A Month of Sundays, A Lifetime of Marching

The window seat on the Air Tran flight to Atlanta, from National Airport in Washington D.C., opens to a clear view, from the Potomac corridor, of the Mall from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol, invoking a long history of marches for peace and social justice in the United States, as we head for the 2007 Vigil of the SOA Watch. Susana Pimiento, Liza Smith, Alejandra Tobar and I are off to a day of workshops on FOR’s Colombia Peace Program and our Plan Colombia Campaign with early arrivals for the SOA Watch at Ft. Benning Georgia. (We’ll Get Back To That – WGBTT.)

This is my fourth straight weekend of marching in solidarity with people suffering from oppressive regimes and the misappropriation of the earth’s abundance to the war economy and a culture of violence throughout the world.

In mid-October Jun Sung, known as Woman Who Walks Far, from the Peace Pagoda in Grafton, New York invited us to join her for part of a 210 mile walk from Albany, New York to the United Nations, in solidarity with the Burmese people and Buddhist Community seeking reform in Burma and the release of Aung Sung Suu Chi. The core walking group of 12 spent a night at Shadowcliff as guests of FOR, after breaking bread with two dozen supporters.

The following Saturday, 32 National Council and FOR staff joined 45,000 people in the UFPJ march in New York City against the occupation of Iraq, our presence in Afghanistan, and threats to Iran. Ten other urban centers across the country hosted similar marches. Leila Zand, Iran Program Director of FOR, offered a passionate call for redirecting the US/Iranian standoff to open dialogue from the stage in NYC.

Last Sunday FOR staff joined the peace community of San Jose Cinto in the D’Apartado district of Colombia as they celebrated a Mass at the end of a peace march in memory of two recent murders of community leaders. Over 200 people celebrated the courage of Gloria Curtas and Fr. Javier Giraldo to lead the march through a police blockade, with the response that there should be no need for permission to march for peace. That stance was a small demonstration of two lives dedicated to nonviolent social change in Colombia over the past four decades. (WGBTT)

Now, tomorrow, we’ll be among 20,000 gathered at the gates of Ft. Benning, Georgia which houses the School of the Americas, walking to draw attention to the continuing use of US Military technology and instruction to train foreign military leadership in techniques used to intimidate, injury, torture and kill, and insist the SOA be closed.

Today has included celebrative reunions with friends made through peace marches in Lebanon in the 1970s. Hundreds of conversations over FOR’s table rehearsed decades of demonstrations for alternatives to violence in the world, and introduced huge numbers of high school and college students to opportunities through FOR to become protective accompaniers in Colombia, to join in counter-recruitment efforts in the US, and to join delegations to Iran, Israel/Palestine (with IFPB), and Colombia.