Pax Vobiscum

Mike was there!

         Today is the International Day of Peace!

            Happy Peace Day!

           There's a chance peace/will come/in your life/please buy one – a line from Melanie.

           In January of 2007 Mike did some research to find a group from Atlanta that organized peace marches/anti war protests. And he not only found one, but they were going by bus that very month to Washington D.C.! He booked us each a seat, and we were on our way.

with my Dennis Kucinich sign

          The bus rode all night from Atlanta to the outskirts of DC. It was morning when we purchased subway tickets and emerged at the mall. There were thousands of us there from all over the country; exact numbers cannot be estimated because both sides, pro and con, tend to exaggerate high and low respectively. We had permits to march to the Capitol Building – we were not allowed on the steps, but only to walk past the Capitol on the street; we were allowed noise with our chants of what do we want?/no more war/when do we want it?/now!!

to the Capitol!

          People of all ages, religions, races. People all getting along – especially when we were gathering on the mall and resting on the park benches together – maybe what the world needs is more park benches! The posters and paper mache politicians on sticks were awesome – and some were kind of shocking.

         It was a sunny brisk January day – could not have been more perfect!

can we talk?

         The only negative personal experience was from a group on the side of the road which was pro-war – they had a sign to the effect that the dirty hippies should go home! Dirty hippies? Nowadays hippie is synonymous with free-love, drug culture, flower power, peace-niks – I thought the unwashed description had been left back in the sixties. But here it was on a sign – as if to say the unwashed don't have rights! Well, too bad – we're still here and in your face!!

          After the march, our group went back to the bus and rode again through the night – and we were back in Atlanta the next morning.

let there be peace on earth

          It is hard to believe that the trip was eight years ago already – the war in Iraq is kindof over, but there is still too much going on, like Afghanistan – so much money being spent on defense that could be used for education – education leads to problem solving and problem solving feeds the world and tactfully deals with religious zealots. And yes, this is most likely too simplistic to actually be true, but,

          if there's a chance, peace will come, in my life, I'll buy one.

 

264 20150921 Pax Vobiscum