Peace Marchers of the Loneliest Kind
LOVELAND, Colo. — Against the majestic backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, in the far eastern corner of Colorado where the land begins to flatten into a vast golden prairie, two teenagers trudge along the weed-bitten edge of an isolated highway. Blistered and sunburned, they endure wind, rain and searing heat. But still, they slog forward in what has become a quixotic journey across the country in an effort to end the Iraq war.
Ashley Casale, 19, and Michael Israel, 18, are walking 3,000 miles from San Francisco to Washington in a trek they once had hoped would rally the nation and lead thousands to join them in their epic March for Peace. But, nearly halfway through their trip, the teens remain alone, wandering the vast landscape of America, where few have paid them any attention. 
“It seems like the country is asleep,” said Israel, a rail-thin young man with deep-set blue eyes, walking the roadside on a recent morning, his voice sometimes drowned out by the roar of huge trucks zooming past. “A lot of people we meet are against the war. But it doesn’t seem like many people are doing anything about it.”
Sometimes cattle grazing in a nearby field are their only audience, the chirping of crickets their only encouragement. They are the loneliest peace marchers, sleeping in parks or behind abandoned businesses, surviving on granola bars and peanut butter, hoping that more people will hear of their protest and join them.
Their youthful idealism comes in stark contrast to a sense of complacency in America, where polls indicate that a majority of Americans oppose the war but relatively few of them have taken to the streets in active protest. Even Cindy Sheehan, the longtime face of the anti-war movement, has abandoned her quest, saying she feared her efforts had been in vain. “I shudder to think what it is going to take, after everything that has happened in this country during the Bush administration, to get the country to rise up,” she said.
With the Bush administration resisting the tide of public opinion turning against the war, “there’s a sense that simply carrying a sign to show opposition isn’t very useful today,” said Lawrence Wittner, a history professor at the State University of New York at Albany and author of the book “Peace Action.”
“College-age youth are very cynical these days, which is not to say they like the status quo — they may mock it and tell cynical jokes. But they have very little sense that the world can be dramatically transformed,” Wittner said.
Stark contrast with 1960s
The nature of the war in Iraq also has helped avert the outrage that led to the large-scale demonstrations of the 1960s, experts say. Today, there is no draft. The roughly 160,000 soldiers stationed in Iraq and the 3,605 who have died are dwarfed by the statistics of Vietnam, with 543,000 troops deployed at the war’s height and 58,000 dead by war’s end.
“I think a major reason people aren’t out on the streets like they were in the ’60s is that people don’t have anything personally at stake in the war,” Sheehan said.
Against this backdrop, the two teenagers have decided to walk. Their packs leave bruises on their backs, and their shoes have worn holes. Their skin has darkened to a chestnut hue and their bodies have grown lean. Over seven weeks they have traversed four states, more than 1,400 miles.
They make an unlikely pair. Israel is quiet and soft-spoken, and wears a floppy fishing hat. Casale is vivacious and outgoing, wearing outlandish orange sunglasses and carrying a cell phone that constantly rings with calls from activists and family checking the marchers’ progress. They had not met in person before the march began.
As they travel the highways, they have glimpsed the nation’s conflicting and complex feelings on the war. One woman working on a road crew in Colorado choked back emotion as she told them her son was shipping out to Iraq. “I don’t like war either,” she said before handing them her last few dollar bills. A Vietnam veteran selling produce at a roadside stand offered the travelers a free bag of cherries. “The government is sending those boys to die just like they did in Vietnam,” he said.
But the marchers also have faced the nation’s anger. An Army recruiter said American soldiers were making the real “march for peace” over in Iraq. And a farmer who initially had agreed to let them stay on his land abruptly asked them to leave after they told him they were protesting. At the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park, rangers refused to let the pair enter until they put away the signs that read “March for Peace.” And on July 4, a driver in a passing car yelled: “Bunch of hippies! Bomb Iraq!”
A idealist’s idea
The idea for the march came to Casale last autumn. A freshman at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., she had attended war protests but thought that a cross-country march could attract more attention. She established a Web site, www.marchforpeace.info, sent out hundreds of fliers to other college campuses and contacted peace groups around the country. Israel, about to graduate a home-school high school program in Jackson, Calif., spotted a notice online. Though dozens of people showed interest, in the end, only Israel and another woman agreed to walk.
They set off from San Francisco on May 21, carrying 40-pound packs. By the end of the first week, the third marcher dropped out. Another activist told them they would never make it to Washington by their target date, Sept. 11. But they pressed on, crossing into Nevada and making their way across the desert in two weeks. Then on to Utah and Colorado.
Their determination has endeared them to many. After seeing the holes in Casale’s shoes, a man in Sacramento bought her a new pair of sandals. An elderly man in Colorado drove their packs ahead for two days and called his friends who lived along the route to arrange for shelter.
“I read about them in the paper yesterday and thought, ‘Oh my God, we have to help them,’” said Bobbi Benson, 48, of Boulder, who helped drive the packs forward through Colorado. “They just have such courage.”
‘This is the whole point’
On July 4, Casale and Israel walked the 20 miles from Loveland to Greeley, two towns in a solidly Republican corner of Colorado. As they trudged along the roadside, the Rocky Mountains dominated the horizon behind them. And before them, fields of wheat and corn stretched for miles.
“People who see us today might see us as un-American or unpatriotic,” said Casale, about to dart across an expressway ramp. “But I think this is the whole point of this country and July 4: People taking an active role, and speaking out.”
They walked for hours under the hot sun. When they finally made it to Greeley, someone yelled an obscenity out a car window. A few minutes later, a man in a Cadillac waved dismissively at them. But others honked support, signaling with a thumbs up or a peace sign.
And when they ducked inside a restaurant, one customer, Carla DeVries, 51, cheered them on. With perfectly coiffed blond hair and wearing a bright pink sweater, DeVries said she is a Republican and supports the war but said, “It’s refreshing to see anyone do anything that takes adversity.” She smiled at Casale and said: “You stick to your guns.”
Twelve hours after they began walking, the sun going down on Greeley and the rat-a-tat-tat of celebratory firecrackers echoing in the distance, the two marchers arrived at a beige split-level house, where someone had offered them a place to sleep. A gray-haired woman rushed to the screen door. “Welcome! Welcome!” called Jean Taylor-Smith, 74, embracing them on the doorstep. “We didn’t think you’d ever make it!”
Nearly halfway to goal
The two marchers were exhausted, but they also were nearly halfway to Washington. On Sunday they were near Gothenburg, Neb. A peace group has arranged a rally in Omaha, where they hope to draw large crowds.
“If I could have it my way, I would have hundreds of people out here. The more people the better. But I still don’t believe it’s insignificant that two people are marching,” said Casale, sitting on a couch drinking a tall glass of ice water, her list of contacts spread on her lap. “What we’re doing can be significant on a national level. But it’s also the individuals we meet. Everywhere we go, there’s someone we can meet and talk to.”
Taylor-Smith, standing in the kitchen, beamed with pride.
“One person can change the world,” she said, rushing to fill everyone’s water glasses, asking what the marchers wanted to eat. “These two will plant the seeds, and the movement will grow.”
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
Thank God for these two young men! One can’t wait for others to join in before actively working for change. I do hope that the peace rally adds to their number but even if it doesn’t there is power in their purpose.
Danielle
www.taureandevi.blogspot.com
Ashley and Michael, we are proud of you. Know that you are not alone. As a graduate of Wesleyan, I am delighted to know that there are still students there so dedicated. Your quest is admirable. America seems to be awakening to the truth you are demonstrating. Perhaps by the time you reach Washington, we will see the change that is needed to bring peace to our nation and to the world. As the Japanese say, “Gambatte!”
Ken
Very inspiring.
Yes, “…college-age youth are cynical.” Why shouldn’t they be? The older generations have failed to inspire them. Having two college-age sons, I know though that there is also deep concern, angst, and even anger. Certain politicians have been able to show them some light at the end of the tunnel, but if more like these two brave souls, see that it is up to them, and take on the struggle each in their own way, maybe we’ll all get out of this critical situation with a minimum of pain.
P.S. Ashley is a young woman.
Ashley Casale and Michael Israel,
I live far to the East and North of your destination (Maine). Should you decide to extend your tour, I would gladly walk a day with you in Maine. I hope others that read this along your route can at least walk a mile or two with you. Even if no one can walk the whole trip, just a couple miles from thousands along the way would be awsome.
Maybe Common Cause, Peace Action, Veterans for Peace or some other organization could pick this up and make it a national project
Awesome.
Little by little, day-by-day; things can add up. Lets push the momentum for PEACE.
Peace,
Ken Hausle
* I support HRes333 - Impeach the VP
** I support Summer of Love 07 - Walking Journey
*** I support Ashley Casale and Michael Israel
**** I plan on doing some walking & talking of my own
Godspeed, you two, Ashley and Michael …
You WILL make it to Washington by September 11, 2007.
On March 1, 1986, about 2,000 people … a very diverse group of folks [oldest 80-ish/youngest 3 months old] from all over The States and from sixteen countries left Griffith Park in Los Angeles to begin our trek to Washington with arrival time of November 15th as The Great Peace March [for Global Nuclear Disarmament], the latter added in Barstow, California, as our full name of purpose.
It took a lot of logistics and hard work to move this large, ever-growing group along and find places to camp and have enough food for the kitchen crew to feed us. We ran into obstacles including the departure of many of us as we ran out of money and food in the high cold desert of the Mojave. Down to about 363 people, we regrouped and eventually marched into D.C. with thousands who had joined us along the way and/or were there to welcome us.
We made a difference as a group and as individuals as we met town and city folks from coast to coast. And so many wonderful people we met made a difference for us.
At that time we were part of the many thousands of individual seeds and seed groups all over the world that eased the terrible time of an imminent threat of nuclear holocaust.
We all became better and deeper people because of our mobile “Peace City” [We had to learn to get along in peace and harmony for us to call ourselves that.]
For each of us this commitment was a watershed moment in our lives, and we all changed and became more aware and more than we were before, and we experienced joy, laughter, music of all kinds, creativity, tears, discouragement, pain, … and friendships that became Forever Family. [Our shoe sizes changed too by two sizes and two widths. So will yours.]
You are only two people, Ashley and Michael, but what you are doing is so important, both for yourselves and for the rest of us. You are making a clear, moral, loving statement from the heart. It’s easier with just two people to get up and go, but it’s harder also not to have the supportive presence of so many whose purpose is the same as yours.
So I’m sure I can speak for all of my beloved brother and sister marchers of The 1986 Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, we send you love and spirit and courage and endurance and safe journey to D.C. and all the way home wherever that is. And I’ll be contacting all The GPM’ers and maybe a few of them will turn up for you along the way.
Our world and our nation is in big trouble. You are needed and you have answered the call. You are two seeds, Michael and Ashley, sending the message that life-destroying WAR is never the Answer. Nobody ever really wins. Only love, kindness, understanding, compassion, generosity of heart and spirit, commitment, and true open-minded intelligence and wisdom create Peace, and that Peace must be for all of humankind and all the earth’s living things, and not just for a few.
And I think, as young as you are, you somehow know that already. You’re awake.
So keep on keeping on.
God Bless & again Godspeed.
Carol Cees Miracles
Ashley and Michael,
We are proud of what you are doing! Keep going and know that there are many people supporting you! May God bless you two! I agree with Ken, push the momentum for peace!
Hey Ashley and Michael,
If you come through Louisville, Kentucky or somewhere nearby, let us know. We will try to get some folk out to walk a spell with you. And put on a reception, if you come to our city!
A couple of weekends ago, we staged an 80 mile two-day run/walk by a woman originally from Mexico, going from Louisville to Lexington, KY, to honor the 80 women and children on average who die (official count) crossing the Mexico US Border, and to continue to push for comprehensive immigration reform. With local Spanish language radio covering every step, by mile 77 we had 20 runners to join her for the last 3 miles into Lexington, running even in sandals.
Sacred journeys for a cause have power that derives from the vision of the travelers as their bodies generate energy for peace. They are like deep meditations that send out waves of peace, invisible to the eye, but ever so real! And when herds of cattle run along with you, that only adds to that special power!
Here is a tip: if you happen upon thoroughbred horses (in Kentucky anyways), the horses respond to Spanish not English, as almost all the horse attendants and trainers are immigrants from Latin America. Caballito! Ven aca! is sure to have them galloping your way.
Contact: louisville402@yahoo.com.mx
The strange thing is, I thought of doing this too, after Katrina. But I have severe Fibromyalgia and would have needed at least one person to drive a backup vehicle with food (and in case of health issues that might arise, because its an odd illness.) Of course, I couldn’t find one single person with the time. Not one. I’d have been walking entirely alone. Interesting country we live in, eh? Maybe when they hit Indiana I’ll join them anyway. It will hurt like hell, but it can’t be much worse than the pain of watching our democracy go to hell. Physical pain or mental anguish? I’ll try physical pain for awhile, as a change of pace.
In solidarity!
I guess you haven’t heard, Cindy Sheehan is back, leaving Crawford tomarrow, going to Atlanta Ga.(MLK Memorial) and walking to DC, to deliver 800,000 signatures for Impeachment, to John Conyers (July 26th I think)then to New York for Summer of Love 07,
If Nancy Pelosi won’t put Impeachment ‘On the Table’, Cindy says she’s going to run against her!
Can anyone get word to the girls and help them join up with Cindy in Atlanta?
Ashley and Michael — thanks for taking on such a big part of the burden for my generation and that of my children.
“Yes, ‘n’ how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.”
May you arrive safely and with a large company of fellow marchers who have caught the answer that is blowin’ in the wind.
I am so glad that you guys are walking. I walked the 3900 miles from Los Angeles to DC in 1986 on the Great Peace March with Carol and hundreds of others and it changed my whole life in good ways, ways that I like to think have rippled to make the world a little bit better. I was 18 when I left Raleigh for LA, and as I turn 40 on Wednesday, I look back on that year with fond memories and much gratitude.
The GPM community is behind you 100% and I’m sure any peace marchers that are along your route would enjoy putting you up for the night, setting you up with laundry facilities and showers, hot meals and all that. Lots of people did it for us in 1986 and I remember exactly how much I enjoyed “Marcher in the Home”!
Where can we send you money and support? What do you need?
To Ashley and Michael -
From here in the UK, in solidarity and appreciation for what you’re doing not just for the US but for the whole world.
To the Common Dreams editors -
Can you keep us all posted on their progress, please?
Thank you. Your humanity should shame the nation and indeed indicts the Bushist coup-Laida cons.
Veterans for Peace are marching from Chicago to DC. I think they started June 21 in Chicago, and plan to be in dc by september 11. They are taking a more nothern route than the two young men are, but I am sure they could adjust their route somehow to meet up with VFP. It is called march of the people, and there is a website for them. Cheryl
Common Dreamers WAKE UP–Ashley and Michael are a young lady and young man respectively–not two girls or two guys as some have guessed in their encouraging responses. Pay attention and learn!
As has been mentioned, the very act of marching has and wil forever change the two of them. Also it will permanently change many they encounter on their journey.
Unlike most of us on Common Dreams, they are not just talking the talk, they are walking the walk.
Vaya con Dios!
This is another example of the media dropping the ball. We should be able to read about Ashley and Michael’s travels all along the way. People would be prepared to join them, if the news media was doing its job. I live in Oregon, but my heart is marching with them. Thanks, Common Dreams, for letting me know about these two courageous young Americans.
One thing that bothers me is the people that make the marchers take down their signs, curse at them and such just because they disagree with them.
It is a shame that people don’t get the concept of free speech. The people have meekly accepted free speech zones by political candidates, especially Bu$h the inferior and Shotgun Dick who always have a canned audience of supporters.
Next I expect a digital audience to show how popular these scum bags are that upgrades the old bad sitcom laugh track.
We need to get them kids some good shoes! [sic] Who can we contact to give donations?
Protests have always been media ecents - an attempt to attract a few seconds of air time over which maybe, just maybe, a slogan on a placard might be shown to a dozing public. That’s why the slogans are on placards, not leaflets.
Marches and protests are pointless when the other side controls the media. Young people know this, even if boomer dinosaurs do not.
Paul, what you have so conveniently forgotten is that the only reason we have the media controlled by these dunces is that Americans have become fat and lazy, forgetting that democracy means eternal vigilance. The basic principle of strength in numbers ALWAYS applies. Sure, these two protesters may not get anywhere near the recognition they deserve, but if five hundred other groups of two suddenly start trekking cross country, you will indeed start to see the media swoon. Dig? Screw the media Paul! We have to make the news ourselves. Act, and the powerful will take notice.
Mark my words, my contract for my current job is up in one year. If for some reason it is not renewed, you will see me marching across the United States too.
Even if they don’t stop the war… they still accomplished their goal of walking across the country for peace.
Do you know what a good walk can do for the soul?
This moves me so that I’m sitting here with tears streaming down my face! I hear so many of us who feel passionately, asking ourselves and each other where everyone is. Something like this is so incredibly moving for the rest of us. What’s more, these two will be able to look back upon the Spring and Summer of 2007 and know that they took a stand and made their mark. Very inspiring!
Is there somewhere to send donations?
ditto key 89
Thanks to the Colleen Mastony and the editors at the Chicago Tribune for printing this story and to Commondreams for putting it up here!
Ashley and Michael,
yOU CAN MAKE IT! Plant the seeds! you are showing you care-that is rare. The American public is not asleep, they are drugged-by Prozac, high fructose corn syrup, hydrolized fat, TV, alchohol and drugs, shopping, and the media message that there’s money to be had, the oil will never run out and everything is ok-we are America.
What will it take to get them to rise up? The saying goes that “community only works when you need something.” When people NEED other people, NEED peace, NEED clean water, NEED health care, and wake up to realize they are sick and in pain, then, maybe they will rise up.
My prayers are with you.
PEACE!
“Paul, what you have so conveniently forgotten is that the only reason we have the media controlled by these dunces is that Americans have become fat and lazy, forgetting that democracy means eternal vigilance.”
MSM print and broadcast what people want to read hear and watch . That’s business . If American citizens boycotted American Idol en masse it would be off the air tomorrow. Same with Fox,CNN,Hammity,Coulter… and the rest of the mindless drivel masquerading as objective news-reporting.
American citizens are uninformed of the facts because they choose to be .
Ashley and Michael:
Bless Your Hearts! Tears filled my eyes when I first read this story on DemocraticUnderground.com this morning. And now again! The two of you are giants!
0ur impulses are being redirected. We are living in an artificially induced state of consciousness that resembles sleep…the poor and the underclass are growing… They have created a repressive society and we are their unwitting accomplices…We have been lulled into a trance. They have made us indifferent, to ourselves, to others, we are focused only on our own gain… That is their primary method of survival. Keep us asleep, keep us selfish, keep us sedated… …they are dismantling the sleeping middle class. More and more people are becoming poor. We are their cattle. We are being bred for slavery.
- From John Carpenter’s “They Live”
Ah yes, once again life imitates art. Welcome to the New World Order.
It’s wonderful to see these 2 kids giving such dedication to the cause. Good luck, let’s help these two great people end this war.
You are doing it, living it, being it, with integrity…as Shakespeare said, “To be, or not to be, that is [the crucial matter] the question.”
I did something similar, in my past, but I would not have done it without the support of hundreds of others. And now, here are you, of sufficient maturity, clarity, integrity, and realness to do and be as you are, whether or not anyone else has the clarity and sanity to walk with you.
I trust that you know you are eternal, no matter what any other indications from the temporal universal peanut gallery might suggest.
I experienced both gooseflesh-chills-thrills and tears of recognition/admiration/affinity while reading of your journey into selfhood, integrity, wholeness, responsibility. My spirit is one with you, as are many spirits of love, truth, life, peace, joy, unity, miraculous infinitude.
Thank you, bless you, kudos, hurrays, and hallelujahs,
Jeffrey
Ashley and Michael…The two of you are examples of what it means to be truly awake, and to understand that we are all interdependent on this planet. You march for every person with the sanity to know that peaceful behaviors are the only road to peace. Blessings on you, your tired feet and your very proud families. You are in our thoughts…Noelle and Bob