Peace march comes to Westchester
An entourage pushing a 1,400-pound granite headstone on a
wheeled cart crossed Route 1 into Port Chester yesterday.
Members of the Sept. 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows,
who are walking to promote peace, were greeted by two dozen
pairs of little helping hands.
Children from a day camp at nearby Summerfield United Methodist
Church helped push the cart, on top of which the headstone
lay flat, etched with the words "Unknown Civilians Killed
in War."
Jonathan Rendon, 9, of Rye Brook, pushed from the side. "I
was thinking," he said, "that it wasn't fair that
they should kill people."
Port Chester was the first Westchester stop for Peaceful
Tomorrows, a peace-advocacy group that started its journey
on foot July 23 in Boston.
The group, which represents about 130 Americans who lost
family in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks plans to end its walk
in New York City in time for the Republican National Convention.
Along the way, the walkers have been joined by community
groups, church members and, in some cases, residents who decided
to help out after seeing the march on their local streets.
Yesterday, more than 30 adults and children surrounded the
cart, which also displayed flowers, flags and pictures of
Sept. 11 victims.
Pastor Rafael Garcia of Summerfield Church said he was eager
to participate, especially because the theme of the day camp
this summer is peace.
"I believe anything that promotes peace and denounces
war and violence should be welcome and should be endorsed,"
Garcia said.
Peaceful Tomorrows hopes the walk will raise awareness of
the human cost of war.
"People have been killed for being in the wrong place
at the wrong time," said Daniel Jones, a member whose
brother-in-law, Bill Kelly Jr., was a victim of the terrorist
attack on the World Trade Center. "That was the experience
on Sept. 11. They went to work or went to breakfast or got
on a flight."
"The cost is just too great, and we need to come up
with a better way to resolve our differences," Jones
said.
The headstone was loaned by the Peace Abbey in Massachusetts,
which carried it from Boston to Arlington National Cemetery
in Washington, D.C. in 1999. That march inspired Peaceful
Tomorrows to do its own "Stonewalk."
Today, the group will walk from Port Chester to Mamaroneck,
where participants will have a speaking event at Mamaroneck
United Methodist Church, 546 E. Boston Post Road, at 7 p.m.
Two weeks of events in New York City will begin after the
group enters the Bronx tomorrow. Those events include vigils
at Union Square Park and Central Park and speaking events
in churches, a synagogue and a mosque.
Send e-mail to Hannan Adely
|
