P.O. Box 81, Swarthmore, PA, 19081-- brandywine@juno.com (610) 544-1818
DECLARE PEACE PARADE-JULY 3, 2007 OLDE CITY PHILADELPHIA
slide show coming soon!!!
END/DE-FUND THE WAR, Stop Military Greed - Fund Human
Needs, Abolish Nuclear Weapons, End Poverty, Restore the
Environment/Stop Global Warming;
RESIST THE WAR-MAKERS, Stop Military Shipments to Iraq War
from Philadelphia Port, Resist Lockheed Martin; Impeach Bush (and)
Cheyney;
CLOSE GUANTANAMO BAY, Stop the Assaults on Human Rights,
Civil Liberties, and our Democracy!
People began to gather at 5PM, in the large enclosed park area in front
of Historic Christ Church, 2nd & Market Sts., as tourists and history
gazers walked around the grave site of Benjamin Franklin and some of
those other "declarers" 231 years ago, curiously eyeing puppets being set
up on bamboo poles - two large doves with extended white wing spans, a
large "military-industrial head" with "CRIME SCENE - DO NOT ENTER" yellow
tape streaming around its face that would accompany a row of combat boots
with a sign reading "These Boots Represent the 3, 586 U.S. Military
Personnel Killed in Iraq". Other signs and banners laid out on the grass
for paraders to carry: DECLARE PEACE: Stop the Flow of War from Philly
Port, IMPEACH for PEACE, De-Fund the War/Fund Human Needs, Resist
Lockheed Martin: The Face of War-Making Today. Drums fashioned from large
plastic water containers, noisemakers fashioned just for the parade would
Raise the Sound and Sights of our Movement to Stop the War and Resist the
War-Makers.
Bob Smith, staff organizer of the Brandywine Peace Community and the
Declare Peace Parade, spoke from a bull-horn saying : let us hear the
sound of drums and noisemakers and bagpipes, let us tell the world what
is declared in Philadelphia on this Independence Day Eve. As people
chanted "DECLARE PEACE" and the sounds grew louder and louder, the
DECLARE PEACE PARADE began at 6PM.
Streets were blocked by police to make way for the parade. Down 2nd St.
and up to South Street (memorialized in that early 60's song "South
Street" as "the hippest street in town" and on this night, for peace, the
loudest). What an amazing sight! Hundreds of people came out from the
restaurants and clubs on South Street and cheered, with many joining the
parade. In front of the South St. rock concert venue the FILMORE TLA,
which that night featured "Polymorphic Spree", we stopped for a "Roar
Against the War".
We then proceeded down 5th Street and next to Independence Hall, where
set-up was being completed for the Philly Pops concert that night, with
the parade concluding at 6th & Market Sts in front of the Phila. Federal
Building. There, insync to the piercing bagpipes and thundering drums,
we chanted "Declare Peace" as people yelled: End the War/De-Fund the War
and other demands. Celeste Zappala, of Military Families Speak Out,
whose son, PA National Guard Sgt.Sherwood Baker was killed in Iraq, April
'04, spoke. Jeffrey Garis of PA Action spoke. Laurie Pollack read from
her collection of peace poems, and Tom Mullian did a rendition of the
Beatles "Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" (invoking the Summer
of Love 40 years ago and the Brandywine Peace Community's current 30th
anniversary - "they've been going in and out of style") with his own "We
Declare Peace" song.
So...Let it be said that in Philadelphia the day before Independence Day,
hundreds of people Declared Peace in a loud and joyous parade.
So...Let it be remembered that, as the USS Farragut, a Lockheed Martin
Aegis destroyer (like the ones from which hundreds of cruise missiles
were fired into
Iraq and are now the crux of the "Star Wars"/Aegis Ballistic Missile
Defense) with the Aegis battle command equipment produced by Lockheed
Martin in Moorestown, NJ, was docked for tours of its lethal battery at
Philadelphia's Penn Landing, hundreds of people paraded nearby in Old
City Philadelphia, banging drums, shaking noisemakers, sounding off with
bag pipes and a voice of freedom
and of declared peace.
So...Let freedom be celebrated - not in fireworks and flags, corporate
sponsored concerts, - but in feet moving, smiles glowing, hearts still
beating, and souls
afire for peace.
DECLARE PEACE PARADE, JULY 3, OLD CITY PHILADELPHIA
So...Let the parade of commitment to justice and nonviolent action
continue. There's war to end, there's weapons, corporations, and hearts
to be disarmed, there's peace to be made.
Acknowledgement and thanks from the Brandywine Peace Community to all the
DECLARE PEACE PARADE Endorsers:
Delaware River Area Code Pink; Penn Action; Pennsylvanians Against
Escalation in Iraq [coalition of SEIU, MoveOn, etc.]; PRAWN; Catholic
Coalition for Peace & Justice [Sponsored by Religious Congregations in
Philadelphia/Reading Area]; Catholic Peace Fellowship; Veterans for
Peace, Chapter 31; Northwest Greens; Delaware County Wage Peace &
Justice, Delaware County Pledge of Resistance; Chester County Peace
Movement; House of Grace Catholic Worker; Women's International League
for Peace & Freedom, Phila. Branch; Peace Action- Delaware Valley; Phila.
Jobs with Justice; Military Families Speak Out, Phila. Chapter; Phila.
World Can't Wait/Drive Out the Bush Regime; Phila. Granny Peace Brigade;
Epiphany House; Delaware Valley Veterans for America; Kensington Welfare
Rights Union [KWRU]; Greater Camden Unity Council [GCUC]; Bubbies &
Zaydes (Grandparents) for Peace in the Middle East; Tabernacle United
Church, West Philadelphia; Coalition of Labor Union Women; Phila.
Buddhist Fellowship;
American Friends Service Committee - Iraq Desk; the Shalom Center; Peace
& Social Concerns Committee of Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting; Iraq
Veterans Against the War.
Thanks to Christ Church.Most of all, thanks to all the Declare Peace
Paraders, Drummers, Bagpiper, and Noisemakers. May your walk continue,
and the number of walkers grow!