 October 2001
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Patrica Watson, Editor Sara Burke, Assistant Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
Sitting with Mary Dyer, and Walking with Mumia Abu-Jamal Mary Dyer, Quaker Martyr: A One-Woman Play; 10/27, 8 pm; Paulist Center, 5 Park St, Boston MA; $25; fundraiser for AFSC-New England; Jessa Piaia is well known for her character portrayals of historically important women; AFSC, 2161 Mass. Ave, Cambridge MA 02140; 617/661-6130 The first time I met Mary was at the Friends Meeting House in Philadelphia, at daybreak on the 24th of April 1999. I had just gotten off a bus with demonstrators for the Mumia Abu-Jamal rally. We were going to sleep in the sanctuary for a few hours before the rally. As I was walking up the path and the light was breaking, there was Mary, abiding on the bench, waiting for me.
The bench where Mary sits has room for one more person, beside her. There is an armrest, but strangely, only on one side. The other side is open. The first terror is that Mary has asked me to sit beside her. The second terror is that Mary can leave any time she wants: the bench is open-ended, but she chooses to stay, knowing her fate, the death by which she will glorify God. It is not easy to die. Mary tried a few times, and kept being returned by the authorities to her husband. God calls us to die, to die daily, and to live daily. For if we truly bear witness to the Peaceable Kingdom we will be confronted with the Kingdom of the World, the present-day Babylon, which must kill daily, offer daily sacrifices to Moloch to live. Later that day I realized how my path to the Mumia rally led me to Mary Dyer, and though centuries separate them their struggle is the same: to witness to the Truth. As Mary Dyer gave her life in her day for the struggle for religious freedom, Mumia Abu-Jamal struggles to live to continue the fight for racial justice. Ossie Davis says: "Every generation has its moral assignment: Ours is to save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal. " This is where the path leads. This is what we must do. The space on the bench beside Mary Dyer is the space where we can fulfill our "moral assignment‚" and save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal. --Richard Cambridge is a poet and long-time advocate justice. (The original statue of Mary Dyer sits in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse, facing the Boston Common where she was hanged. Another Dyer statue sits on the grounds of AFSC headquarters in Philadelphia.) |
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