“Armament is no protection against the war, but leads to war. Striving for peace and preparing for war are incompatible with each other.” — Albert Einstein
There’s a new administration in Washington, but the same old wars rage across the Middle East and around the world. How is this possible, how?
We’re suffering through a pandemic, struggling to save lives and the social, cultural and economic structures that support life here in the U.S., while — at the same time — we’re destroying lives and life-sustaining infrastructure in other countries.
The economic and human resources needed to support life through the pandemic are being wasted on war and weapons of war. Weapons that kill and destroy life and property, and contribute to the climate crisis that threatens the planet — our own planet earth. War is the No. 1 polluter.
This was the message on the large purple sign Frances Crowe carried two years ago as her wheelchair was pushed along Main Street, leading a march and rally to mark her 100th birthday. The event was in her honor, but it wasn’t about her. Frances never wanted attention for herself; she wanted people and the media to focus their attention on issues. And so, some 300 people marched up Main Street on that crisp, bright March day carrying signs that called out critical issues and remembered past people and struggles.
Frances died only a few months later, on Aug. 27, 2019, quietly in her home on Langworthy Avenue surrounded by her family and beloved community. Frances passed on, but the signs live on, and the people who carried the signs live on. We’re continuing to work for peace and justice, for an end to systemic racism, for LGBTQ rights and for a sustainable planet. We live on, calling for love over hate; for solidarity and for putting an end to war and nuclear weapons.
We’re bringing the signs out on March 15, Frances’ birthday. We’re hanging them along Route 66 in Northampton — a laundry list of issues — in front of L3-Harris Technologies, one of the top 10 military contracting industries in the world; manufacturers of surveillance equipment and electronic technology for military and law enforcement. It’s time to turn swords into plough shares. We have to stop making weapons of war if we want to stop wars.
We’re standing out to raise our spirits and remind ourselves of the huge burden of work — a laundry list of things — that still needs attention, but cannot be accomplished without a radical shift in U.S. government and industrial priorities, a shift from war to international cooperation that ensures a more just and peaceful, sustainable planet.
We’re hanging the signs, like laundry on clothes lines, in commemoration of and in solidarity with Frances Crowe, the woman who inspired so many and who, together with those many, contributed so much to this world. Join us from 11 a.m-1 p.m. on March 15.
Claudia Lefko lives in Northampton.