News
Release
Reported in
the "PROVIDENCE JOURNAL"
Silent
walk through Providence marks International Day of Peace. Hundreds of
flags, each inscripted with the wish of a Rhode Islander, adorn the walkway
along the Providence River.
01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, September 22, 2005
BY ELIZABETH GUDRAIS, The Providence Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE - In a business suit or in blue jeans and
a tank top, they walked. In a priest's cassock, a yarmulke or the flowing
orange robe of a Hindu cleric, they walked. From all walks of life, they
gathered in the name of peace, strolling through Market Square in silence
yesterday evening.
More
than 100 people participated in the walking meditation, Rhode Island's
celebration of the International Day of Peace. Some closed their eyes.
Some gazed at the sky. Some stared at their feet. All lost in thought.
One
of the event's organizers, Joanne Friday, read instructions before the
walk began. "We shall walk in such a way that each step we make becomes
a realization of peace," Friday, a peace activist and disciple of
the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, told the crowd. "Each step becomes
a prayer for peace and harmony."
Yesterday's
local television news told of a mother in the city's Mount Hope section
who ordered her young children to the floor when gunfire shattered their
bedroom window as she read them a bedtime story. The world news wires
continued to carry stories on American troops killed by Iraqi insurgents.
If
a peace celebration seemed incongruous in that light, that made it all
the more necessary, Friday said. "To fall into despair is really
a luxury we can't afford."
The
United Nations declared the first International Day of Peace in 1981 as
a day of global cease-fire. Yesterday, peace activist and former Providence
Phoenix columnist Pam Steager read the United Nation's list of eight ingredients
that, combined, create a Culture of Peace. The list included: an education
system that emphasizes peace; sustainable economic development; respect
for human rights; gender equality; democracy; tolerance; freedom of information,
and international security and disarmament.
After
the walk, people gathered around a "Peace Pole," a six-sided
wooden pole with a globe atop. The sides bore the words "May peace
prevail on Earth" in English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic
and Hmong. The demonstrators dedicated the pole in a general sense; they
are working with the city to find it a home somewhere in Providence.
People
stayed to decorate peace flags, and hundreds of them already decorated
the walkway next to the Providence River.
"Share the Earth!" one flag read.
"That there may be bread on every table," another
wished.
One flag contained just a picture of an ice cream cone and the words,
"delicious moments."
The
edges of the 9-inch cloth squares were torn not cut, so they would fray.
The instruction sheet explained: "Outdoors, the words will gradually
disappear on the winds, spreading your message to the world. The fabric
will eventually shred."
As
part of The Peace Flag Project, Rhode Islanders have already made more
than 5,000 flags. The project's Co-Founders, Jane Maguire and Ginny Fox,
invite religious groups, school classes or anyone else interested in decorating
or viewing the flags to contact them through the American Friends' Service
Committee of Southeast New England, at (401) 521-3584 or through their
website www.thepeaceflagproject.org.
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