P.O. Box 81, Swarthmore, PA, 19081-- brandywine@juno.com (610) 544-1818

JANUARY 21, 2008

MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY OF NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE

AT LOCKHEED MARTIN

(scroll down for R W Dennen's poem)

Video from Martin Luther King protest on Jan 21

Throughout the demonstration, we will observe the spirit and discipline of nonviolence - refraining from the violence of fist, tongue, and heart  (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

      Vigil with banners and signs; Reading Names of U.S. and
                   Iraqi war dead, Bell-tolling,
        .Audio broadcast of excerpts of sermons and speeches
                   of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
         (and collection for the Brandywine Peace Community)
                              Speakers:

            Litany of the King Day Memorial  (*from Dr.
                  Kings Nobel Peace Prize Speech)

Reader: Nearly 4, 000 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since the U.S. war of
occupation began March 19, 2003.  Nearly 40,000 have been wounded and
maimed, forced to carry the memory and consequence of the lies and
violence of a policy of war.  Air strikes - dropping in one raid recently
more than 40,000 pounds of bombs in a matter of minutes -  have actually
stepped up with the U.S. pounding the southern outskirts of Baghdad in
recent weeks.  Estimates of Iraqis killed now approach one million. More
than two million have been made refugees.  These victims of a particular
policy are also casualties of a far deeper disease - the ambition of empire
and the greed of militarism.  Lockheed Martin is the chief weapons
profiteer of the continuing war and occupation  in Iraq which is costing as
much as $12 billion a month. Economists now tell us that the war will cost
as much as  $2 Trillion as the Bush Administration attempts to strike
agreements during its final year in office that would, with the Iraqi
government,  govern the deployment of U.S. troops for another decade.
Today, we remember a martyred prophet, a drum major for justice, a
peacemaker, and nonviolent revolutionary. Today, we stand before
Lockheed Martin, the worlds largest weapons producing corporation,
remembering all the victims of war and weapons building, remembering all
the casualties of social and environmental neglect, remembering and
mourning all that suffer and die on the altar of corporate greed, empire, and
violence.
Response (all) *...Violence is immoral because it thrives
on hatred rather than love...Violence ends up defeating itself. It
creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers...
I refuse to accept the view that humanity is to tragically bound to
the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of
peace can never become a reality... (Dr. Martin King, Jr. 1964)

Reader:  In 1967, Dr. King called the U.S. government the greatest
purveyor of violence in the world today. One U.S. Trident submarine
(there are 18) carrying 24 missiles, with eight nuclear warheads per missile,
is capable of delivering 1,000 Hiroshimas. Lockheed Martin manages
much of the U.S. nuclear bomb complex and is the manufacturer of Trident
missiles.  99% of all high level radio active material in the U.S. has been
generated by nuclear weapons production. Plutonium, which fuels nuclear
bombs, has a toxic life of 240,000 years 10,000 human generations.
Nuclear weapons have poisoned our earth, our spirits, our imagination and
claim on the future with the threat of unimaginable death and destruction.
Response (all) *...I refuse to accept the cynical notion
that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway
into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed
truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality...
(*Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1964)

Reader: The U.S. Military Budget now receives more than a half a trillion
dollars annually for war and the Pentagons global reach.  And then theres
the cost of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, financed through additional
spending bills.  The culture of militarism and war, and the economy of war
which sustains it, is the very existence of Lockheed Martin. More weapons;
more war: Aegis warships and cruise missiles, Trident missiles, Joint Strike
Stealth Fighter (the Lockheed Martin warplane which at $200 billion is the
largest military contract in human history) Star Wars and plans for the
full militarization of space. The names, descriptions, and details are as
endless as the policy of war from which Lockheed Martin profits. As
Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler famously wrote in 1935 War is a
racket...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and
losses in lives. Lockheed Martin  reported that revenues for its last quarter
rose by 41%, with $8.4 billion in profits.
Response (all) * ...I believe that even amid todays
mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter
tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the
blood-flowing streets of our nation, can be lifted from this dust of
shame to reign supreme among all... (*Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr., 1964)

Reader: Gandhi called poverty the greatest form of violence.  For
millions of people the economy long ago receded.   The New York Times
reports that more than 34 million people in the U.S. live in poverty. Almost
one in five children under the age of five in the U.S. are poor.
Homelessness  in the United States is actually on the rise for the first time
since the Reagan Administration. 47 million American have no medical
coverage.  Dr. King said: Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health
care is the most shocking and inhumane. If there be such a thing as real
human security, then it must rest on something more than what we can do
for ourselves with muscle or weapons, something that has to do
relationship with others and the earth, with fairness, with honoring the
commonweal and the common wealth, with being the neighbor not the
overlord. And, that means justice.  Bombs may win wars and bring the
false peace of victory, but justice will never be achieved with bombs and
cruise missiles, with troop surges, with Abu Graibs or Guantanamo Bays,
with Star Wars weapons or a policies of endless war.  If we want peace
not empire, or wealth, or oil markets and arms contracts -  then we must
work for justice.
Response (all) *  ...I refuse to accept the idea that the
isness of our present nature makes us morally incapable of
reaching up for the eternal oughtness that forever confronts us. I
refuse to accept the idea that we are mere flotsam and jetsam in a
river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which
surround us... (*Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1964)

Reader: Today, we bring to Lockheed Martin a memorial to Dr. King and
the struggle for justice and peace, a memorial of a coffin, chains, ashes,
empty boots, and flowers, a memorial for all victims of war, and all the
casualties of the economy of war - a LOCKHEED-VILLE of the war
dead, the homeless, hungry, forgotten and forsaken who die the slow death
of poverty, racism, sexism.  We choose to walk in the memory and steps of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We  honor Dr. Kings philosophy of nonviolent
direct action and his opposition to injustice and war. We re-affirm our
commitment to resisting war in Iraq and the war-maker, Lockheed Martin.
Our memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is that we will continue to
nonviolently resist the injustice that is war, and the making of war that is
Lockheed Martin.
Response (all)* ...I have the audacity to believe that peoples
everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education
and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for
their spirits. I believe that what self-centered people have torn
down other-centered can build up and that one day humanity will
bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war
and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will be proclaimed
the rule of the land...and I still believe that We Shall Overcome...
(*Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1964)     

Broadcast of excerpts of  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s  A Time to Break  Silence Speech, Riverside Church, April 4, 1967. Memorial to Dr. King & the ongoing struggle for peace and justice,  Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Those (and only those!) planning and  prepared to face arrest for nonviolent civil disobedience are to leave the sidewalk area.  All others please remain on  the
sidewalk   Chants: Its About Peace...Its About Justice  For peace, Stop Lockheed Martin   For justice, Make War No More

*

KILLER'S HEALTH PLANS

In the January weather and warm spirits of peace, I watched as the
gathering grew.
All kindred to Martin on this day,
we brought the message of peace.
A solemn message as I saw the angels
in the design of placards, symbolic boots,
and roses and heard the angels in
the design of poetry and speeches.
Saw them in the shape of vehicles that passed us on Goddard Boulevard
giving us the spirit of King in return.
Felt what Martin went through as I and the others watched as our Brothers
and Sisters were incarcerated into a paddy-wagon,
to dare oppose that war-machine.
to dare step over that marked line,
to dare face Lockheed's soldiers who stretched hand in hand across that
black asphalted entrance.

As I strode down a small hill pathway towards King of Prussia, mind-set in
an audible fashion I remembered Lockheed's
entrance sign stating, "Smoking Banned!" And observed their weight-
watchers truck drive away, rather ironic wouldn't you say?

R.W. Dennen