Reclaiming the Ground of Peace

February 19 – March 20

Leverett – Boston

 A 4-week walk to find ways

to root and nourish

the power of peace and equity, locally, nationally and globally.

See Walk Photos

Day-1: Feb 21

MAYORS FOR PEACE:

A BRIEF HISTORY

For over twenty years the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have called out to their colleagues worldwide to join hands in the name of their local constituencies to become a great force for the absolute abolition of nuclear weapons from this beautiful earth. Mayors Akiba and Itoh represent the Hibakusha, human beings who know nuclear hell in their spirit and their body. Today this same inferno or worse could be visited upon human beings for any reason. Mayors Akiba and Itoh know that the only way to make certain that no population ever be a nuclear target again, is to unite our efforts to make certain that all nuclear weapons be abolished forever.  

Over one thousand mayors globally, and a growing number of Massachusetts Mayors are committing their cities to be Peace Cities. The House and Senate of the Massachusetts legislature passed historic resolutions in 2005 calling for a nuclear abolition and support for the Mayors For Peace movement. In 2004, the U.S.  Conference of Mayors passed a resolution in support of The Mayors for Peace.

"Our goal is to bring forth a beautiful flower, namely the total elimination of all nuclear weapons from the face of the earth by the year 2020. Only then we will have truly

resurrected hope for life on this planet."

Mayor  T. Akiba,  Mayor of Hiroshima

NA MU MYO HO REN GE KYO

“Weapons that can destroy everything have already been made. That is why we must seek a power that surpasses violence. This is called non-violence and it is what humanity is searching for. “

Most Ven.Nichidatsu Fujii

Founder and Preceptor,

Nipponzan Myohoji,

Buddhist Order.

Since 2002, after the banner of “The War On Terror” was officially raised, we have walked yearly with many hundreds of friends across Massachusetts to reflect, pray, and share food together community by community, renouncing fear and seeking ways to establish the beneficent power of peace and to uphold and be held by the stabilizing force of equity and justice.

We respectfully ask your kind assistance in organizing community gatherings and warmly invite you to join walking with us for a mile, a day, or the duration.

SUPPORT FOR HR. 4232

TO END THE U.S. WAR IN  IRAQ

This year we redouble our efforts, begun last year, to reach out to cities and towns inviting Mayors and municipal governments to join the inspiring organizing Mayors for Peace, (see final panel.) Over one thousand Mayors around the world have joined the invitation of the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to become a force directly linked to grass roots populations calling for the complete abolition of all nuclear weapons by the year 2020. Although nuclear weapons may not seem to be an immediate concern, we believe their power to annihilate all of humanity is, as the late theologian Rev. Richard McSorley declared, “the  taproot” of the consuming violence of our contemporary world. To remove the ultimate weapon from everyone’s hands is to start loosening the  great coil of fear and violence and degradation of humanity which dominates our thinking and policies today.

Daily Walk Schedule*

February

Sunday, 2/19:        Peace Pagoda to Leverett Church

Monday, 2/20:      North Adams to Pittsfield

Tuesday, 2/21:       Pittsfield /Lee/Great Barington

Wednesday 2/ 22: Huntington to Westfield

Thursday, 2/23:      Agawam /Springfield/W.S’field

Friday, 2/24:             Chicopee/ Holyoke/Easthampton

Sunday,  2/26:           Walk to Vernon Nuclear Plant

Monday, 2/27:           Greenfield to Orange

Tuesday, 2/28:            Athol/Royalston to Winchendon

March

Wednesday, 3/1:         Rest Day

Thursday, 3/ 2:           Winchendon to Fitchburg

Friday, 3/3:               Fitchburg to Littleton

Saturdary3/4:            Littleton to Concord

Sunday, 3/5:              Newburyport to Amesbury

Monday, 3/6:             Amesbury/Haverhill/ Lawrence

Tuesday, 3/7:              Lawrence to No. Andover

Wednesday, 3/8:         No. Andover to Ipswich

Thursday, 3/9:            Ipswich/Essex/Gloucester

Friday,  3/ 10:           Gloucester/Beverly/Salem

Saturday, 3/11:          Rest Day

Sunday, 3/12:            Mashpee to Falmouth*

Monday, 3/13:           Barnstable/Brewster*

Tuesday, 3/14:            Plymouth/Duxbury/Scituate*

Wednesday, 3/15:        Scituate/Hingham/Weymouth*

Thursday, 3/16:          Weymouth to Boston*

Friday, 3/17:             Walk with Communities in

       Boston  affected by recent violence.

Saturday, 3/18:          Peace Rally in Boston

                                Anniversary of Gulf War II

Sunday, 3-19:            Stop the construction of Bio Terror Lab, Boston

Monday, 3-20:           Finale Walk from Cambridge to the State House

                                and to Government  Center Boston

Myohoji Temple Construction in new window

www.shishido.com