April 22, 2010 - 40^th Anniversary of Earth Day watch video
The first Earth Day Demonstration in Philadelphia, April 22, 1970, was held at the Judge Lewis Quadrangle, which is now Independence Mall, site of today’s
“Honor the Earth: Abolish Nuclear Weapons”
Rally & Ceremony

Program:

Welcome/Opening: Bob Smith, Brandywine Peace Community;

Siren/Nuclear Bomb blast; Reading: J. Robert Oppenheimer,

 

1^st atomic test blast, July 16, 1945, code-named: “Trinity”

All Music by Tom Mullian (“Six Strings Against the War”).

Barbara Elk Zeiger - Native Dakota (from Manitoba);

           

Ellen Thomas, Proposition One;

Dr. Joseph Gerson, American Friends Service Committee;         

Elisabeth Leonard, Women's International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF)

Philly Granny Peace Brigade;

Mike Nance, Green Party of Phila.;

Emily Gleason, Research Associate, Project for Nuclear Awareness;

Rev. Robert Moore, Coalition for Peace Action.

Honor the Earth Ceremony: Between the Fires lead by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Shalom Center  (see text below)

Music;

 

Cassie MacDonald, Sacred Heart Peace Community, Brigid’s House (Camden, NJ);

 

Ethan Genauer, Inter-Faith Peace Walk  NYC for Nuclear Abolition;

Music

Start of the Inter-Faith Peace Walk for Nuclear Abolition walk to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review at the UN, NYC
(Independence Mall, down to 5^th, north on 5^th across Ben Franklin Bridge Foot/Bike Path,
to Camden, NJ for evening program)

 

Honoring the Earth Ceremony - Between the Fires

by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center, www.theshalomcenter.org

 

All: We are the generation that stands 

between the fires:

Behind us the flame and smoke

that rose from Auschwitz, from Hiroshima,

and from the burning forests of the Amazon.

Before us the nightmare of a Flood of Fire,

The flame and smoke that could consume all earth.

It is our task to make from fire not an all-consuming blaze

But the light in which we see each other fully.

All of us different, All of us bearing

One Spark.

[Pause to light the candle and sage, signifying our commitment To See (the candle) and To Heal (the Native American tradition of burning sage) ]

 

ALL: We light these fires to see more clearly

That the earth and all who live as part of it

Are not for burning.                                                

We light these fires to see more clearly

The rainbow in our many-colored faces.

Blessed is the One within the many.

Blessed are the many who make One.

 

[Pause to pass the sage bowl, to sound of the peace bell]

 

[after sage bowl passing, Rabbi Waskow reads passage from: Malachi]

The day is approaching
That will  burn like a furnace,
Scorching like stubble
Those who turn away from transformation --

But those who revere My Name, the Interbreathing of all life,
Can find in the sun and wind the source of justice and of healing.

 

Here! I will send you

Elijah the Prophet

Before the coming

of the great and terrible day

of YAHH, the Breath/ Wind/ Hurricane of Life.

And he shall turn the hearts

Of parents to children

And the hearts of children to their parents.

Lest I come and

Smite the earth

With utter destruction.

(From Malachi, the last of the ancient Hebrew prophets, chapter 3)

 

ALL: Here! we ourselves are coming

Before the great and terrible day

of smiting Earth —

For we shall turn the hearts

Of parents to children

And the hearts of children to their parents

So that this day of smiting

Does not fall upon us.

********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

(Dedicated to Howard Zinn, and all the sages of justice and peace, war resistance, and conscience in whose paths we walk: Rabbi Abraham Heschel, Barbara Deming, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, Dorothy Day, Philip Berrigan, Lillian & George Willoughby, Chief Seattle, David Dellinger, Cesar Chavez, , George Wald, Mohandas K. Gandhi…and so many more)

'And the Risen Bread' by Father Daniel Berrigan

 

Some stood up once, and sat down

Some walked a mile, and walked away

Some stood up twice, then sat down,
"I've had it" they said,

Some walked two miles,
then walked away

"It's too much," they cried.

Some stood and stood and stood
They were taken for fools
They were taken for being taken in

Some walked and walked and walked
They walked the earth,
They walked the waters,
They walked the air

"Why do you stand," they were asked,
"and why do you walk?"

"Because of the children," they said,
"And because of the heart,
"And because of the bread…"