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IN HONOR OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
A TIME TO BREAK THE SILENCE:
END POVERTY, STOP THE WAR,
COMING TOGETHER FOR JUSTICE & PEACE -
A GATHERING OF ANTI-WAR AND ANTI-POVERTY ACTIVISTS
SUNDAY, APRIL 2nd, 2pm
OLD FIRST REFORMED CHURCH
4th and Race Sts. Philadelphia, PA.
Slide show of photos by Harvey Finkle - NOTE: You will need to save the Slide Show file to your Desktop. After it downloads, click on the icon and the Slide Show will start. The controls are in the upper left corner of the screen. You can advance the Slide Show by clicking on the right arrow. You can also go back by clicking on the Left arrow. When you are finished, hit the Escape key. (Not recommended for people with dial-up connections.)
April 3, 2006:
From Bob Smith:
Many, many thanks to the nearly 100 people who brought their
voice to yesterday's Brandywine Peace Community and Kensington
Welfare Rights Union [KWRU] sponsored program of panel
presentation, workshops, and center city walk and rally at Phila. City
Hall. Commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King's historic "A Time to
Break Silence" speech on April 4, 1967 (read the entire speech or
listen to it below) and Dr. King's
assassination exactly one year later (April 4, 1968), the event
brought together anti-war and anti-poverty activists in a unique time
reminiscent of Dr. King's 1967 call for a conjoining of the peace and
civil rights movements of the time.
Many thanks to all on the opening Anti-Poverty/Anti-War Speakers
Panel: Peter Lems, Program Associate, Iraq Peacebuilding
Program, American Friends Service Committee; Ray Martinez,
SEIU Local 668; Sr. Margaret McKenna, New Jerusalem Laura;
Galen Tyler, director, Kensington Welfare Rights Union; and Bill
Perry, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace.
Many thanks to the workshop leaders:
Organizing Voters for Election 2006 - Jennine Miller, Project
H.O.M.E. and Anthony Gindraw of Vote for Homes! Coalition
What would peace and justice organizing look like?:
American Friends Service Committee staffers Oskar Castro,
director of AFSC's Youth and Militarism program, and Roberta
Spivek, coordinator of the U.S. Economic Justice program
My Life Matters: How the Poor Organize for Economic
Human Rights: Members of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union
Many thanks to all the endorsing groups: Endorsers: Bubbes and
Zaydes (grandparents) for Peace in the Middle East, Philadelphia
Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Catholic Peace Fellowship, Project
HOME, PRAWN, Shalom Center, Simple Way.
Thanks and Appreciation to Harvey Finkle for the exhibit of his
superb photos; to our main speaker, Cheri Honkala, National
Coordinator of the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights
Campaign; to Janet Lowe for the day's striking lead banner, and
especially, much appreciation to the Old First Reformed Church,
and its pastor, Rev. Jeff Shanaberger, for the open doors and
generous support.
Remembering Dr. King's statement about church "not being a place
we go to, but rather go from for justice and peace", a march with
chants ("Time to Break the Silence About this Bloody War, A Time
to Break the Silence About War on the Poor") echoing throughout
center city Phila.immediately followed the program before rallying at
Phila. City Hall where we heard from: Bal Pinguel, American
Friends Service Committee; Celeste Zappala, Military Families
Speak Out, whose son, Sherwood Baker, was killed in Iraq in April
'04; Many thanks to these dear friends for their words and presence.
Enduring friendship and music was provided by Tom Mullian "Six
Strings Against the War"), The rally concluded with a ceremony in
which participants read the names of U.S. and Iraqi war dead as
well as victims of domestic poverty and social neglect.
A good, quick but to the point, article appeared in today's METRO
paper. A photo appeared in the Phila. Daily News.
We celebrate the day's a collaborative effort and message. The
silence has been broken and the anti-war/anti-poverty voice will
continue.
Welcome & Introduction to the day's event by Bob Smith, staff
coordinator, Brandywine Peace Community:
Welcome on behalf of the Brandywine Peace Community and the Kensington
Welfare Rights Union [KWRU] and all the endorsers of our gathering here
at Old First Reformed Church: Bubbes and Zaydes (grandparents) for Peace
in the Middle East, Philadelphia
Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Catholic Peace Fellowship, Project HOME,
PRAWN, the Shalom Center, and the Simple Way.
"There comes a time when silence is betrayal", so began Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church. One year later, to the
day, Dr. King was shot and killed in Memphis, TN while supporting
striking sanitation workers.
In his "A Time to Break Silence" speech, yes, Dr. King spoke out against
the Vietnam War, calling the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of
violence in the world" But more fundamentally, he called for a vision
of a social change movement that would speak "beyond Vietnam". He called
for a conjoining of the civil rights movement and the peace movement of
the day. He called for a movement that proceeded on the basis of the
inseparability of a commitment to domestic justice with efforts to stop
war.
Today, we come together thirty nine years after Dr. King's prophetic
speech and call, thirty eight years after his assassination. I attended
Dr. King's speech that evening, April 4, 1967. While the sound system
kept me from hearing clearly Dr. King's words, his voice in the following
months reverberated throughout the some of the most defining points of my
life a few months later. I would violate the military draft law and
spend time in federal prison in resistance to the war in Vietnam.
His voice reverberates for us all today as we gather to "Break the
Silence" concerning the inseparability of war and poverty undergirded by
what Dr. King called "the evil triplets of American society: racism,
materialism, and militarism.
Today, we come together in "A Time Break the Silence" to stop the war in
Iraq, to end poverty, to come together for justice and peace, peace and
justice, human economic rights. Today, we will begin with a panel of
anti-poverty and anti-war activists, continue with workshops and a talk
by Cheri Honkala, national coordinator of Poor Peoples Economic Human
Rights Campaign. We will then proceed from this church in a march to
Phila. City Hall for a Rally to Break the Silence because in the words of
Dr. King, "Church isn't a place that we go to but a place we go from for
justice and peace."
___________________________________________________________________________
On April 2nd , Philadelphia-area antiwar and antipoverty activists will
meet for a very important gathering at Old First Reformed Church at 4th
and Race Sts. to create a stronger link between these two movements and
their goals for peace with justice.
The gathering, titled A Time To Break the Silence: End Poverty, Stop the
War, Coming Together for Peace and Justice commemorates Martin Luther
Kings April 4, 1967 Riverside Church speech A Time to Break Silence (Read or listen to the Riverside speech here), exactly one year to the day before Dr. King's assassination (April
4, 1968), has been planned jointly by the Brandywine Peace Community and
the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, with several supporting
organizations including Project HOME, the American Friends Service
Committee, and PRAWN. Some of us focus on ending homelessness in our
activism, while others concentrate on ending the war, but finding ways of
effectively stressing and communicating the connections between these
issues is vital to gaining greater popular support for both causes.
The gathering will begin at 2PM on Sunday, April 2nd and feature a panel
discussion and workshops with noted peace and economic justice activists.
After closing remarks at 5PM from Cheri Honkala from the Poor Peoples
Economic Human Rights Campaign, we will march to City Hall for a rally
with speakers and remembrance of those who have died from war and/or
poverty with a reading of their names.
Please join us at this critical time for both movements and lets create
new or even closer working relationships to bring greater urgency to
ending the war and realizing a more just and humane society. In addition,
please distribute this attached flyer as far and wide as you can.
Join with area activists from both movements for a panel discussion and
workshops on bringing both movements together in common efforts around
issues of this costly war, counter-recruitment and the "poverty draft",
cuts in Medicaid, college loans, affordable housing, along with other
social programs, and fighting for a "moral budget" and economic human
rights.
Panelists will include Peter Lems, AFSC; Galen Tyler, Kensington Welfare
Rights Union; Sr. Margaret McKenna, New Jerusalem Laura; Ray Martinez,
SEIU Local 668 ; and John Grant, Veterans for Peace.
Workshops by Oskar Castro and Roberta Spivek, AFSC on counter-recruitment
and economic justice; Jennine Miller and residents, Project HOME on voter
registration to end homelessness; Penn Med Students and Kensington
Welfare Rights Union staff on issues behind enlistment in the military
such as Medicaid and college financial cuts and lack of affordable,
decent housing.
Closing remarks by Cheri Honkala, Poor Peoples' Economic Human Rights
Campaign National Co-ordinator.
END POVERTY! STOP THE WAR!
MARCH AT 5PM TO CITY HALL FOR A RALLY
TO STOP THE WAR AND BRING THE MONEY
AND TROOPS HOME!
Brandywine Peace Community 610-544-1818
Kensington Welfare
Rights Union 215-203-1945
Past Brandywine Peace Community Martin Luther King events: 2006, 2005