Many thanks to everyone who came out last night to remember:

The 2000 U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq!

 

The 100,000+ Iraqis Dead, The more than $200 billion Spent for War, while people suffer as economic war casualties 

 

A special thanks to each of the hundreds of people who came out to the multi-formed demonstration in center city Phila. - Phila. City Hall - Phila. Federal Building. To all the speakers - Iraq Veterans, Miitary Families, war resisters, religious leaders, citizen activists, THANK YOU!

 

We hope that you will continue to TELL CONGRESS - TELL SENATORS SPECTER (http://specter.senate.gov - go to Contact Form under Contact Info); & SANTORUM http://santorum.senate.gov - go to e-mail Senator Santorum under Contact information) "NOT ONE MORE DEATH - NOT ONE MORE DOLLAR"

 

Philadelphia area sponsors: American Friends Service Committee; Brandywine Peace Community; Catholic Peace Fellowship; Coalition for Peace Action (Bucks & Montgomery Counties); Gold Star Families for Peace; House of Grace Catholic Worker; Military Families Speak Out; Northwest Peace & Justice Movement; Shalom Center; Phila. Women's International League for Peace & Freedom; and Veterans for Peace.

 

Bob Smith, staff on behalf of the Brandywine Peace Community

 

Download a PHOTO Slide Show

 

 

NOT ONE MORE DEATH - NOT ONE MORE DOLLAR

 

As another horrific milestone in the Iraq war - the death of the 2,000th U.S. soldier – arrives, the American Friends Service Committee and Gold Star Families for Peace are calling for people across the U.S. to stand up and say that the needless killing of U.S. troops and Iraqis must stop and that the resources funding the war are needed for justice and re-building.

 

On Wednesday, October 26, people will gather in communities across the U.S. to show that the country's pro-peace majority demands that Congress take action to stop the war and its funding. On that day, in Philadelphia, people will gather at 5PM in candlelight vigil at Phila. City Hall (west side), 15th & Market Sts. For a solemn vigil of remembrance followed by a candlelight procession to the Phila. Federal Building with a stop enroute at the office of Senator Rick Santorum.

 

For more information, call: 610-544-1818. Or visit www.afsc.org/2000/

 

 

 

NOT ONE MORE DEATH...NOT ONE MORE DOLLAR !

 

To: Pennsylvania Senators Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum

 

Attached are the names of 104 Pennsylvanians, now dead, killed in a war supported and funded by your votes, a war that has now claimed a total of 2000 U.S. military men and women. Each of these names represents dashed hopes and possibilities, the loss of family and the unremitting pain of permanent separation.

 

This is certainly and overwhelmingly the case for the people of Iraq who have suffered decades of brutal dictatorship, war, devastating economic sanctions, and now a war of occupation supported by you and other members of the Senate and House of Representatives. According to the study published in the British medical journal, the Lancet, at least 100,000 have died as a result of the occupation.

 

The U.S. is spending $6 billion a month funding a policy of occupation while human needs - housing, medical care, relief and reconstruction in the wake of natural disasters - become another casualty of a war that has already cost us more than $200 billion.

 

The majority of U.S. citizens now oppose this war. Not one more death; Not one more dollar!  We demand: an end to the funding of this war, that all U.S. military bases in Iraq be closed, and that the troops be brought home now!

 

Vote ANO!@ to the war in Iraq, stop its funding, bring the troops home now!


 

2,000 U.S. Troops

Dead

100,000+ Iraqis

 

Bring U.S. Troops Home Now!

Tell Congress -  Tell our Senators Specter & Santorum:

ANot One More Death - Not One More Dollar@

 

Philadelphia area sponsors: American Friends Service Committee; Brandywine Peace Community; Catholic Peace Fellowship; Coalition for Peace Action (Bucks & Montgomery Counties); Gold Star Families for Peace; House of Grace Catholic Worker; Military Families Speak Out; Northwest Peace & Justice Movement; Phila. Women's International League for Peace & Freedom; Shalom Center; and Veterans for Peace.

 

 

 

Special Prayers for the Dead of Iraq

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

 

Dear Friends,

 

It is almost certain (though God forbid) that the number of US dead in the Iraq War will pass 2000 this week. (At last count it was 1996.) The number of Iraqi dead, overwhelmingly civilians, long ago passed 100,000.

 

In many cities, special public observances are planned for 5 pm on the day after the dread announcement is made. (In Philadelphia, on the east side of City Hall, and going from there to Senators Santorum & Specter).

 

And on the coming weekend, in your own congregation, we invite you to join those of many religious communities who will set aside a time for mourning and for rededication to seek peace and pursue it.

 

We are sending you two prayers of mourning that are rooted in Jewish tradition (though these interpretive renderings in English can be used in any community), as well as a newer trans-traditional litany. These midrashic translations of "El maaleh rachamim" and Mourners' Kaddish appear below, as well as the Litany of Ashes, Stones, and Flowers, for you to use (perhaps along with the Hebrew) if you wish at these times, or others you feel appropriate.

 

Shalom, Arthur

 

P.S. --  Below the three prayers, see a call for a fast on November 1 in solidarity with prisoners at Guantanamo, especially those who are hunger striking.

 

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

El Maleh Rahamim/ God, Filled with Compassion

 

El Maleh Rahamim:

God, filled with Motherly Compassion,

grant a full and perfect rest

under the wings of Your sheltering Sh'khinah/ Presence

-- among the lofty, holy and pure,

radiant as the shining firmament --

to the souls of all those of all Your peoples

who have been killed in and around the lands where

Abraham our Forebear walked --

Make them welcome to their eternal home.

May they rest in Your Edenic Garden of Delight.

 

Please, Master of Mercy,

envelop them

in Your comforting, protecting wings forever;

Bind up their souls in the Bond of Life.

For You are their Portion, their Inheritance.

May they rest securely in Peace,

and we say:

Amen.

 

Translation by Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, 1996, as modified by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 2005.

 

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

Kaddish of Mourning

 

May the Great Name rise before our eyes:

The Name that weaves together

all the names of all the beings in the world.

 

May our hearts and eyes weave

All these names together in one Name,

the double spiral that underlies all life.

And may we also see the Great Name

Pulsing at the heart of our own names.

 

For in the Great Name

There remain forever present

the names of all those who have touched our lives,

even those we can no longer touch;

 

The names of those we love,

Those who were our enemies,

Those whom we have intimately known,

And those whose names we know only from a list,

Only as a number.

 

Far beyond all praise and poetry,

all celebration and all consolation,

Is this Great Name.

 

And yet we lift our voices and our breathing

In the act of life that gives the Name

Its meaning.

 

We lift especially today the names

Of those who died a violent death;

Those who were killed by those who bear the Holy Image,

Killing those who also bear the Holy Image.

 

For this civil war within Your Being,

This tearing of God's Image at Itself,

Your Self,

we know that you are inconsolable

And so are we.

 

Our only solace is to beg you:

 

You Who make peace and harmony

In the ultimate reaches of the universe --

Touch our souls,

Teach our minds,

Open our hearts,

Guide our bodies,

To make peace within ourselves, among ourselves,

Within and among the children of Abraham,

The children of Sarah,

The children of Hagar;

A peace that weaves together in reconciliation

All Yisrael, all Yishmael,

All the communities that call out Your many Names ­

And even beyond,

All those who dwell upon this planet.

______________

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of The Shalom Center www.shalomctr.org and the author of Godwrestling ‹ Round 2 among many other works of spiritual search and public policy.

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