The war in Iraq is raging. On the same day as Mayday here in Minneapolis, there was be a large protest in New York City calling for Disarmament. At the Community Brainstorm meeting, someone asks if the theme this year could be “about Disarmament”
And so yes, we examined the process of disarmament – deep down, right into the center of our hearts, and the center of the earth. We enacted the ‘transformation of Uncle Sam into “We, The People!”’
Thanks to the Ceremony crafting team : Chris Lutter, Julie Boada, Esther Ouray, Jim Koplin, Sandy Spieler, Brent Harring, Paul Johnson, and the rest of the Mayday Staff artists: Cecilia Schiller, Soozin Hirschmugl, Ramon Cordes, Masanari Kawahara, Kevin Long, Amy Ballestad, Bart Buch, Malia Burkhart, Duane Tougas, Papis Diop, Patricia Mendoza, Laurie Witzkowski, George Meyer, and Newman Family group.
Here is the disarmament of Uncle Sam into “We, The People”
Uncle Sam enters. The roosters send up a cry. Stop! Wake!
The names of thousands dead from the Iraqi War enter.
Uncle Sam hears the cry and allows himself to crack.
He sheds his car, his suit, his hat.
He stands as a naked human, and then he lays his ear to the earth and listens into the wound.
He sheds his flesh and becomes bone.
Death washes him, and tenderly dissolves his bones into the landscape of the Earth.
A song: The little space within the heart is as vast as the universe. The sun and the moon are there, the sun and the moon and the stars. Fire and lightning and wind are there- And all that is, and all that is not.
From under the landscape, and in the shape of a huge body, “We, the People” are re-membered.
They say: We, the People of the United States, pledge allegiance to the BODY OF THE EARTH AND ALL THE BEINGS who dwell together. As ONE. In DIVERSITY. With Liberty and Justice for ALL.