Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
"So prophesied W.B. Yeats. But we are the center and we will hold, with our sleeves rolled up and our hands full of compassion. The beastly birth that Yeats had slouching toward Bethlehem to be born is the usurpation by multinational corporations of our human and individual rights. We are not here today to facilitate that birth but to give birth to a movement that will come as a new social and moral force, fierce and steadfast in the face of our common ruin! We have come together before to move our government, to move our world, in fact, and we can do it again!" said Harrison.
"We can, here today, build a revolution founded on our common good, not on common greed. Obama started here, in the center. He said for us to push him, to make him move. It is not a silent, speculative chess game. Rather, it is a call for a cultural revolution using words like compassion, ethics, and morality. We can spell those words with our dictionary, not the spinning of those words by the extremist Right," declared Harrison.
"Now is the time to step up with our Midwestern sisters and brothers and go on the road, into the streets, to the capitols, to the press, to build our numbers and repeat our refrain of the common good. The ethical and moral imperative is the survival of our planet. Compassion, ethics, and morality--strange as it seems, these are the words of our revolution," concluded Harrison.
WILPF, now in its 100th year, is the oldest women's peace organization in the world. It's leaders, Jane Addams and Emma Greene Balch, have twice, in 1931 and again in 1946, won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Other speakers addressing the rally included Rev. Chet Guinn of the Methodist Federation for Social Action -- Iowa, Roberta Rosheim of the National Education Association (Iowa) Peace and Justice Caucus, Bill Stansbery of Veterans for Peace, Palestinian-American human rights activist Samar Sarhan, Catholic Worker peace and social justice activist Brian Terrell, and Cody Ryan of Students Beyond War
"The United States of America originally had the highest standards of freedom," Rosheim told the crowd, "and, having won a war against a colonial power, should have stood forever as a beacon of democracy. In too many instances, the U.S. government has fallen back to the immoral standards of the conquering Caesars and has embraced the doctrine of unprovoked warfare, colonialism, and authoritarian rule where neither the colonized nor the colonizers have any rights at all."
Rosheim pointed out that a force of several hundred thousand U.S. troops would be required to subdue the 30 million people of Afghanistan. "We can't afford this, nor would the American people support it," said Rosheim.
"War is not a solution, but it is the problem, a problem we are wise enough to finally solve. Blessed are the peacemakers," declared Rosheim.
Sarhan spoke on behalf of American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Iowa Program Coordinator Kathleen McQuillen who was unable to be present.
"We are all affected by what happens in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Palestine. We all have been personally touched in one way or another. Our tax money is spent to finance these wars. They cause hurt, pain, and disappointment for everyone involved," said Sarhan, who noted that only one percent of war funding is devoted to the medical care of those are wounded in conflict.
"Islam is a religion of peace," declared Sarhan.
Guinn, long a Des Moines peace and social justice activist, told the crowd that," our nation has been engaged in immoral and criminal acts."
"We are the arms merchant of the world. We violate international law daily. We stoop to torture, hire mercenaries, train terrorists, lie about our motives, and then have the gall to label other nations as the "Axis of Evil,'" said Guinn.
"Our national leaders piously close their speeches with a prayer for God to bless America, never praying for the well-being of the whole human family. While claiming to mold other nations into democracies, we wage propaganda wars against developing democracies like Venezuela and supporting the worst offending nations that abuse human rights, such as Columbia," said Guinn.
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