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

On Saturday, October 6, 2007, two days before the national holiday of "Columbus
Day", the Brandywine Peace Community held the first demonstration at the
Port of Philadelphia regarding the Port's role in the shipment of war
material to Iraq. 

At noon, about twenty people gathered on Columbus Boulevard (yes,
Columbus Boulevard, formerly Delaware Avenue) across from  the "United
States", a huge abandoned ocean liner that for years has been a
Philadelphia seaport landmark.  For an hour, we vigiled with banners -
"STOP THE FLOW OF WAR TO IRAQ" - and signs as passersby and shoppers at
the nearby Mall blew horns of support. Only occasionally did we hear a
condemnatory voice. 

At 1PM, we walked about a quarter of a mile to the entrance for the
Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, the shipping center of the Port of
Philadelphia. Tom Mullian played some of his songs.  RW Dennen did some
poetry (see example below) and hiaku.  The Inter-Faith Fast for Peace
Statement for "Columbus Day", October 8 : "from Conquest to Community;
From Violence to Reverence" was read and then we shared in a Litany of
Water.

Litany of Water: Let Justice flow like water and peace like
an unfailing stream (Amos: 5)

Amidst the seas of war, violence, disaster, and neglect  that
swirl around us; we yearn for the healing waters of peace.
[all] Let Justice flow like water and peace like an unfailing
stream

For vibrant lives suddenly and shamelessly taken from the
community of family and loved ones and For the lives that
continue, haunted forever by the pain of absence, and the
nightmare images forever seared into our memories,
[all] Let Justice flow like water and peace like an unfailing
stream

For empire, for the creation of enemies to justify militarism
and war, and for all the deaths that have been justified with the
arrogance of patriotism,  fanaticism of ideology, and the
indifference of the powerful,
[all] Let Justice flow like water and peace like an unfailing
stream

For our societys addiction to oil, weapons, and war-making. 
For the violence of poverty and the wounding of body and
spirit resulting from racial, religious, and sexual hatred,
[all] Let Justice flow like water and peace like an unfailing
stream
 
That we may end war, beat swords into plowshares, care for
the earth and all the victims of violence, disaster, and hatred,
[all] Let Justice flow like water and peace like an unfailing
stream

Today, we stand on Columbus Boulevard before the Port of
Philadelphia just days before the national holiday of 
Columbus Day knowing that Christopher Columbus didnt
in 1492 discover America, but invaded a continent populated
by native peoples. We are a people whose society was born in
and lives on in a legacy of invasion, war, and military
occupation.  To which we say:
[all] Stop the Flow of War to Iraq

Today, we stand in peace before the Marine Terminal central
to the workings of the Port of Philadelphia. We stand here not
in opposition to the Packard Marine Terminal nor the Port of
Philadelphia or any of its employees, managers, or operators.
Rather we stand in protest of a policy of war in which the Port
of Philadelphia and much of the corporate and industrial
machinery of our society participates. So for ourselves and our
society we say:
[all] Stop the Flow of War to Iraq

We stand for peace -  De-Fund the War, Fund Human Needs,
Bring all the troops home now, and end the shipment of
weapons and war to Iraq from the Port of Philadelphia - and
say:
[all] Stop the Flow of War to Iraq; Let Justice flow like
water and peace like an unfailing stream.

Water was passed. When will the next shipment of weapons to Iraq?
The litany continues as we await more news and another step for peace.


WEIGHT OF CHAINS

2000 forged each day upon our backs,
heavy links, heavy links of chains.

Halliburton's scare with oil everywhere;
corporate gain not in our name
heavy links, heavy links of chains.

Goin' up and down all around voices spin
to beat, to beat, to beat the drums of war.
A "foxy fox" our soldiers die, children cry, in beat, in beat, in beat to
the drums of war.
These heavy links can't stand no more,

Oligarchy's tour destruction everywhere,
the weight, the link, the weight, the link,
the weight, the link.
Twist-wrappin', back-snappin', corporate-
hackin' playin' the chains of war.

Bring' on you say, you say.
71 to 72 you bore no chains, you bore no chains of mine.
Yet humans die, loved ones cry,
until your weight, until your weight is gone.

R.W. Dennen