Produced by Cathleen Falsani for Sojourners/God's Politics
Photos by Heather Wilson and Carrie Adams/Sojourners
Music by Jason Harrod (used with express permission from the artist)
Song: "For Your Time" from Jason Harrod's album Bright As You, 2006
All Rights Reserved
Protesters took to the streets of the nation's capital Thursday, bringing the #OccupyWallStreet movement to Washington's Freedom Plaza.
The Washington Post reports:
Hundreds opened sleeping bags and raised tents in the public plaza near the White House, vowing to stay indefinitely - or until their voices were heard. (They only have National Park Service permits through Sunday.)...
The four-day "October 2011" event - "Human Needs, Not Corporate Greed!" - had been in the works since April, but organizers quickly teamed up with the Occupy movement - which has spread to cities across the United States since a small band of protesters took up residence in a park near Wall Street in New York on Sept. 17. Occupy D.C. protesters have been rallying daily along the K Street corridor - long a bastion for Washington lobbyists.
After Thursday's rally, scores of protesters in a line stretching four city blocks paraded past the U.S. Treasury and the White House, chanting, "We got sold out," and ringing cowbells and pounding drums. They ended up massing along H Street Northwest in front of the heavy carved door of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, chanting, "We want jobs! We want jobs!" They then unfurled a banner that read "Chamber of Corporate Horrors" and left a symbolic sheaf of job applications and resumes behind.
Sojourners' staffers, Heather Wilson and Carrie Adams, were among those gathered in Freedom Plaza, where Heather captured the images featured in the video.
The music in the video was provided by friend of Sojourners, New York singer-songwriter Jason Harrod, who graciously allowed us to use his song, "For Your Time," as its score. (To purchase an MP3 of "For Your Time," for $1, click HERE.)
Jason said an artist friend from New York, who has been among thousands of protesters gathered for nearly a month in that city's financial district, thought the song's themes, drawn from the Bible and antiquity, were an apt reflection for these times of burgeoning revolution and crumbling colossi.
So on this the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, as thousands of Americans gather to demand a more just society -- where the welfare of the least among us is ever tantamount to our modern-day pharaohs and emperors -- may we:
PRAY FOR PEACE,
END THE WAR,
WORK FOR JUSTICE,
LOVE MERCY,
and WALK IN GRACE.
"For Your Time"
By Jason Harrod
Babylon, the cradle of our time.
Soldiers fight for the right to march in line.
Glass is made from sand and sun and lime.
Am I right, am I right for your time?I saw Alexander raging on the seas,
A mighty Colossus cut down at the knees.
Tell me how can you suffer such as these
When our wings turn to dust in the breeze?
I saw Alexander shining in the sun,
Standing tall with boats and armies on the run.
There's a camel struggling in the needle's eye.
Am I right, am I right for your time?I'm going to come home on my shield,
Or I'm not coming home at all.
I'm going to come home on my shield,
When the mighty fall.I saw Cleopatra floatin' down the Nile.
I said, "Hey, won't you share your kingdom with me for awhile."
We rested easy in a city built by slaves,
While the truth hid in mountaintops and caves.
from Bright As You, 2006
Got something to say about what you're reading? We value your feedback!