A walk for
hope, peace
By AMY L. ZITKA , Middletown Press
Staff 08/14/2004
MIDDLETOWN -- An entourage carrying large cardboard doves
on poles followed a group of people pushing a 1,400-pound
stone on a caisson across the Arrigoni Bridge from Portland
on a mission.
Activists, including family members of the Sept.
11 victims, are on a month-long trek between Boston and New
York City known as the Stonewalk. On Friday, the current leg
of their journey brought them through a section of East Hampton
and Portland and to the city’s South Green.
Escorted in front by city police cars and behind by a fire
truck, approximately 16 people were pushing the granite memorial
engraved with "Unknown Civilians Killed in War."
The caisson was draped with purple and black-striped bunting,
adorned with the American and United Nations flags and a memorial
floral arrangement. Residents and downtown patrons watched
as the convoy went south on Main Street to Old Church Street.
"Sept. 11 irrevocably touched us by terror
overseas," Mayor Domenique Thornton said. President Jimmy
Carter was the first president to bring a framework of peace,
she said. "Each president who sought to bring an accord
to the Middle East has done so."
This has occurred so violence would not spread
to the United States, the mayor said, adding the country has
become a place for "people to escape from foreign wars.
The only true escape from war is peace."
The Stonewalk, sponsored by September Eleventh
Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, is to bring an awareness
to all the unknown civilian casualties of war and terrorism
throughout the world. The trek between Boston and New York
links the two main cities involved in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks;
where the planes originated, and where two of them crashed.
Peaceful Tomorrows is an organization that represents
several family members of the Sept. 11 victims who use their
grief as a motivation for peace.
"It was nice coming into town from the mayor,
police and fire to the cheers of the people on the streets,"
said Dan Jones, a Peaceful Tomorrows member. Jones is one
of five members from the group making the entire journey from
Boston to New York. "This walk has been very physically
difficult and emotionally difficult, but it’s also one of
strength."
"The connection between Boston and New York
was forged tragically," he said. "It is a path of
healing and peace. I hope the journey will be remembered between
those two cities."
Simsbury resident Gail Adams, of the Connecticut
Coalition of Peace and Justice, was among those who carried
the large white cardboard doves behind the stone. Adams participated
in the walk from Portland to Middletown.
"I want to see a more peaceful world,"
she said. "I’m particularly devastated about everybody
killed since 9/11."
The walk will continue 10 a.m. today from the
South Green on Old Church Street. It will go south on Route
17 into Durham.
call (860)347-3331 ext. 211 or email azitka@middletownpress.com.
©The Middletown Press 2004
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