The (Stone) walk to peace goes through Sherborn
By Michelle Apuzzio/ Correspondent
Thursday, August 5, 2004

Peace groups journeying to NYC with memorial in tow

SHERBORN - When the Democratic National Convention began last week, members of the Peace Abbey and Peaceful Tomorrows, a group of more than 130 family members affected by 9/11, began their journey from Boston with a 1,400-pound stone memorial honoring unknown civilians killed in war. Their steps will end in New York City at the 96th Street Mosque in early September during the Republican National Convention.

Last Saturday, they pulled the custom-designed caisson holding the stone along Route 16 from Wellesley to Natick to Sherborn, stopping for an overnight at the Peace Abbey. As the activists held a ceremony on Sunday morning before departing for Holliston, the granite slab remained parked in front of the Abbey's guest house with the flags of the United States and the United Nations lightly rustling in the breeze. More flags - miniature versions of U.N. members - lined the caisson. The front extended into a long metal shaft with seven wooden dowels for those who would pull it.

Sue Richardson from Ocean City, N.J., lost her nephew in the World Trade Center attacks. She participated in the Stonewalk from Wellesley College.

"It was nothing that I had expected," she said.

After a ceremony blessing the 1,400 memorial stone at the Peace Abbey, walkers begin their journey to New York city on Sunday. (Staff photo by Michael Manning)

Although the actual stone is 1,400 pounds, the entire cart is thought to be around 5,000 pounds.

The hills were the worst, according to Richardson, but she felt it was "so wonderful with everyone working together." There was also plenty of encouragement - honking and waving - from passersby.

"After yesterday, I wish I were prepared to pull the whole way," said Richardson.

Even though his feet were aching, Nick Burlakoff will pull the stone the entire distance. He considers it the "opportunity of a lifetime," and is grateful for those he had met along the way and had shown him hospitality by offering a room or a meal at night.

The Ossining, N.Y., resident volunteered to pull the stone not as a 9/11 family member, but because decades of war have affected his lineage, beginning with his Russian grandfather in World War I. After that, his family moved to Yugoslavia, where they survived through World War II. Burlakoff was born in a refugee camp, and later served during the Vietnam War as an American.

"It's a meditation and my statement for peace," he said of the Stonewalk.

Those involved in the Stonewalk had the chance to speak to the group which convened at the Peace Abbey on Sunday morning. Peace Abbey director Lewis Randa called the Stonewalk a "deeper way to show lament for those whose lives are lost," before several members of Peaceful Tomorrows shared their thoughts on the journey and how they have dealt with their feelings since 9/11.

Yet there is a sort of grassroots feel about the group which goes beyond hauling a stone between two major metro areas. Several members of Peaceful Tomorrows have visited families in Iraq and Afghanistan in an effort to bridge communication between those who have suffered the impact of civilian casualties.

"Every day, all over the world, September 11 happens without the fanfare," said Loretta Filipov of Concord. She lost her husband on Flight 11.

Although the demonstration is billed as nonpartisan, there was a definite anti-Bush sentiment in the crowd. One attendee donned a T-shirt with a headshot of the president denoting him as an "International Terrorist."

Peaceful Tomorrows co-director David Potorti said, "We are the ones who control our destiny, and we don't have to wait until November to make a change."

Terry Rockefeller of Arlington who lost her sister on 9/11 declared, "You can't fight a war on terrorism. War is terrorism."

Kristina Olsen Tynes reminded the bystanders to "distinguish between the military and bad policy," however, as she talked regrettably of the poor behavior towards soldiers returning from Vietnam in the 1960s.

Following a brief prayer from Bill Cavanaugh of Veterans for Peace, 25 or so drew up the wooden handles and headed up Route 16 past the church, library and town hall on the road to Holliston with a Sherborn Police escort in tow. To all approaching, the poster they held in front would answer the first question most onlookers might ask - "Why?"

It read "Remembering the Human Cost of Terrorism, Violence & War."