In Memeory: Tom Lewis
Today is Friday, 11 April 2008.
The Museum of the Bourgeois honours the passing of Tom Lewis.
Died on 4 April, Tom Lewis, painter and bringer of peace, died at the age of 68.
In a lifetime of activism, he is best remembered for his participation in the action of the Baltimore Four in October 1967, when he and three others poured blood upon the files of a Selective Service (draft) office, and in the action of the Catonsville Nine, 17 May 1968, when draft records were seized and burned in a parking lot with homemade napalm, whilst USA government-authorized napalm was raining down upon the people of Indochina.
Herewith, from The Baltimore Sun: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/06/8120/.
The beauty of his life
Perhaps it’s a cry in the wilderness:
“Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.”
[Auden: 1 September 1939]
And, thanks to the wonders of technology, one seldom can interpose one’s body in defense of the innocent victims:
"Kill not them, but me."
or perhaps US.
______________________________________________
This poem is for Tom Lewis and I.H.L.
The Museum of the Bourgeois honours the passing of Tom Lewis.
Died on 4 April, Tom Lewis, painter and bringer of peace, died at the age of 68.
In a lifetime of activism, he is best remembered for his participation in the action of the Baltimore Four in October 1967, when he and three others poured blood upon the files of a Selective Service (draft) office, and in the action of the Catonsville Nine, 17 May 1968, when draft records were seized and burned in a parking lot with homemade napalm, whilst USA government-authorized napalm was raining down upon the people of Indochina.
Herewith, from The Baltimore Sun: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/06/8120/.
The beauty of his life
Perhaps it’s a cry in the wilderness:
“Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.”
[Auden: 1 September 1939]
And, thanks to the wonders of technology, one seldom can interpose one’s body in defense of the innocent victims:
"Kill not them, but me."
or perhaps US.
______________________________________________
This poem is for Tom Lewis and I.H.L.
posted by HH at 12:08 AM
1 Comments:
HH, what a fine tribute poem to this incredible man. And from Jonah House: Preparations underway for 40th Anniversary of the Catonsville 9 (http://www.jonahhouse.org/catonsville40/index.htm)
From that site, here's a snip from the Catonsville 9 Statement (by Daniel Berrigan), which - sadly -is as relevant to what's happening today as when it was written. :
"Our apologies good friends for the fracture of good order the burning of paper instead of children;
the angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnel house. We could not so help us God do otherwise, For we are sick at heart
our hearts give us no rest for thinking of the Land of Burning Children...
"
Post a Comment
<< Home