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They're Taking A Stand Against The War, One Step At A Time
A small group of protesters is marching 450 miles from Chicago to St. Paul to join demonstrators at the Republican National Convention.
Marching through small towns and big cities across Illinois and Wisconsin, a handful of war protesters are on the first leg of a 450-mile walk from Chicago to St. Paul to join demonstrators at the Republican National Convention."As we come through various communities, individuals and groups join us to walk for a day or two," Dan Pearson, 27, said by cell phone from Madison, Wis., where the group stopped Monday to attend a peace vigil at the state Capitol.
About 10 to 15 people are taking part in most of the trek, with six going the whole distance, said Pearson, co-coordinator for the Chicago-based Voices for Creative Nonviolence, which organized the "Witness Against War" walk.
The route will take them to Baraboo and LaCrosse, in Wisconsin, and on to Winona, Minn., before they reach St. Paul on Aug. 30, marching about 12 miles per day.
"We've been in touch with a number of peace groups in northern Illinois and Wisconsin," he said. "[They] have put us in their homes.
Part of the symbolism of the Chicago-St. Paul march is to link the protests at the Sept. 1-4 GOP convention with the antiwar demonstrations that occurred at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.
One of the marchers is Paul Melling, 27, a recent graduate of St. Cloud Technical College and a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Melling said he was an Army specialist deployed to Iraq in 2003 and 2004 in the field artillery. "The war in Iraq is wrong," he said. "It was wrong from the beginning. ...What I did over there did not do anything to benefit the Untied States or the Iraqi people."
Reaction along the route has been mostly positive, but sometimes people have been hostile, Melling said. He likes to carry a sign that says, "Support Our Troops, End the War in Iraq."
Marchers include Kathy Kelly and Mike Miles, nationally known peace activists.
St. Paul development
In another development Monday, at a news conference in St. Paul, Meredith Aby, a leader of the Sept. 1 antiwar march in St. Paul, said her group has pledges from Los Angeles and New York protesters to come to the city with vans coming from Denver after the Democratic National Convention and buses or vans from Lincoln, Neb., Sioux Falls, S.D., and most Minnesota cities.
Jessica Sundin, another march leader, said protesters are not planning at this time to appeal a decision last week by U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen, who sided with the police march route and time schedule for the Sept. 1 march. Sundin said her group instead will put pressure on St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman to change the route and time.
The Chicago-St. Paul march has set up a website at http://vcnv.org/witness-against-war.
© 2008 Star Tribune
13 Comments so far
Show AllI hope the march get some coverage. If they are walking the highways every set of eyes that passes them presents at least a factual experience of dissent and what the mainstream media ignores. Many say marches are a waste of time. I disagree for just that reason.
Peace activists such as these Witnesses Against War and all those wishing to participate in creative artistic and musical expressions for peace just across the Muddy Mississippi from the RNC are all invited to this "Peace Island Picnic" on Harriet Island in St. Paul on Sept. 4th! Help us form a record-breaking human peace sign and participate in the "Give Peace a Chance" sing-a-long with Tao Rodriguez Seeger (Pete Seeger's grandson), Larry Long, David Rovics and other great folk musicians.
Click: http://theunconvention.com/projects/peace-island-picnic/
May any available Angels (human and / or divine!) protect and uplift the spirits of those doing this fine work.
"10 or 15 people" is a VERY small number, among such a huge populace in the USA, but then, much of the best work is often done only by a handful of committed souls, (I of course include dear Lina N. + friends in this).
These sort of folk are the *real* backbone of a country, and rather put to shame the molluscs who would rather watch gormless trash on their Idiot Boxes or endlessly go out shopping and / or getting stoned, - in place of trying to pull their country out of it's current slide into pitiful failure...
Every step of the way, these folk are showing and glowing, --trail-blazing-- and inspiring others to do as they are doing: **Making a real difference!**
"Mighty oaks from little acorns grow" ~ God bless 'em all!
xx
That's 10 to 15 people who
-- are capable of devoting most of the next month to this.
-- are physically capable of walking 450 miles in the summer heat.
Given that in perilous economic times, anyone with a decent job is going to hang on to it. That kinda leaves out taking a month to go march. And if you don't have a job but do have a family, figuring out how to survive and feed your kids probably has to take priority. And as I get older, I'm starting to appreciate that once I have retired and have the time, I'm unlikely to be able to go walk 450 miles through the summer heat.
My point is that this is not a bad sized group for something like this. What you should see is bigger crowds on particular days as people come out and join the march through there area.
Yesterday Kathy Kelly posted a report here from summer camp on the West Bank. when I saw this story, I thought "bet Kathy's there". and there indeed she is. What a woman!
I hope the 6 that's going all the way will increase to 6 million before they reach their destination. Real patriots, hats off to them.
God Bless America.
The audacity of hope.
It's starting.
What was it that stopped the Vietnam War?
It wasn't one demonstration or one walk for peace and social justice.
It was everybody being sick of the blood. Millions of people did small protests ...everywhere. Each time more people agreed until like a snowball rolling down a hill... it grew.
People who felt powerless saw others doing something and joined rather than be powerless any longer. We saw the other protests increasing and sensed what we called ...people power.
Sure they are only a few that begin something. They do not walk in isolation. They speak to others who are glad to see someone is doing something.
That was the way it was then too. It isn't so much the size of a protest (small towns had protestors too) but the number of protests everywhere that couldn't be ignored plus the big marches that showed the depth of feeling against the war.
Think those people are all gone? All those who once marched against war?
It starts... people power.
War is against people.
It takes people to stop a war.
War is against people.
i think its fantastic that people are starting to organize and doing something about their total disgust in what our govt has evolved into...
i've been advocating for some time now a stay at home protest on 9/11... by staying at home... ppl dont spend any money anywhere and people dont make any money... i've had many ppl balk at me about how impossible that would be for ppl to do this and i dont understand... many ppl call in sick for the hell of it... so they can have a day to "play" why not take the time to stay home in protest?
i've also written an essay about what we can do to start becoming more independent from our gvot (titled "A Guide To Surviving These Trying Times parts 1-3 and its companion piece "The Sky Is Falling" located at http://www.cluba2z.com/blog_browse.one)
i've also recently had the idea of an organized fax day... where we have the same message... have several volunteers that will fax to every fax machine on capitol hill... and coordinate it so that every machine gets the msgs at the same time... just some ideas... and would love to hear more from others...
its so frustrating to hear and read so many stories from so many ppl that are truly disgusted about our govt but arent willing to make the smallest contribution or effort to make a difference or stop the machine from getting any bigger... its nothing but a truck load of excuses from folks and i don't feel sorry for them…
maybe its was these americans that phil gram was talking about when he said we where a nation a whiners... and to a certain extent i agree with him...
so easy to complain... but is anyone ready to put their money where their mouth is?
You wonder how many of them have bathed in the past 90 days.
Nothing else will be going on during the Repub Convention, so that's what Americans who don't have the time or inclination to read will see on the TV news. The cameras will have to seek something besides the incredibly boring, phony and predicable Repub process. What could be a better contrast than the protesters? There will be the marchers, the Harriet Islanders, and various other local Minneapolitans who are the best and most progressive people in one place in America. They will be ready to show the special kind of class only upper-Midwesterners have.
A Floridian