Mary Dyer

Truth Is My Authority, The Ballad of Mary Dyer
Lorcan Otway with grammatical corrections by Richard Accetta Evans.


Dear Friends I pray ye now lay down the comber of discord and thy fears' dark snare
and join me as I muse upon our sister Mary Dyer her story I'll now share

She said, the Truth is my authority, truth is my authority,
and authority is not the truth and thy fearful threats can n'er convince me.



For in the year sixteen and fifty eight in Boston town, we Quakers faced great strife
Friend Mary Dyer would not be moved to abandon God to save her very life

She said, the Truth is my authority, truth is my authority,
and authority is not the truth and thy fearful threats can n'er convince me.

Though thee put thy noose about my neck one time before I'll not heed thy tyrant's cause
For I harken to that still small voice which compelleth my soul despite thy bloody laws

She said, the Truth is my authority, truth is my authority,
and authority is not the truth and thy fearful threats can n'er convince me.

If thy faith cannot keepsake thy soul absent the scaffold, scourge or pillory
I'll obey my master's gentle voice which called forth all earth and proclaimed eternity


For the Truth is my authority, truth is my authority,
and authority is not the truth and thy fearful threats can n'er convince me.

Though thou forgest Irons for my limbs and buildest jails to entomb my corporal frame
My soul soareth free from all thy chains and a child of light I'll be and will remain

She said, the Truth is my authority, truth is my authority,
and authority is not the truth and thy fearful threats can n'er convince me.


They hanged her for her bravery, her unbroken faith and unbending dignity
So I'd have thee weigh thy every cause by the light of her courage and her certainty

Let the Truth be thy authority, truth be thy authority,
for authority is not the truth and all fearful threats let n'er convince thee.

Human Nature

I had a funny thought after a friend who is getting his Ph.D. in the study of war told me that war will always be, as it is human nature. Well, there is a fine argument. Some humans also seem to murder, so should we just legalize it and forget the movement towards civil society? Well, after all, the only difference between George W. Bush and the kid who killed a stranger on the street for his sneakers, is the power of his office which grants him immunity for his crimes and the power to order others to kill for him. Anyone who doubts that all these lies come down to excuses for economic power grabs, should read the writing of neo-coms like Wolfowitz, and others who have been George Bush's brain.

Protests protests everywhere, and not a drop to drink... ah.... well....

Here we are trying to save St. Bridget's church where Genie and I were married, as seen on Out of Ireland - PBS...

A red dress...

Found these figures in Lancaster. Note the girl's top is painted over a Quaker triangular apron, and the white bow is actually the bonnet ties... The fellow also has the no collar three button Quaker shirt.

Well, here is a story about a red Quaker dress. Arch Street meeting, around 1890. A very proper old Quaker dowager in the finest black, plain silk - crisp linen bonnet. In walks a farm couple and sits right in front of her, and the wee girl is wearing a bright fire engine red linsey - woolsy dress. All through meeting the dowager is staring daggers at the back of her head trying to come up with a cutting remark for this "hussy" at the rise of meeting.
Meeting breaks and the farm girl in red, turns to shake the hand of the dowager. She looks horrified and says to the older woman! "Friend! Has thee given consideration to the expense of thy raiment????!!!!" Ah the best laid plans of mice and dowagers...

A visit from Padraig Pearce

Today at dinner I recalled another old man's funeral, the old Feinian, O'Donavan Rosa, and I clearly heard a young poet, soon to be murdered by Britain standing by his grave saying... "and I tell my people's masters, beware this thing that is coming, beware the risen people who shall take what ye would not give..."

The murderers of Filberto Ojeda Rios should remember that all tyrannies fall of their own weight, and no, freedom is not forever. When we were warned the price of liberty is constant vigilance, the speaker did not mean keep checking under the bed for Communists, Muslims, Fellow travelers, but watch your government. You cannot buy freedom at the cost of liberty. You who pulled the trigger remember the man who drove the nails, Rome found out that the martyred spirit does not lie easy in the grave. That wind off the ocean is no mere hurricane, it is the reemergence of the spirit of freedom.