[Oe List ...] those who die on the march shall renew their strength

Charles or Doris Hahn cdhahn at flash.net
Wed Nov 14 20:25:50 EST 2007


Greetings Marshall,

What a moving poetic, but down to earth, statement!!
Thanks so much.

In reading I thought of one other category to be
included in this list.  I do not know if it Movemental
Order or something else.  The person that holds this
for me is David Wood.  Separate from the fact that he
drew up the papers for the incorporation of the Order:
Ecumenical and was one of the three signatories on
those incorporation papers, he was the Order to the
core of his being.  If you can re-open the list,
please add David Wood.  I could say much more about
him, but will stop for now.

Charles Hahn


--- "W. J." <synergi at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I want to thank those of you who helped me so much
> with the task of compiling the list of Fifth City
> Pioneers. Just rehearsing those names has brought
> back to me such a rich flood of memories.
>    
>   I'd also like to share with you how I came to this
> moment.
>    
>   I always envisioned that there would be two DVD's.
> One is the public and secular story of the ICA, and
> the other is really the internal story of The
> Ecumenical Institute's former staff, which is the
> symbolic Order, the extended Order, the movemental
> Order, and the Fifth City Order, if I may use that
> term.
>    
>   At first I wanted to dedicate the second DVD to
> Joe Mathews, not just because of his symbolic role
> in the Order, or because of his personal
> contribution to who we are, but as the
> representational figure who is the symbolic sign of
> the presence of all of us: the embodiment of the
> thin red line.
>    
>   But then I remembered that Joe said that the one
> thing he was most proud of in his life was being a
> Fifth Citizen. So that brought to mind the concept
> of the Fifth City Pioneers (or saints, to use the
> traditional jargon). And I placed Joe symbolically
> in their midst, which is where he wanted to be.
>    
>   Then there arose the issue of where to draw an
> arbitrary line, because there were many in the Order
> who served there with Joe, and many who were
> assigned elsewhere and who never had the privilege
> of working in Fifth City. And since Joe never worked
> alone, it was obvious that I would need to
> symbolically recognize other names representing of
> all of us who were in the Order and worked directly
> or indirectly in Fifth City.
>    
>   So my somewhat arbitrary decision was to recognize
> those among the first seven families who died on the
> march. That would include Lyn Mathews, representing
> all the women. And Joe Pierce, representing all the
> men. And finally I added John Mathews, representing
> all the second generation of the Order who were
> always as fully engaged as the adults.
>    
>   So with those four symbolic representatives of the
> symbolic Order clearly named, the bulk of the list
> of Fifth City Pioneers that we honor are the people
> from the community, not the symbolic Order.
>    
>   And my, oh my, as Slicker would say. Resurrecting
> the memory of those dear ones brings back so much
> richness in our history. It's a very mixed bag,
> which is quite wonderful in itself, and includes
> people you may have not thought of in decades, and
> who  may never be remembered for what they did by
> any beyond ourselves.
>    
>   For example, there's Ola the cook, who was up at 4
> am every morning. And preschool teachers who taught
> five days a week for thirty years. And Helen
> Eskridge, who was there every time the door opened
> and went on a global odyssey. And Bernard
> Higgenbotham the gang leader who protected us during
> the riots and then died of an overdose in the alley
> behind the community center. And Charlie Stewart.
> And I could go on and on.
>    
>   Do you sense the glory of this bunch? They weren't
> particularly the best and the brightest who could
> get into Harvard, but they were the intentional and
> the committed. And I'll stand with them any day.
>    
>   God bless us every one,
>    
>   Marshall Jones 
>    
>    
> > _______________________________________________
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