Holiday
Greetings to All Friends
of
Dorchester People for Peace!
Best Wishes from
DPP to those observing the holidays – or simply enjoying the spirit of the
season. . .
And
a PEACEFUL NEW YEAR!
We have posted
these videos many times before during the Holidays. Watch them for the first
time if you haven’t seen them before; watch them again and you won’t be
disappointed.
CHRISTMAS IN THE
TRENCHES -- 1914
In December,
1914, after months of slaughter during the First World War (it was supposed to
be “The War to End all Wars”!), British and German soldiers declared an informal
and spontaneous truce. The story of their fraternization and holiday
celebration is told in detail here and here.
The event has
been immortalized in a song by folksinger John McCutcheon, which
you can hear and watch along with contemporary illustrations and a moving
introduction by the performer.
The song ends
with this stanza:
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.
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.
* * * *
“IT'S A WONDERFUL
LIFE,” COMRADE!
…when the movie
first came out, it fell under suspicion from the FBI and the House Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC) as Communist propaganda, part of the Red Scare that
soon would lead to the blacklist and witch hunt that destroyed the careers of
many talented screen and television writers, directors and actors… “With regard
to the picture ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’, [REDACTED] stated in substance that the
film represented a rather obvious attempt to discredit bankers by casting Lionel
Barrymore as a ‘scrooge-type’ so that he would be the most hated man in the
picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists…
Since then, the movie has been more than redeemed as it slowly became a
sentimental and beloved holiday perennial. And if anything, its portrayal of a
villainous banker has been vindicated a thousand fold as in the last seven years
we’ve seen fraudulent mortgages and subsequent foreclosures, bankers unrepentant
after an unprecedented taxpayer bailout and unpunished after a mindboggling
spree of bad calls, profligacy and corkscrew investments that raked in billions
while others suffered the consequences. More
* * *
*
VIDEO: John Lennon –
HAPPY CHRISTMAS (The War is Over)
John Lennon
(killed on December 8, 1980)
VIDEO: “All we
are saying is give peace a chance.”
***************************
Yusuf Ibrahim (aka
Cat Stevens)
VIDEO: “Peace
Train”
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