Peace is Patriotic is a radio program (27:26) produced and written by Pat Zettner for the San Antonio Peace Coalition. Permission is granted to use the program for non-commercial use. All other rights are reserved. If you do use this program - either on the radio or with a live audience - we would like to hear from you. E-mail Sheryl Zettner. More information about this program and a downloadable MP3 file of "The Pied Piper of Crawford" is available at www.familyfotofinder.com/peace/.

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There Were Roses
Written and performed by: Tommy Sands

My song for you this evening, it's not to make you sad
Nor for adding to the sorrows of this troubled northern land,
But lately I've been thinking and it just won't leave my mind
I'll tell you of two friends one time who were both good friends of mine.

Allan Bell from Banagh, he lived just across the fields,
A great man for the music and the dancing and the reels.
O'Malley came from South Armagh to court young Alice fair,
And we'd often meet on the Ryan Road and the laughter filled the air.

There were roses, roses
There were roses
And the tears of the people
Ran together

Though Allan, he was Protestant, and Sean was Catholic born,
It never made a difference for the friendship, it was strong.
And sometimes in the evening when we heard the sound of drums
We said, ``It won't divide us.  We always will be one.''

For the ground our fathers plowed in, the soil, it is the same,
And the places where we say our prayers have just got different names.
We talked about the friends who died, and we hoped there'd be no more.
It's little then we realized the tragedy in store.

It was on a Sunday morning when the awful news came round.
Another killing has been done just outside Newry Town.
We knew that Allan danced up there, we knew he liked the band.
When we heard that he was dead we just could not understand.

We gathered at the graveside on that cold and rainy day,
And the minster he closed his eyes and prayed for no revenge.
All all of us who knew him from along the Ryan Road,
We bowed our heads and said a prayer for the resting of his soul.

Now fear, it filled the countryside.  There was fear in every home
When a car of death came prowling round the lonely Ryan Road.
A Catholic would be killed tonight to even up the score.
``Oh, Christ!  It's young O'Malley that they've taken from the door.''

``Allan was my friend,'' he cried.  He begged them with his fear,
But centuries of hatred have ears that cannot hear.
An eye for an eye was all that filled their minds
And another eye for another eye till everyone is blind.

So my song for you this evening, it's not to make you sad
Nor for adding to the sorrows of our troubled northern land,
But lately I've been thinking and it just won't leave my mind.
I'll tell you of two friends one time who were both good friends of mine.

I don't know where the moral is or where this song should end,
But I wondered just how many wars are fought between good friends.
And those who give the orders are not the ones to die.
It's Bell and O'Malley and the likes of you and I.

There were roses, roses
There were roses

SHERYL: The saddest thing of all is that Sands and his friends had bridged their country's conflict by concentrating on what united them rather than what separated them."

JACK: But leaders of Northern Ireland's warring factions were obsessed with differences and hatred and revenge. And maintaining their place in a power structure based on war.

SHERYL: Sands makes another good point when he says "Those who give the orders are not the ones to die. It's Bell and O'Malley and the likes of you and I."

JACK: Leaders who promote war are usually very good at inspiring others to do the fighting. They really know how to use that us vs. them thing. If you're not for us, you're against us!

SHERYL: Exactly! They provide demons for ordinary people to hate. Hitler campaigned by scapegoating what he called 'bloodsucking Jewish money lenders.' And we Americans have been frightened by 'the yellow peril' and taught to hate 'baby-killing Huns.'

JACK: And don't forget 'pinko-Commies' Today, we're scared and enraged by "Islamic terrorists".

SHERYL: While people in the mid-east are being scared and enraged by 'American imperialists' and 'infidel Crusaders.'

JACK: If you want to go to war, it sure helps to have a poster boy for hate. After 9-11 we had Osama bin Laden. But Osama's morphed in a funny way into Saddam Hussein. You can hardly tell the difference any more.

SHERYL: Yes, although Saddam hasn't actually acted against the U.S., he's portrayed as a monster threat because he may still have the same weapons of mass destruction a previous American administration helped him acquire.

JACK: Once you've persuaded folks that another people is threat against their own country, war becomes an easy sell. If 'they' are dangerous to 'us,' then it's not just acceptable to kill them; it's downright virtuous. Here's a song you wrote about our own government's rush to war with Iraq.

The Pied Piper of Crawford
Written and sung by: Sheryl Zettner

 Chorus:                            
The Pied Piper of Crawford              
Will lead our land to war.              
The Pied Piper of Crawford,             
Who's never fought before.              

We're told it's time that we attack          
The "evil" nation of Iraq,              
We're all supposed to jump on board          
While all our questions are ignored.         

Chorus:                            
The Pied Piper of Crawford              
May throw us all in jail                
No justice from the Piper:              
No counsel, trial, nor bail.            

All damage is "collateral."             
Our game plan unilateral.               
We wave our flags, prepared to fight,   
With no regard for wrong or right.      
                                   
Chorus: The Pied Piper of Crawford
Is luring us with lies
He'll make Hussein a martyr;
And a martyr never dies.

The propaganda sounds so pure.
We're going to make Iraq "secure"
With guns and bombs on foreign soil
And plots to plunder Arab oil.

Chorus:
The Pied Piper of Crawford
Has played on all our fears.
Let's all follow the piper
While freedom disappears.

We're told we need to use first strike
To take out leaders we don't like
So politicians wave their flags
Till kids come home in body bags

Chorus:
The Pied Piper of Crawford
Will lead our land to war.
The Pied Piper of Crawford,
Who's never fought before.

JACK: Your song wasn't terribly kind to our president .

SHERYL: Not at all! But when we're being sold on preventive war- on becoming an aggressor nation that attacks another country because they might be dangerous to us in the future - isn't it time to ask what's at stake besides national defense?

And another thing. President Bush says we won't be making war against the Iraqi people, but against Saddam Hussein. But who will be most vulnerable to the results of an invasion?To the effects of chemical or biological retaliation when the dictator finds his back to the wall?

JACK: Good point. And what prevents Hussein from discreetly slipping out the back door once the bombs begin to drop?!

SHERYL: Here's Mary Black singing about a fallen soldier considered a saint because he's died for his country."

My Youngest Son Came Home Today
Songwriter: Eric Bogle
Sung by: Mary Black

My youngest son came home today
His friends marched with him all the way
The pipes and drum beat out the time
While in his box of polished pine
Like dead meat on a butcher's tray
My youngest son came home today 
My youngest son was a fine young man
With a wife, a daughter and two sons
A man he would have lived and died
Till by a bullet sanctified
Now he's a saint or so they say
They brought their young saint home today

Above the narrow Belfast streets
An Irish sky looks down and weeps
At children's blood in gutters spilled
In dreams of freedom unfulfilled
As part of freedom's price to pay
My youngest son came home today

My youngest son came home today
His friends marched with him all the way
The pipe and drum beat out the time
While in his box of polished pine
Like dead meat on a butcher's tray
My youngest son came home today
And this time he'shome to stay

SHERYL: In war, both sides are likely to have plenty who are "by a bullet sanctified"

JACK: Or by a missile or a land mine or a cluster bomb. In fact, the victims of modern warfare are more likely than ever before to be noncombatants -women, children, the elderly - cheerfully known as"collateral damage."

SHERYL: Are they saints too? Of course, the loss for those who mourn will be the same, no matter whether they were soldiers or not - or which flag the saint died under.

JACK: We began with a songthat described an actual event. Here's another reality-based song by John McCutcheon. It tells of Christmas 1914, when embattled German and British soldiers (as well as some French) broke out of war into a holiday truce.

The high command on both sides issued orders prohibiting this "fraternization," yet the truce spread beyond their ability to control. They had good reason to oppose the truce, for once their soldiers discovered that their enemies were much like themselves, most of them were reluctant to resume fighting. One Saxon regiment came close to mutiny, refusing to fire on the English until their officers threatened that they would all be shot. Even so, they spent the next couple of days trying to "shoot the stars down from the skies."

Christmas in the Trenches
Written and performed by: John McCutcheon

My name is Francis Tolliver, I come from Liverpool.
Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school.
To Belgium and to Flanders, to Germany to here
I fought for King and country I love dear.

'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung,
The frozen fields of France were still, no Christmas song was sung
Our families back in England were toasting us that day
Their brave and glorious lads so far away.

I was lying with my messmate on the cold and rocky ground
When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound
Says I, "Now listen up, me boys!" each soldier strained to hear
As one young German voice sang out so clear.

"He's singing bloody well, you know!" my partner says to me
Soon, one by one, each German voice joined in harmony
The cannons rested silent, the gas clouds rolled no more
As Christmas brought us respite from the war.

As soon as they were finished and a reverent pause was spent
"God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" struck up some lads from Kent
The next they sang was "Stille Nacht." "Tis 'Silent Night'," says I
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky.

"There's someone coming toward us!" the front line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one long figure trudging from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shown on that plain so bright
As he, bravely, strode unarmed into the night

Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's Land
With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave 'em hell

We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeezebox and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men

Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each prepared to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wonderous night
"Whose family have I fixed within my sights?"

'Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost, so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone forevermore

My name is Francis Tolliver, in Liverpool I dwell
Each Christmas come since World War I, I've learned its lessons well
That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we're the same

© 1984 John McCutcheon - All rights reserved

SHERYL: The walls they'd kept between us to enact the work of war.' Do you think it's possible to break through such walls these days? After all, you can hardly share chocolates and brandy with enemies you're attacking from thousands of feet up in the air.

JACK: I don't know. But the targets are still as human as World War I's friendly enemies.

SHERYL: Another scary thing about this "us vs. them" mode of thinking - it allows people to set up a double standard of morality.

JACK: What do you mean?

SHERYL: Well, Saddam's evil, so it's evil for him to ignore a UNresolution. But we're "good," so if we can't get the Security Council to vote the resolution we want, we're entitled to do just aswe please. Aren't we deciding what's right and wrong by who is doing it rather than by what is being done?

We see it as evil for Iraq to obtain nuclear weapons. But if we're"good" by definition, no matter what we do, then it's quite okay for us to use nuclear weapons against them.

JACK: We hope all of you who believe that the United States should abide by the morality it preaches, becoming a world leader in peace, rather than in first-strike war, will fight for this conviction.You can march in rallies; connect with other peace groups; write, phone, or e-mail your congressperson - or, better yet, visit that congressman's local office. And you can visit our website at:www.salsa.net/peace."

SHERYL: We'll close with a song by Patti Radle about the importance of keeping alive the struggle for peace.

All My Peace Friends Turning Gray
Written and sung by: Patti Radle

I see my peace friends turning gray--
Another march, another day.
Through so many years 
we’ve tried so hard to say,
"There is no way to peace; peace is the way".*

Today I marched with Jane and Tom
And it made me think of Vietnam
When we started marchin’ then
I knew the road was long,
But I had no idea this road would be my home.

Chorus:
       You gotta dream, dream, dream, they say
        If you want your dream to come true.
        But I the dream, dream, dream of peace,
        There’s a lot of hard workin’, too. 

They say the hope is in the children.
When I see my own, I feel that’s true.
But I put my hope in all the other ages, too.
We are not off the hook: we were children, too.
(Chorus)

These words I have for the children:
When the elder say, "It’s up to you", 
You smile and take their words to be true,
But also take their hand and say, "It’s also up to you!"
(Chorus)

And so my peace-friends-turning-gray,
We’ll march again, another day
And let us always, then, continue on to say,
"There is no way to peace; peace is the way". 

*This quote is attributed to A.J. Muste