Call for Lenten Witness at White House from the Dorothy Day CW in Wash DC & others
Frank Cordaro
From: Art Laffin <artl...@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 9, 2010
Lenten Witness for Peace and Justice
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent
people... We need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever
reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media, because war in
our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war
against children... What matters most is not who is sitting in the
White House, but "who is sitting in" -- and who is marching outside
the White House pushing for change..."
--Howard Zinn, author of People's History of the United States
(Died-January 27, 2010)
Dear Friends,
We live in a warmaking empire, where war is being waged
indiscriminately in order to control and acquire resources. The U.S.
continues to wage an unrelenting war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and has
increased it's military intervention in Pakistan and Yemen. According
to the Pakistani newspaper The News, U.S. drone attacks killed 123
civilians during January 2010. The U.S. also continues to provide
military and economic support to Israel for its illegal occupation of
Palestine. Corporate, military and political powers are also waging a
war against the poor. War, economic exploitation and global warming
claim countless lives daily. The victims cry out for justice. The
earth groans in travail.
Lent is a time for personal and societal repentance, a time for
radical conversion, renewal and transformation. Living under the
brutal occupation of the Roman empire, Jesus declared: "The kingdom of
God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel." (Mk.1:15) Living
in the U.S. empire, which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described as
"the greatest purveyor of violence in the world," we need to heed
Jesus' proclamation now more than ever.
We invite you to participate in a Lenten Witness for Peace and
Justice. The purpose of this witness is to call for repentance and
conversion of ourselves, our society and yes, our churches, to the
Gospel way of justice, nonviolence and a reverence for all life and
creation. We call for an immediate end to the sinful wars being
carried out in our name. We call, too, for reparations for Iraq and
Afghanistan; for total disarmament, the abolition of all nuclear and
conventional weapons, and an end to the militarization of space; an
end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank; an end to torture and
the closing of Guantanamo and Bagram U.S. military prisons and other
military torture training centers like the SOA/WHINSEC; the
eradication of poverty; universal health care; unlimited aid and
assistance to help rebuild Haiti; a just economic order; and climate
justice. We call for the proposed FY 2011 $708 billion military
budget, which includes $7 billion to upgrade the U.S. nuclear arsenal,
to be converted to meet urgent human needs.
As in previous years, we will hold an Ash Wednesday witness. And we
encourage as many people as possible to participate in the Friday
vigils at the White House. Weekly Friday vigils have been held at the
White House by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker since 1998. Here is a
proposed schedule for the Lenten Witness.
Schedule for Lenten Witness for Peace and Justice
February 17, Ash Wednesday: Noon - 1:00 p.m. witness at the White
House. Ashes will be distributed.
February 19: Noon - 1:00 p.m. White House vigil
February 26: Noon - 1:00 p.m. White House vigil
March 5: Noon - 1:00 p.m. White House vigil
March 12: Noon - 1:00 p.m. White House vigil
March 19: Noon - 1:00 p.m. White House vigil (7th anniversary of the
U.S. invasion of Iraq)
March 26: Noon - 1:00 p.m. White House vigil - Members of TASSC will
offer testimony during this vigil)
Please join us for some or all of this important Lenten Witness. Also
please join with Jonah House and the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker for
the annual Holy Week Faith and Resistance retreat, March 31-April 2.
For more info contact Art Laffin: artl...@hotmail.com.
In peace and hope,
Dorothy Day Catholic Worker
http://dccatholicworker.wordpress.com/
Scott Wright, SICSAL-USA
http://www.sicsal-usa.org/
Demissie Abebe, TASSC
http://www.tassc.org/
Marie Dennis, Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns
http://www.maryknollogc.org/
Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore
http://www.paxchristiusa.org/
Jonah House
http://www.jonahhouse.org/
________________________________
Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft’s powerful SPAM protection. Sign up now.
--
Frank Cordaro
Phil Berrigan CW House
713 Indiana Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50314
(515) 282-4781 www.DesMoinesCatholicWorker.org