"Dallas Mourns": Dallas' Anti-inauguration day

[rainbow4321]

http://ntimc.org/newswire.php?story_id=1783
The day began with "1000 Drums for Peace", a nationwide action put on by Drums Not Guns. As one approached the Dallas part of the action at the Kennedy Memorial, soft drumming could be heard. It sounded like the beating of a heart that had just awakened. As the Sun rose higher more people gravitated to the memorial, more drums and other instruments were pulled out, and the heartbeat grew stronger, more energetic. There were preschoolers playing their own drums and there was dancing. The day was off to a good start.

Next, Women in Black moved to Belo Plaza to stand silent vigil to challenge "the concept... of violence and occupation as a viable approach to conflict resolution". It was the first of what are planned as weekly vigils.

"Dallas Mourns" was an action which was conceived of and chaired by Alan Oaks, a first time activist. As a symbol of the erosion of our civil liberties, three funeral processions moved down three different routes in downtown Dallas. Each procession carried a casket. One procession carried a sign labeling the departed as Democracy, another had signs amnnouncing the death of the Bill of Rights and the third had a sign mourning the passing of a Free Press. The three processions converged on the Kennedy Memorial, where Lon Burnam, director of the Dallas Peace Center spoke to a candlelight vigil about where the movement should go from here. The Reverend Peter Johnson recounted some of the work he had done with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and said that even though at the moment we appear to be at deepest midnight, the dawn is inevitable. Hadi Jawad of the Dallas Peace Center and the Crawford Peace House spoke of the fear that goes along with being an American of Middle Eastern descent.