The three word peace refrain reverberated and echoed throughout several blocks of Minneapolis skyways on one of the last days of 2009 as our "Gaza Freedom Solidarity March" snaked safely in a bubble protected from the cold Minnesota winter.
The contrast could not have been greater between our situation and that of the (less than safe, to put it lightly) situation of seven Minnesotans who went to Cairo, hoping to march in Gaza, who have been forcibly and repeatedly stopped by the Egyptian Government (but whose message, nonetheless, has gotten through in various demonstrations throughout the Egyptian city).
Despite the great differences in and distances between our locations, the hundreds of marches, rallies and vigils that have been held in the last few days all over the world, while very different from the scenes in Cairo and in Gaza, have given great expression of solidarity with the international, human rights activists, and the Gazan and Israeli marchers. It seems as if a lot more of the world's conscience has been touched in calling attention to the existing humanitarian crisis and asking that the siege of Gaza be lifted.
For example, the photos below are from a Facebook friend who sent me a visually effective slideshow of their march outdoors in downtown Seattle in solidarity with the Gaza Freedom March.
Our walk through Minneapolis skyways was covered by one Twin Cities TV channel (KSTP Channel 5), but other mainstream media preferred to focus their news that day on stories about snow blowers and an ice chunk that fell on a parked car. Many, many articles, however, from all over the world about the history in the making are listed on CodePink's website (
and
).
I must admit that we Minneapolis marchers did get tired, after a few blocks, of singing the same (three words) peace refrain. After a dozen blocks, our voices got a bit croaky. But when the downtown lunch crowd we were meeting in the skyway reverted back to giving puzzled looks, I knew we had to keep the song going all the way to the end.
It's become clear that hope for peace no longer resides in any one leader but only through more people's own exercise of creative nonviolence in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. As we see, the news on this first day of 2010 continues to be filled with Blackwater repercussions, military drone and terrorist bombings, and violent repressions of civilians throughout the Mideast, we must continue reminding our leaders in the US, Israel, Egypt and throughout the world that violence only begets violence, that war has not worked to reduce terrorism, that war is not peace and we cannot bomb the village to save it. The song of "Peace, Salaam, Shalom" must continue even if our voices get croaky from Minneapolis to Gaza and everywhere in between.
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