dan berrigan
intro’d to Dan upon his death.. and Jeremy‘s tweets.. ie:
@jeremyscahill
Since we learned Dan Berrigan passed yesterday, my house has been filled with Dan’s writing, his voice & this song: youtube.com/watch?v=rxWaV_…
better the files than the bodies of children
i had no right before the love of you
i went for peace they dropped their bombs.. right where my govt knew i would be
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Daniel Joseph Berrigan, S.J. (May 9, 1921 – April 30, 2016), was an American Jesuit priest, Anti-war activist, and poet.
Like many others during the 1960s, Berrigan’s active protest against the Vietnam War earned him both scorn and admiration, but it was his participation in the Catonsville Nine that made him famous. It also landed him on the FBI’s “most wanted list“, on the cover of TIME magazine, and in prison. His own particular form of militancy and radical spirituality in the service of social and political justice was significant enough,at that time, to “shape the tactics of resistance to the Vietnam War” in the United States.
For the rest of his life, Berrigan remained one of the US’s leading anti-war activists. In 1980, he founded the Plowshares Movement, an anti-nuclear protest group, that put him back into the national spotlight. He was also an award-winning and prolific author of some 50 books, a teacher, and a university educator.
[..]
Berrigan, his brother and Josephite priest Philip Berrigan, and Trappist monk Thomas Merton founded an interfaith coalition against the Vietnam War, and wrote letters to major newspapers arguing for an end to the war. In 1967, Berrigan and his brother were arrested for pouring blood on draft records as part of the Baltimore Four. Phillip was sentenced to six years in prison for defacing government property. This, and his belief that his support of prisoners of war during the war was not acknowledged and appreciated, further radicalized Berrigan against the United States government.
Berrigan traveled to Hanoi with Howard Zinn during the Tet Offensive in January 1968 to “receive” three American airmen, the first American POWs released by the North Vietnamese since the U.S. bombing of that nation had begun.
In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse to make tax payments in protest of the Vietnam War. In the same year, he was interviewed in the anti-Vietnam War documentary film In the Year of the Pig, and later that year became involved in radical non-violent protest.
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Howard Zinn Reads Daniel Berrigan’s Poem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rVZcHNm1wQ
because of the children
the cause is the heart’s beat
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differences 2013
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2006 interview w democracy now
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/5/2/in_2006_interview_fr_dan_berrigan
34 min – that was the level at which the war was being fought… (if they don’t obey the laws we send the troops in.. well.. who’s laws..)
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/5/2/part_2_remembering_father_daniel_berrigan
36 min – (speaking in 2002) howard zinn and i spent every night in bomb shelters… american bombs in hanoi in 68 – quite a moment to be under bombs of own coutnry
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/5/2/rip_father_daniel_berrigan_remembering_the
12 min – setting draft files on fire
14 min – we have chosen to be powerless criminals in a time of criminal power… we have chosen to be branded peace criminals by war criminals..
15 min – for four months.. they (fbi) looked for dan everywhere… while he was available to everyone everywhere.. except the fbi
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