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July 5, 2008 'And Now, Declare Peace' Post-Independence Day Memorial & Walk-About for Peace in Philadelphia: Video, Account, News Coverage 

Many thanks to all who made the Brandywine Peace Community's  'And Now, Declare Peace' Post-Independence Day Memorial &
Walk-About for Peace on July 5 such a success and significant memory of peacemaking. 

Check out the wonderful video of the Memorial & Walk-About made by Nick Hiller, of the West Chester SDS chapter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdhD8YdbDEg

The memorial began with a vigil in front of Independence Hall with the reading of names of Iraq war dead - U.S. and Iraqi - as a bell
tolled.  Passages from the Declaration of Independence followed as did passages from the U.N. Declaration of Universal Human Rights
and June Jordan's poem "The Bombing of Baghdad".  As about a hundred people held signs and long banners and chanted "We
Declare Peace", our pleas and demands for peace and justice echoed against the place and symbol of U.S. independence as
hundreds and hundreds of people looked on with interest. 

The walk-about for peace around Independence Hall started to singer-songwriter Tom Mullian's performance of his song "We
Declare Peace".  The walk-about on the packed streets around Independence Hall was accompanied by continual chants, bell-
tolling, and drumming.

At the First Amendement stone, the memorial walk-about concluded with speakers (Many Thanks to Celeste Zappala, Gold Star Mother
for Peace;  Father John McNamee, author/poet, Diary of a City Priest; John Grant, Veterans for Peace, Chapter #31; Robin Stelly of
Penn Action; Eric Gjertsen of the Payday Network; and Dave Lindorff, author/jounalist) and performers (Kudos to Tom Mullian,
"Six Strings Against the War"; and ThaTruth, with Why, Hip Hop Artists). TV coverage appeared on NBC10
(http://www.nbc10.com/news/16798650/detail.html) and CBS3 (www.cbs3.org).