Nion

Nion is the Irish name of the fifth letter of the Ogham alphabet, ᚅ, probably meaning "fork". In Old Irish, the letter name was Nin, a name which is notable for referring both to a specific letter, and to any of the Ogham letters in general.

Interpretation

The glossators of the Ogam Tract and the Auraicept na n-Éces seem to refer to at least two Irish words nin, meaning "part of a weaver's loom", and "a wave". The corresponding adjective ninach is glossed as gablach and used as a synonym of cross, and the word seems to be roughly synonymous with gabul "fork, forked branch", and is thus a plausible base for a name for "Ogham letters", which after all (at least the consonants), look like forks or combs. The second nin seems to be cognate with Welsh nen "roof, heaven", with a meaning of "loftiness", with an adjective ninach "lofty". The kennings are explained by the glossators that weavers' beams were erected as signs of peace. The "arboreal" tradition claims the word as ash-tree, concluding that looms were made of ashwood. In some instances, the association with ashwood, which is best known as the raw material for spears, the kenning was amended to "destruction of peace". McManus (1988) suggests that the word for "forked branch" was applied to the olive branch, the shaking of which in Irish tradition requested an interruption of a battle. The kennings related to beauty, on the other hand, are maybe somehow dependent on the second meaning of "lofty".

Not in Our Name

Not in Our Name (NION) was a United States organization founded on March 23, 2002 to protest the U.S. government's course in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks; it disbanded on March 31, 2008.

Two key documents

Early in their existence, NION produced two documents—the "Pledge of Resistance" and the "Statement of Conscience"—that NION members believe provide focus and expression to the U.S. anti-war movement.

"Pledge of Resistance"

The Pledge is written by Starhawk and Saul Williams, in the style of free verse, beginning:

We believe that as people living
in the United States it is our
responsibility to resist the injustices
done by our government,
in our names

Not in our name
will you wage endless war

and concluding

Another world is possible
and we pledge to make it real.

The pledge opposes what it characterizes as "endless war", "transfusions of blood for oil", invasions of foreign countries, bombing civilians, and killing children. It goes on, "Not in our name / will you erode the very freedoms / you have claimed to fight for." It implicitly accuses the Bush administration of deeming "whole peoples or countries" as "evil" and pledges, among other things, "...alliance with those/ who have come under attack / for voicing opposition to the war / or for their religion or ethnicity."