August 6, 2009 Faith and Resistance Retreat
Pentagon Witness
Liz McAlister, George Veasey arrested holding banner.
Early in the morning on August 6, we processed to the Pentagon wearing death masks and black robes. We walked from Army Navy Blvd. to the pedestrian tunnel, across the parking lot and onto the grassy area in front of the metro entrance to the Pentagon. Buddhist Nun, Sister Itchi led the procession with her drumming and chanting.
Because the Pentagon police knew we were coming, there was an extra ID check point and people ended up standing in a slow moving line right in front of us. We stood in silence for about an hour holding two banners: HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI. '...a butchery of untold magnitude." (Pope Paul VI) and the retreat theme banner: "Remember the Pain, Repent the Sin, Reclaim the Future."
Pope Paul VI called America's use of the atomic bomb "a butchery of untold magnitude." Pope John Paul II called it "a self-destruction of mankind" and named Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Auschwitz as places marked by human injustice that should now be places of pilgrimage.
George Veasey and Liz McAlister hold banner: Remember the Pain, Repent the Sin, Reclaim the Future. Here, they are preparing to walk to the Pentagon. At the end of the walk, both George and Liz were arrested in front of a Pentagon entrance as they held this banner so that people going to work could see it. They are charged with disobeying a lawful order, and have a court date in the Alexandria Federal Court on October 23.
Sr. Itchi and Jean Chapman drum and chant as the group walks to the Pentagon: Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo. This mantra from the Lotus Sutra expresses peace to all beings.
Holding the banner, "Remembering the Pain, Repenting the Sin, Reclaiming the Future" on the walk to the Pentagon.
