Stonewalk

Stonewalk passes through Milford
Terri Miles, Staff Writer August 26, 2004

MILFORD Ї They came from all walks of life: a social worker, a college student, a Buddhist, a mother. They all shared one common goal - world peace.
If you asked them what they do as a livelihood, they might have said, "I push a stone."

The Sept. 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows Stonewalk passed through Milford last Thursday during a 39-day journey from Boston to New York City.

The procession centered on wagon that is patterned after a caisson, with rich mahogany-stained wood and brass accents and finishing.

The rear was decorated with a flower arrangement as one might see at a funeral and small flags from around the world similar to the United Nations.

A long, two-inch round wooden pole was equipped with eight or nine wooden handles that the walkers used to push and pull the caisson along its route. For comfort, each walker had a metal carrier affixed to the pole near the handle to hold a bottle of water.

Local reaction to the Stonewalk was positive.

Milford residents Jane and Richard Platt caught up with the caisson during a 30-minute break in front of Gloria's Garden Center.

"We've been following its progress on the Internet," Jane said. "Our church [the Unitarian Church of New Haven] also works toward peace. They came to our church to talk to us, but we didn't see the caisson."

Police officer Mona Lucas, who escorted the group from Orange to Milford, thumbed through a memorial book dedicated to people who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center. Paging through the photos and biographies, she pointed out the name of someone she knew.

Standing next to the caisson, Carol McVeedy of West Haven laid her hands on the stone in quiet reflection.

McVeedy joined the group for the five-mile leg between Orange and Milford.

"I can't think of a more peaceful way to demonstrate the importance of stopping the war and to remember those that we don't even know, who were innocent victims," she said. "The book of biographies brings you back and puts a new face on things. It's very important."

A little history

The group's leader is Dan Jones, a social worker from the Bronx, New York who lost his brother-in-law, Billy Kelly in the World Trade Center attacks.

Jones explained the stone's background and significance for the Stonewalk.

"This stone was made at the Peace Abbey in Sherborne, Mass., in the mid-'90s after students visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, DC and learned that 80 percent of the casualties of war are civilians," Jones said. "They thought there should be a monument in honor of [the civilians].

"In 1999, the folks from the Peace Abbey did the first Stonewalk, with an identical stone, from Sherborne to Arlington, Virginia, to try to get it into Arlington National Cemetery within sight of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier," he said. "They belong together."

The stone was rejected at Arlington and stayed for a while at Georgetown.

"That one went far," Jones said. "Marchers brought it from Dublin to Belfast, Ireland to recognize all the victims who died there, and then from Liverpool to Coventry, recognizing the people that died in nightly bombings there. The people of Coventry asked for it to stay in the bombed-out shell of the Coventry Cathedral where it now stands, emblematic of the civilian toll there."

Peaceful Tomorrows

The idea of Peaceful Tomorrows began in 2001, after the terrorist attacks.

"Some of us got together on a walk from Washington D.C. to New York after Thanksgiving and into December," Jones said. "That's when my wife, Colleen, and I met others who'd lost loved ones, and we decided that we didn't want to see other people suffer. We didn't want to see families not being able to protect their children."

The group officially formed in February 2002, getting their name from a Martin Luther King quotation, "Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."

The people at the Peace Abbey invited the new group to use their facility as a retreat in the summer of 2002.

"That's when we saw a documentary about their Stonewalk, and it was really compelling," Jones said. "It spoke to my heart right away, that in 1999, before the terrorist attacks here, that they recognized the terrible loss people suffer from being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Two years later, Jones and the other members lost loved ones who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"It was very prophetic," he said. "The purpose of that walk was exactly what our organization's purposes are. We don't want to see other people suffer as we've suffered. That's when the seeds for our Stonewalk were planted."

If everything goes as planned, the walkers will be at Fordham University tomorrow. On Saturday, they will make their way to St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Harlem.

Along the way, they are being careful not to get the Stonewalk in the middle of any negative protest where people would get the wrong impression about the group or its mission.

Who are you?

Jones said that as a social worker in the New York school system, he is lucky to have the time to dedicate to the walk.

He joined the group in Boston on July 28 and plans to complete the walk in New York City.

"It's fortunate that I have the whole summer, because I would hate to leave this now," he said.

Jun, a Japanese Buddhist nun who has been walking with the caisson, often is mistaken for an old man because of her shaved head. She is the caretaker of the Grafton Buddhist Peace Pagoda and often takes part in peace walks across the country.

During the Stonewalk's journey through Orange and Milford, she kept a steady beat on a hand drum that was made by Alaskan Indians. Its tightly stretched animal skin surface is adorned with oriental symbols.

"It's very light and easy to carry," Jun said. "I hit it with a bamboo stick."

Next to her walked a young Japanese man named Kenichi Kato.

A quiet, kind man, Kato has walked the entire route barefoot. During the breaks every 5 to 10 miles, he checks the blisters on his feet, then shares his homemade rice rolls and miso with his fellow walkers.

Another noteworthy participant is Adele Welte of Flushing, New York. An older woman, Adele lost her son, Timothy, 34, a New York firefighter, at the World Trade Center.

"I deal with my loss by trying to build some sort of a legacy to his memory," she said. "I joined Peaceful Tomorrows to counter the use of the World Trade Center and Sept. 11 as an excuse to kill innocent civilians."

She often can be seen at the head of the line, pulling the caisson uphill.

Another walker, identified only as "Dave," is an archeologist who joined the march Aug. 9 in Brookline. He said residents along the way have been kind, putting the walkers up for an evening along the way.

Dave's cousin, Scott Johnson, died at the World Trade Center.

"We grew up together. We were really close," he said. "The folks from Peaceful Tomorrows are like family."

He said the marchers are gaining increasing support as they get closer to New York City.

Welcoming hills

The loaded caisson, including the stone, weighs more than a ton. The peace walkers have to work hard to get it up and over hills. But, instead of a burden, they embrace the hills - they said it gives them a stronger sense of purpose.

Getting over the hump on Route 1 between West Haven and Orange posed such a challenge.

"I was glad to see that hill," Jones said. "You don't want to have an easy walk. We work together to get the job done."

Welte said, "When we struggle up a hill, it shows that nothing is easy in this world."

Jones said people applaud the procession, and many join in, taking a handle to pull the caisson or pushing the rear platform.

For these peaceful activists, the journey is one of healing and remembrance.