Peace Path, 9/11/09

Yesterday I participated in the Baltimore Charles St Peace Path, run by Women In Black, Baltimore. The goal was to get a chain of demonstrators to go from the beginning of Charles St. in the Inner Harbor and have it continue all the way up to the Beltway in Towson (10.42 miles). It was from 4pm-6pm, but I didn't get there until 4:45 ish.

Someone was advertising it on the quad during the week, and right away it seemed like something I wanted to do. In all honesty, if it wasn't running right through the middle of our campus I probably wouldn't have taken the time to join. But it was, and I was very proud to be a part of it. I was happy to stand out in the rain for an hour and a half trying to get passing by cars to honk for peace.

The demonstration at Loyola had a decent turn out (rain kept plenty of people from coming I'm sure). Most of the signs were the official ones of the demonstration, but a good amount of people had their own self-made ones, mostly peace in other languages. It was mostly students who participated, but there were a couple GRCs and several professors.

The reception by passing cars was overwhelmingly supportive. At every time people were honking, giving peace sign in their car, and a good amount of thumbs ups and fist raises. Every time it really meant something to me. Just to know that that one person took just one second of their drive to show support for a great cause. That's all they needed to do, just acknowledge. Even though its a nothing gesture, I felt like they really cared every time.

Not all the of the reception was positive. A couple of people went out of their ways to be dicks about it, which I do not get. All the signs were pro-peace. There were no anti-war signs, yet some people still seemed to think we were demonstrating against soldiers. One guy in particular, while stopped at the light, gave us non-stop thumbs down. He only stopped to give a double flip off as he drove away. I don't get it. If only the irony-karma gods could shine down and he get jumped....but I feel bad even wishing for that.

Overall, it was a really great experience. Peace is something I am very very supportive of. I'm against not only the current wars, but just war in general. The point of it was to support the people who lost their lives 8 years ago yesterday because of lack of peace. Peace is something as simple as treating others how you want to be treated to something like not having wars, where not only everyday people get killed in battle, but civilians also suffer. 9/11 ended 3000 lives. Sadly, in Iraq over the past 6+ years, about 32 times the number of civilians of who died that day have died (http://www.iraqbodycount.org/). I just don't see why that needs to be. With soldiers its the same thing. U.S. soldiers do not need to be dying for this. Foreign soldiers, the "enemy", don't need to either.

Just remember: Peace, Love, and Unity