Activists To Cross State, Pulling For Peace
August 4, 2004
By JOSH KOVNER, Courant Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN -- Peace activists pulling a 1,400-pound granite memorial to civilian casualties of war from Boston to New York City will cross into Killingly from Rhode Island on Saturday and reach the Middletown green on Aug. 13.

Stonewalk, as the journey is called, is sponsored by the September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and by the Peace Abbey, a multifaith retreat founded by activist Lewis Randa in Sherborn, Mass.

The slab, engraved with the simple words "Unknown Civilians Killed in War," is on a wheeled caisson, pulled along by as many as 18 people. The walkers began the journey July 26 and plan to reach New York City by Aug. 30. They travel about 10 miles a day and pause for gatherings large and small along the way. Volunteers join in and pull the stone for an hour, a day or as long as they like.

In Middletown, an hourlong ceremony on the South Green downtown will include music, food and speakers, beginning at 5 p.m. on Aug. 13.

Local organizer Meg Scata, who has been recruiting volunteers to join the walk in Connecticut, said the point of the journey is not to espouse one political ideal over another.

Rather, it is to focus attention on the innocent victims of war and terror all over the world. The scope of the memorial extends back to World War II and includes attacks in such locales as Bali, Madrid, Northern Ireland, the Middle East, South Africa and Oklahoma City, as well as New York City and Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11, 2001, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Participants are asked to leave their political signs and slogans at home.

"Sure it's anti-war, but it's not anti-Bush or promoting one political platform over the other," said Scata, a Middletown resident and elementary school librarian in Portland and a member of the Middletown Alliance for Peace.

"These are peace pilgrims. They are saying there are alternatives to war and that our elected leaders need to exhaust all options before they start dropping bombs," Scata said.

The September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, representing 125 family members of 9/11 victims, was nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. The group has reached out to survivors and the families of terrorism victims all over the world.

In Connecticut, the walkers will travel through Killingly, Danielson, Brooklyn, Hampton, Chaplain, Windham, Willimantic, Columbia, Hebron, Marlborough, East Hampton, Cobalt, Portland, Middletown, Durham, North Branford, North Haven, New Haven, West Haven, Orange, Milford, Stratford, Bridgeport, Fairfield, Norwalk, and Stamford. More information is available on the Internet at www.stonewalk.org.

Before crossing the Arrigoni Bridge from Portland, the walkers will gather at about 4 p.m. on Aug. 13 at St. Mary's Church to pick up volunteers. On the green in Middletown, Mayor Domenique Thornton will introduce several speakers. There will be music, and members of South Church will serve a potluck supper.

Scata has arranged for the core group of the memorial's walkers to sleep in four private homes while in Middletown. For more information on how to join the walk, call Scata at 860-347-5488.