By Gala M. Pierce
Daily Herald Staff Writer
June 28, 2006
Some drivers honked, others slowed and some sped by the small parade of protesters who walked steadily from Elburn to Batavia Tuesday, carrying signs such as “Peace is patriotic” and “Who would Jesus bomb?”
The nine men and women, who met up with a group of 30 in Batavia, took part in a 30-day 350-mile peace march called Walk for Justice, which started in Springfield June 7 and will end July 5 in North Chicago.
Their main mission is to end the war and the U.S. occupation in Iraq, said Mary Shesgreen of Elgin of the Fox Valley Citizens for Peace.
The activists also spoke for a just resolution in the Israeli-Palestine conflict, for the United States to refrain from military action or punitive economic sanctions against Iran, and to cease the use of torture.
Dan Pearson of Chicago, a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, also advocated for rehabilitation instead of incarceration for youth.
Nobel Prize nominee Kathy Kelly of Chicago said she has seen firsthand how the violence is affecting the Iraqi people as she returned from Iraq for the 26th time three weeks ago.
“When you are with children who are quivering under these bombs, you realize the terrible, terrible terror inflicted upon the Iraqi people,” she said Tuesday afternoon.
She and Timothy Keough of Memphis, Tenn., both of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, protested at Sen. Dick Durbin’s Springfield office. They had implored Durbin to investigate the situation in Ramadi, Iraq, whose citizens are under siege, Keough said.
The group gathered at House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s office in downtown Batavia. Letters from pastors in the DeKalb and Sycamore area who were against the war were submitted to Hastert’s representatives through a Batavia police officer.
Rosemarie Slavenas of DeKalb, a Gold Star mother, gave a pair of soldier’s boots. It symbolized the loss of her son, Brian, of the Illinois National Guard, who was killed in Iraq in 2003.
Hastert spokesman Brad Hahn said in the past two weeks, both the House of Representatives and the Senate voted against setting a timeline for troop withdrawal.
“Hastert has witnessed democracy in Iraq firsthand and knows the devastating consequence of abandoning the Iraqi government,” said Hahn, who confirmed Hastert was in Washington Tuesday. “We all want our troops to come home as soon as possible, but they must be allowed to complete the job first.”
Today, the walkers will have a vigil and send-off from Hastert’s office from 8 to 9 a.m., and head toward West Chicago Public Library’s lawn at 118 W. Washington St. to end up at Wheaton College.
Other participating groups include Pax Christi, Greater Aurora Peace and Justice and the DeKalb Interfaith Network for Peace and Justice.
Jean Pierce of Geneva, who joined the protesters for the day, thought it was important that they make their presence in such a conservative area.
“I just want people to be thinking about peace and negotiations rather than war,” she said.
