A Global Pilgrimage Honoring Civilian Casualites
of War
From an Idea to Honor Civilian Casualties
 Lewis
Randa, founder of the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, MA, conceived
of honoring civilian casualties in the hope that, with more
knowledge, individuals might greater realize the true costs
of war and reevaluate its legitimacy as conflict resolution.
Lewis describes his perspective on activism, "Grassroots
politics is an extraordinary thing because it's a daily activity.
Its not something you do, it becomes who you are." His
wife, Meg, is initially less enthusiastic about Stonewalk
and shares that, "Lewis always comes home with ideas,
and they're always "unusual" ideas, and Lewis always
thinks that all of his ideas are good ones!"
The Memorial Stone
The first members to sign on to Stonewalk as a concept were
the students at the Life Experience School. These special
needs students follow a curriculum promoting peacemaking in
the community.
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Mohammed
Ali, recognized for his courage as a war objector, accepted
the honor of unveiling the stone at an April 1998 ceremony. |
They developed the concept of making the stone a replica
of the grave markers found in Arlington National Cemetery
and decided upon the words to be inscribed. Mohammed Ali,
recognized for his courage as a war objector, accepted the
honor of unveiling the stone at an April 1998 ceremony.
Lewis engaged the support of Hugh Thompson and Larry Colburne
of Veterans for Peace. The two Vietnam veterans agreed to
be Co-chairmen of Stonewalk. Hugh and Larry illustrate why
they feel strongly about raising awareness of civilian deaths
in war by recounting their experience halting the My Lai Massacre
of 1968.
Hugh: "We saw some others (women and children), and
it appeared that they had been marched down into this ditch,
and American soldiers standing on either side opened up with
automatic weapons."
Larry: "We knew we had to take action, not talk, but
do something."
The Original STONEWALK
Stonewalk left Sherborn, MA on July 10, 1999 with five core
participants who walked the entire 500 miles and over 100
volunteer "Stonewalkers" who walked it through the
first town. Core member Simon Augustine, an intern from Harvard
Divinity School jokes, "We're gonna get to know each
other more than we ever wanted to." Karl Schlotterbeck,
recently promoted from direct care in human services to administration,
decided to forego paper pushing and begin walking. Earl Standberry,
former Marine and Gulf War Veteran, describes his transformation
from a crack addict to a disciple of the Peace Pilgrim, "walking
for peace" wherever he is needed.
Lewis describes his reasons for performing the walk, "What's
powerful about the movement of this stone is that it moves
people to take a stand. And so often in life we sit by and
we read the paper and we criticize communities and our government
leaders, but rarely do we have an opportunity to step forward
and say, I'm gonna put my body where my mouth is and that
is to live what I'm saying, and not simply to talk about it
but to get physically, emotionally, spiritually, and morally
involved."
STONEWALK, A Global Pilgrimage
Since then, Stonewalk has turned into
a worldwide endeavour. In 2000, Stonewalk Ireland, the
Memorial
to Unknown Civilians Killed in War was pulled from Dublin,
Republic of Ireland to Belfast, Northern Ireland in a
peace
vigil "Remembering All Victims of The Troubles".
The following year, Stonewalk England brought the memorial
stone to Liverpool, where it was walked to Coventry, where
it was graciously received by the warm and generous people
at Coventry Cathedral at the site where the Nazi Blitz took
place in November 1940.
In 2003, the nobel prize nominated
organization, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
saw the highly acclaimed documentary film "Stonewalk:
The Documentary" by Barry Schneier Progressive Films,
and were deeply moved to participate in a Stonewalk to
honor
family members lost during the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
In 2004,
Stonewalk USA followed a route from Boston to New York,
as
did the doomed planes on that fateful September day. During
the month-long journey while the Memorial Stone was in
New York, members of the Japanese PeaceBoat joined
Stonewalk
from lower Manhattan to Riverside Church. The director
of the Japanese PeaceBoat, Yoshioka Tatsuya, was excited
about
the possibility of bringing the memorial stone to Japan
for the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, and so 2005 sees the latest and most ambitious
Stonewalk event yet.
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