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Saturday, June 27, 2026
VIa Tricycle: The Buddhist Review: Walking past the Candy Store
Their voices carried over the stillness of the water, reaching more than 250,000 peaceful souls, at the time the largest gathering on the grounds, people, both Black and white, standing shoulder to shoulder down the entire third of a mile length of the water.
“There [she] was . . . already the queen of folk, and a new, gravel-voiced singer . . . As they sang, people were packed twenty deep under the trees, sitting on each other's shoulders, and dipping their tired feet” into the pool, according to one historical retrospective.
They sang:
“Oh, the time will come up
When the winds will stop
And the breeze will cease to be breathin'
Like the stillness in the wind
Before the hurricane begins
The hour that the ship comes in . . .”
It was the summer of 1963, during the March of Washington. Peter, Paul, and Mary had earlier performed their studio cover of "Blowin' in the Wind", which was a massive, number-two hit on the radio that summer, asking the crowd:
“How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.”
Afterwards, Bob “Dylan and [Joan] Baez stood together to sing ‘When the Ship Comes In’—an allegorical song Dylan wrote about a grand, metaphorical ship arriving to overthrow unyielding, oppressive authorities,” according to Hodder Education Magazines.
“And the seas will split
And the ship will hit
And the sands on the shoreline will be shaking
Then the tide will sound
And the wind will pound
And the morning will be breaking.”
Hello, everyone, this is Jon. As we look forward to the nation's 250th birthday, thought I'd do a new story on a historic event that took place in front of the Reflecting Pool at our nation's capital. Both Doc and I have done stories about that famous day in our history, but I wanted to look at it from another angle. I hope you find it as enlightening as I did researching it.
~~~
Before 1963, the previous benchmark for a massive cultural gathering at the reflecting pool was Marian Anderson’s historic 1939 concert.
As Peace Page readers will recall, Anderson had been denied the right to perform at Washington’s Constitution Hall due to segregation practices at the time. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt stepped in and invited her instead to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
An integrated crowd of 75,000 people stood along the National Mall and the reflecting pool to listen, while millions more tuned in via a live nationwide radio broadcast.
When she sang, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee”, she changed the lyrics from "Of thee I sing" to "Sweet land of liberty, of thee *we* sing,” which transformed a solo performance into a declaration of community, solidarity, and shared ownership of America’s promises for the integrated crowd stretching down the water.
Mary McLeod Bethune, educator and civil rights leader, said, "I can still see the sun hitting that water. When Marian Anderson sang 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee,' her voice didn't just hit the crowd; it seemed to skip across the top of the Reflecting Pool and echo off the stone of the monuments. It was a holy moment."
Of note, listening on the radio that day was a young,10-year-old named Martin Luther King Jr., who would 24 years later deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech to a crowd that once again lined the reflecting pool.”
[After 1963, also before the reflecting pool, the anti-Vietnam War March on the Pentagon in 1967, which drew about 100,000 to the pool. Decades later, on January 18, 2009, the "We Are One" Barack Obama Inaugural Celebration concert drew an estimated 400,000 people, who filled the entire perimeter of the reflecting pool.]
~~~
“Oh, the fishes will laugh
As they swim out of the path
And the seagulls they'll be smiling
And the rocks on the sand
Will proudly stand
The hour that the ship comes in.”
The reflecting pool since those events have been “used as a literal mirror to ask if America is truly reflecting the ideals carved into the marble monuments surrounding it,” according to Google.
Park rangers describing the pool to visitors and its relationship to the monuments around it, "The pool is a mirror where two eras meet. At one end, the man who founded the nation [Washington]; at the other, the man who saved it [Lincoln]. In the water between them, we see ourselves."
At the March on Washington, A. Philip Randolph said, "As I look out over this great assembly, I see a magnificent spectacle. The reflection of your faces in the beautiful waters of the reflecting pool is a symbol of a new day that is dawning for our country."
John Lewis said, "We sat on the edge of the Reflecting Pool, our feet dangling in the water, listening to the voices carrying over the loudspeakers. It felt like the whole world was watching us, and for the first time, we felt seen."
“There is something about the symmetry of the Reflecting Pool that forces a quietness on you. It demands that you look down into the water, and in doing so, look back at everything this country has traveled through," said historian David McCullough.
In her memoir “And a Voice to Sing With”, Joan Baez recalled the sheer visual of looking out past the microphone toward the water:
"I looked out at the sea of faces, stretching all the way down the Reflecting Pool to the Washington Monument. There was a quietness that settled over the crowd when Bobby and I stepped up . . . The water just seemed to hold the sound and reflect the gravity of why we were all there."
~~~
[Note, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the recent controversy in the news about the reflecting pool, but to that, I'll let Bob Dylan and Joan Baez finish their song:
“And the words that are used
For to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they're spoken
For the chains of the sea
Will have busted in the night
And will be buried at the bottom of the ocean
A song will lift
As the mainsail shifts
And the boat drifts on to the shoreline
And the sun will respect
Every face on the deck
The hour that the ship comes in
Then the sands will roll
Out a carpet of gold
For your weary toes to be a-touchin'
And the ship's wise men
Will remind you once again
That the whole wide world is watchin'
Oh, the foes will rise
With the sleep still in their eyes
And they'll jerk from their beds and think they're dreamin'
But they'll pinch themselves and squeal
And know that it's for real
The hour when the ship comes in
Then they'll raise their hands
Sayin' we'll meet all your demands
But we'll shout from the bow your days are numbered
And like Pharaoh's tribe
They'll be drownded in the tide
And like Goliath, they'll be conquered.”
~~~
And, to end this post, I'll leave it to Mary Travers (of Peter, Paul and Mary) on the other important song that day, "Blowin' in the Wind”, the undisputed anthem of the march:
"Because the song speaks of caring, of listening to one another. It is so easy today to not see the things that are happening around you... But the responsibility—and it is a responsibility—we do not have freedom as a gift... That’s what the song speaks of. Of listening, and watching, and being careful not to lose this liberty."
~~~
“How many years must a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
Yes, and how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind
Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.”
~ jsr
Via Daily Dharma: Tasks for Suffering
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VIa FB \\ Bil Browning - Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act in the middle of the night.
September 21, 1996. No big ceremony. No cameras. No triumphant East Room photo op. Just a quiet signature on a law that told gay couples the federal government would never recognize their marriages, even if a state did.
Then Clinton’s reelection campaign ran ads on Christian radio bragging about it.
“One thing that Bill Clinton has done is to support the Defense of Marriage Act,” the ad said. It promised he was protecting “the sanctity of marriage.” Imagine being a gay Democrat in 1996 hearing that while Republicans were already calling you a threat to civilization. It felt like getting shoved out the back door by your own people.
And at the time, DOMA was popular. Massively popular. The Senate passed it 85 to 14. Democrats lined up for it. Joe Biden voted for it. Dianne Feinstein voted for it. Ted Kennedy voted for it. Everybody suddenly became very concerned that Hawaii might legalize same-sex marriage and unleash lesbian chaos upon the republic.
The panic sounds ridiculous now because it was ridiculous then.
But here’s the wild part. DOMA accidentally helped create the movement that destroyed it.
The law had two big sections. One said states didn’t have to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. The other defined marriage, for every federal purpose, as one man and one woman. Taxes, immigration, Social Security, veterans benefits, hospital rights - more than 1,000 federal protections, gone with a stroke of the pen.
That cruelty made the inequality impossible to ignore.
Couples started telling their stories publicly because they had to. People learned about partners getting deported, widows losing homes, and survivors getting taxed on inheritances straight couples received automatically. The abstract argument became painfully personal.
Then the country changed fast. Faster than almost anybody predicted.
In 2004, George W. Bush ran for reelection supporting a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage nationwide. Eleven states passed anti-marriage ballot measures that same year. Conservatives thought they had found a permanent political weapon.
Instead, they lit a fuse.
By 2012, even Barack Obama had evolved publicly on marriage equality. Joe Biden accidentally nudged him there early after endorsing it on Meet the Press. Suddenly Democrats were racing to catch up with voters instead of the other way around.
Then came Edith Windsor.
An 83-year-old lesbian widow from New York who got hit with a $363,000 federal estate tax bill after her wife, Thea Spyer, died. A straight spouse would have paid nothing. Windsor sued the federal government wearing giant scarves and speaking with the energy of somebody who had absolutely run out of patience.
In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the core of DOMA in United States v. Windsor.
Two years later came Obergefell v. Hodges, which struck down the rest. Marriage equality became the law of the land nationwide.
And then, after decades of screaming that gay marriage would destroy civilization, Republicans quietly attended gay weddings, posted rainbow logos every June, and pretended none of this had happened.
The final twist came in 2022. Congress passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which repealed DOMA officially and required the federal government and states to recognize legal same-sex marriages.
President Joe Biden signed that bill into law 26 years after he voted in favor of DOMA.
It wasn't easy, it wasn't certain, but we forced that change through sheer determination, grit, and telling our stories for all to hear.
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