Memorial Day Demonstration at WW II Memorial and Pentagon



As Americans celebrated the war dead/heroes on Memorial Day, May 31, people from Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Jonah House and friends, went to the newly dedicated WW II memorial in DC to oppose all killing – especially the current obscenity in Iraq and the continuing obscenity in Afghanistan. We brought a 9 foot banner that read “End All War”, and suspended it from two helium filled weather balloons. Additionally, we had banners which read: “No More War, No More Terror,” and “War is not the Answer.” 1,000 copies of a leaflet calling on people to refuse to fight in war and refuse to kill were distributed to tourists pouring in to the new memorial. A number of people walking by vigiled with us for periods of time; many asked to be photographed with us and the banners.
The next day, joined by people from New York and Massachusetts, we went to the Pentagon. We had hoped to bring our banners and message up the Parade Ground to the windows of the War Secretary and Joint Chiefs but learned that that entrance has been redesigned to monitor all ingress. We opted instead to focus on the South Entrances (where all demonstrations have not been tolerated for more than three years). Two new pedestrian bridges have been constructed which employees use to enter the Pentagon. Groups went up onto each of these bridges and unfurled banners expecting almost immediate arrest. Warnings were issued immediately to the first group that gained access but the police stopped their count down after the second warning. Three people were arrested almost immediately holding their banner across the
bridge (but not blocking any access). Pentagon employees were, if not welcoming, less hostile than we often experience; some were even friendly and appreciative.
Our signs that read: “The Pentagon is the largest terrorist organization in the world. Shut it down, Shut it down,” “No More War, No More Terror”, “Swords into Plowshares” and “US warmaking and torture in Iraq is a sin and a war crime.” After an hour of vigiling, one group left the pedestrian bridge, and walked across the Pentagon parking lot to join a third wing of the demonstration. Others on the bridge, who didn’t leave immediately, were arrested. The “third wing” of the demonstration was people who did not choose to risk arrest. They were holding the balloon banner and other banners and graphics across the parking lot. (This group had a visually powerful vigil for about ½ hour along Army Navy Drive. They were visible to constant vehicular traffic and to many employees coming to work and they talked with many passersby. They then went under the highway and set up their presence on the south side of the south parking lot completing a resistance presence in that area.)
Tom Feagley, Melinda Smale, Max Obuszewski, Sarah Rose Clune, Betty Scholten, Bill Ofenloch, Bud Courtney, and Susan Crane were arrested and charged with either Disorderly Conduct or Admission to Property. Court appearances are scheduled for August 6.