the federal poverty line and nearly 1 in 5 children of color are poor. According to the Census Bureau, 27 million people are uninsured in the U.S. Over half a million people are experiencing homelessness in the U.S. In 2022, 77 people in D.C. died without the dignity of a home. Dr. King declared: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

Refrain: War Hurts and Kills Children, Help Us Abolish War! 

On January 20 of this year, the Doomsday Clock was set to 100 seconds before midnight due to the existential dangers of nuclear war and climate change — threats compounded by cyber-enabled information warfare, upgrades to existing nuclear systems, and worsening world tensions. This determination occurred just prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Now this conflict has further exacerbated the nuclear peril between the two foremost nuclear powers. While the U.S. has always maintained a “first-use” nuclear weapons policy, Russia has stated it would consider using nuclear weapons if it feels endangered by increased U.S. and NATO intervention in the Ukraine war. With respect to waging war, Dr. King, who condemned nuclear weapons in 1959, declared: “War is not the answer…

I consider war an evil…The choice before us is either nonviolence or nonexistence.” It is imperative that the U.S. and the eight other nuclear-armed states ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons  

Refrain: War Hurts and Kills Children, Help Us Abolish War! 

According to the Federation of American Scientists, nine countries possess roughly 12,700 warheads. Approximately 90 percent of all nuclear warheads are owned by the U.S. and Russia (Russia has 5,977; the U.S. has 5,428). U.S. nuclear weapons are also stored at six military bases in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Turkey. Furthermore, U.S. and NATO missile defense systems ring Russia and China, increasing already heightened tensions. The U.S. and Russia, whose nuclear forces are on high alert, as well as China, are developing hypersonic weapons that could become nuclear capable.                            Refrain: War Hurts and Kills Children, Help Us Abolish War! 

Every day, the world’s addiction to oil, natural gas and nuclear power is the cause of environmental contamination that is threatening global devastation. With nearly 800 military bases worldwide establishing its vast war machine, the Pentagon is the world’s single biggest consumer of fossil fuels, making it a major contributor to destabilizing the climate. Climate chaos acutely impacts the poor countries of the world. According to the WHO, climate change threatens the essential ingredients of good health – clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food supply and safe shelter – and has the potential to undermine decades of progress in global health. Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress alone.

Refrain: War Hurts and Kills Children, Help Us Abolish War! 

 ______________________________________________________________________________________

Redeem the Times Declaration 

(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 and creation 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 State-sanctioned killing, systemic violence, racial injustice and sexism;

–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, institutes for justice and peace;

–commit in policy that our country makes reparations to all victims of its military interventions worldwide, abolish torture, 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, develop renewable energy implementation, mass transit lines, practice restorative justice;

–implore the U.S. and all nuclear nations to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons which, to date, has been ratified by 68 nations; 

–celebrate God’s creation with joy.

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 2022 and move into a New Year, let us keep our eyes on the prize and do all we can to make God’s reign of justice, love and peace a reality as we strive to create the beloved community and a nonviolent world.