Vets Begin 600-mile Walk for Peace
and Planet, Justice and Democracy
Gaza ceasefire in spotlight all the way
OGUNQUIT BEAC, Maine (May 7, 2024) — Reviving the historic tradition of walking for peace, Veterans For Peace (VFP) kicked off a 600-mile “Walk for Peace and Planet, Justice and Democracy” that began in Maine on May 7 and will arrive in Washington, DC, in early July.
The reasons for the walk are many as walk organizer Tarak Kauff explained:
“All of us on this planet are faced with frightening threats to life on Earth. Climate and environmental destruction, much of it caused by our military misadventures and the very real threat of nuclear war, prompted us to organize this walk.
“Since then, we’ve begun witnessing a genocide in real time in Gaza. We must focus on it and demand it end. Americans are spending hundreds of billions in genocide taxes that we need here at home for healthcare, education and environmental protection.”
Kauff, a former US Army paratrooper and a lifetime member of VFP, said he was actively searching for a way to spread the message of nonviolence and peace:
“Having engaged in many long-distance journeys on foot, it seemed like a peace walk would be an excellent way to reach everyday people.
“As the genocide in Gaza continues with children being killed and starved, it’s more important than ever to dramatically say that violence and war is not the way.”
Walk organizer Ellen Davidson — the editor of Peace and Planet News and a VFP director — spoke about root causes:
“We are walking to expose the undemocratic power of corporations like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics and the other Madmen Arsonists who are setting fires around the globe.
“They are reaping enormous profits from war and genocidedded. Corporations are not people and if we want a real functioning democracy, it can’t be run by big money corporations that actually determine policy.”
Davidson concluded that, “Ultimately, we are walking for people, peace and life on this beautiful planet we all cherish.”
Eric Wasileski is a veteran of eight years in the military and a lifetime member of VFP, a poet and a chaplain in the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He plans to walk the entire route and is organizing for it in Massachusetts. He keeps it profoundly simple, “Peace is an inherently spiritual topic. We are walking for the Soul of America.”
Volunteer organizers from the nine states along the route have been working for months, securing lodging, food and plenty of band-aids for blisters. Also in the planning are programs for the overnight stops featuring musicians, poets and speakers. One such program was held at the well-known House of Peace in Ipswich, Massachusetts on May 11th.
The Walk for Peace & Planet, Justice & Democracy is dedicated to the memory of Daniel Ellsberg, a national treasure. It is a project of VFP, which since 1985 has worked to expose the true costs of war and abolish war as an instrument of national policy. VFP has more than 100 chapters around the country.
