Hope For Peace Pulls Volunteers
August 9, 2004
By ROBIN STANSBURY, Courant Staff Writer

DANIELSON -- Bruce Nichols said it was hard to describe what drew him Sunday to the hilly streets of this northeastern Connecticut town, where he spent the day sweating to help pull a 5,000-pound vehicle carrying a granite gravestone in honor of civilian casualties of war.

The stone will wind its way through the state in the next few weeks, on its path from Boston to New York City. The journey, called Stonewalk, is sponsored by the September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and by The Peace Abbey, a multi-faith retreat center in Sherborn, Mass., and is meant to encourage world leaders to find alternatives to war.

"I just had an overwhelming compulsion to come here and move this stone," Nichols, 57, of Shelton, said. "I very much want to help people understand that war is not a viable means of solving problems, and this is a graphic demonstration that we need to find new ways to relate to one another."

The gravestone, weighing 1,400 pounds, is engraved with the words "Unknown Civilians Killed in War," and is on a wheeled caisson, pulled along by as many as 18 people.

Even before the crew left Danielson Sunday morning, organizer and peace activist Lewis Randa, of The Peace Abbey, proclaimed it would be "a tough day." Fewer than 10 people were gathered to start the walk, and the participants faced challenges as they headed onto busy, hilly Route 6.

But Randa was not worried. The group travels as much as 10 miles a day, with volunteers joining in to pull the stone for an hour, a day or as long as they like.

Indeed, just as the group was ready to leave, two needed volunteers joined the effort, helping to push the stone onto Main Street. From there, they wound their way onto Route 6 on their way toward Brooklyn.

"When people see us struggling to get up a hill, they pull their cars over and get out to help us push," Randa said. "They can't seem to help themselves, and that is the heart and soul of Stonewalk.

"We are bringing the cemetery experience out to the roadway for people to participate in," he said. "Stones usually stay put, but this one goes to the people."

Randa founded Stonewalk in 1999, when he organized a 33-day, 500-mile walk pulling a 2,000-pound stone to Washington D.C., in the hope of seeing it placed permanently in Arlington National Cemetery. That is still the goal of the project, which also has held walks in Ireland and England.

"We care deeply about civilian deaths, and their losses deserve to be recognized just like the soldiers in uniform," he said.

Joann Caulder, of Brooklyn, couldn't walk with the group Sunday, but came to wish them well as they left Danielson. Caulder lost a cousin in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Spiritually or physically, we need to encourage peaceful solutions to our problems," she said.

The walkers hope to reach New York City by Aug. 30. 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 at www.stonewalk.org.