eye_of_a_cat | Daniel Berrigan (Reply)

I wish I could afford any of his books. Since I can't, and Amazon only taunts me:

Daniel Berrigan is a Jesuit priest who once featured on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. He protested against the Vietnam war, most famously by pouring napalm on draft files, and he's been protesting against wars since; he's written poetry, campaigned for social justice, and intermittently served time in prison.

'A parable for today, if not tomorrow'

Some of his poetry

And Dar Williams's beautiful song about Daniel and Philip Berrigan:

I Had No Right

God of the poor man, this is how the day began
Eight co-defendants, I Daniel Berrigan
And only a layman's batch of napalm
We pulled the draft files out
We burned them in the parking lot
Better the files than the bodies of children

I had no right but for the love of you
I had no right but for the love of you

Many roads led here, walked with the suffering
Tom in Guatemala, Philip in New Orleans
It's a long road from law to justice
I went to Vietnam
I went for peace, they dropped their bombs
Right where my government knew I would be

I had no right but for the love of you
I had no right but for the love of you

And all my country saw
Were priests who broke the law

First it was a question, then it was a mission
How to be American, how to be a Christian
If the law is their cross and their cross is burning

The love of you, the love of you

God of the just, I'll never win a peace prize
Falling like Jesus, now let the jury rise
It's all of us versus all that paper
They took the only way
They'd know who is on trial today
Deliver us unto each other, I pray

I had no right but for the love of you
And every trial I stood, I stood for you

Eyes on the trial
Eight a.m. arrival
Hand on the Bible