BRANDYWINE PEACE COMMUNITY - P.O. Box 81, Swarthmore, PA, 19081--(610)544-1818

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January 18, 2010 - Martin Luther King Day of Nonviolent Resistance at Lockheed Martin
World’s largest war profiteer, weapons corporation, arms dealer, U.S.’s chief nuclear weapons and space weapons contractor.

About 50 people stood before the Valley Forge, PA complex of Lockheeed Martin in the bright sun and warmish air (compared to the days of recent frigid weather) holding signs and banners, and listening to excerpts from Dr. King's sermons and speeches. During a period of silence for the devastated people of Haiti, a bell tolled for all the victims.  

Rabbi Arthur Waskow read a story written by him and his wife, Rabbi Phyllis Berman entitled The Long Narrow Pharaoh & the Midwives Who Gave Birth to Freedom. The diverse assembly of peacemakers shared in a Litany of the King Day Memorial before seven people entered and stood across the main driveway entrance wearing sandwich boards – on the front, a large picture of Dr. King with “Make War No More”, or “It’s About Justice”, or “It’s About Peace” printed underneath; on the back, what one F-35 fighter plane made by Lockheed Martin or one day of war in Afghanistan equals in unmet human needs. The seven were eventually arrested and taken to the Upper Merion Police Station where they were cited for Disorderly Conduct and released. They are: Jackie Bauman, Beth Friedlan, Annie Geers, MJ Gentile, Mary Jo McArthur, Fr. Patrick Sieber, and Robert M. Smith.

The day's Program follows:

As we gather here at Lockheed Martin, our prayers and consciences go out to the devastated people of Haiti. 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 of names of Afghanistan war dead. Audio broadcast of excerpts of sermons and speeches of Dr. King. (collection for the Brandywine Peace Community)

Storyteller: Rabbi Arthur Waskow: The Long Narrow Pharaoh & the Midwives Who Gave Birth to Freedom Read it here

Litany of the King Day Memorial

Reader: Today, we remember a martyred prophet, a “drum major for justice,” a peacemaker, and nonviolent revolutionary. Today, we stand before Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest war profiteer and weapons corporation, remembering all the victims of war and weapons building, remembering all the casualties of social and environmental neglect, remembering and mourning all who suffer and die on the altar of corporate greed, empire, poverty, and violence.  Today we honor in word and deed the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Over the past three decades, we have gathered on Martin Luther King Day. Last year, we stood before Lockheed Martin on the eve of a new presidency and the hopes of a new day for peace, knowing full well just how all-consuming war is, not only in lives and resources, but in the very possibility and expectation for the future. Presidents change, but the wars continue, as does the central role of the Pentagon, the weapons builders and war profiteers. Standing before Lockheed Martin today, we challenge the dominance of militarism in our society, culture, and economy. We continue to gather in a time of war and suffering insisting on and struggling for a fundamentally new day of justice and peace, a day when war will not occupy the central place in our society and no one will be “left out in the cold,” victims of an economy devoted not to human community and justice but to war.

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 so 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.”  Nothing today signifies the threat of global violence more than the continuing existence of nuclear weapons.  President Obama’s pronouncements about the abolition of nuclear weapons can hardly match the U.S. nuclear arsenal of more than 10,000 nuclear weapons, which have poisoned our earth, our spirits, our imagination and claim on the future with the threat of unimaginable death and destruction. Lockheed Martin is the U.S.’s chief nuclear bomb contractor.

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 is now nearly a trillion dollars annually for war and the Pentagon’s global reach. The cost of the continuing war in Iraq and the escalating war in Afghanistan is financed through additional spending bills. Economists believe the cost could reach $2 Trillion. The culture of militarism and war, and the economy of war which sustains it, is the very existence of Lockheed Martin. The economy of war is the proverbial “elephant in the room” of the  continuing economic crisis. Whole communities have become “casualties of war,” more and more suffer for the profits of a few.

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:  Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest war profiteer with income exceeding $42.7 billion annually. It manufactures F-35 Joint Strike Stealth Fighters which at $300 billion is the most expensive weapons program in human history. Lockheed Martin is the number ONE arms seller around the world – Israel, Saudi Arabia, countries throughout Latin America, Japan, and South Korea. Lockheed Martin builds unmanned remote-controlled drones directed through space from the continental U.S. by satellites also produced by Lockheed Martin. The death toll in Afghanistan grows daily as people here and around the world pay the price of U.S. war and militarism. 90% of Lockheed Martin’s income comes from war.  
Response (all) * “...I believe that even amid today’s 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: Today at Lockheed Martin we honor the legacy of Dr. King and the struggle for justice and peace. We choose to walk in the memory and steps of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We honor Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolent direct action and his opposition to injustice and war. Our memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is an active commitment to justice and peace and our continued nonviolent resistance to 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. Honoring the legacy of 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: “For peace, Stop Lockheed Martin!”  “For Justice, Make War No More”

(*from Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize Speech)