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News from the Keweenaw Peninsula December 21, 2001 Text and photos © 2001 Michele Anderson

Copper Country Peace Alliance to hold third Walking Vigil

HOUGHTON -- The Copper Country Peace Alliance will sponsor a third Walking Vigil for Peace and Nonviolence on Saturday, Dec. 22. Anyone wishing to join the walk is asked to meet at 11:30 a.m. at the Motherlode café in Houghton 

Copper Country Peace Alliance members and community participants -- about 36 people in all -- walk through downtown Houghton during their second Vigil for Peace and Nonviolence on Dec. 15. The group will hold a third vigil this Saturday, Dec. 22, beginning at 11:30 a.m. in the Motherlode café in Houghton.

During the second walk, on Dec. 15, about 36 participants walked from Houghton, across the Portage Lift Bridge, to Hancock and back, carrying signs asking for peace in the world -- to express their view that violence, such as military intervention in Afghanistan, can only beget violence. The second vigil attracted double the number participants in the group's first vigil on Dec. 8.* This Saturday, the group will determine their walking route when they meet in the Motherlode.

Among the participants in last week's vigil was Karla Kingsley of Hancock, who was home for the holidays from her first year at Dartmouth College. Kingsley, an outstanding 2000 graduate of Hancock High School, spent a year in Guanajuato, Mexico, studying Spanish before going to Dartmouth. She said Dartmouth students have expressed views on both sides of the issue of the aftermath of September 11 and the United States bombing of Afghanistan.

Karla Kingsley, right, of Hancock, joins her mother, Sue Ellen Kingsley, for the Dec. 15 Peace Vigil in front of the Motherlode café in Houghton. Karla is home for the holidays from Dartmouth College.

"At Dartmouth there's a lot coming from both sides -- people very far right and very far left. There have been a lot of peace marches and counter peace marches," Kingsley noted. "On campus there's a lot of debate. What I noticed is that the university environment is conducive to allowing both sides to express their views."

Kingsley joined her mother, Sue Ellen Kingsley of Hancock, in the vigil. Sue Ellen Kingsley, a former accompanier for the Copper Country Guatemala Accompaniment Project, recently hosted, with her husband Terry Kinzel, a family visiting from Fronterizo 10 de Mayo, a village of former refugees from the 1980s massacres of indigenous people in Guatemala.**

"I believe that peace is really important," Karla Kingsley said. "We need to look at the roots of the problem -- not only our foreign policy but how countries are interacting."

Joanne Thomas of Allouez said she joined the Dec. 15 Vigil because of an announcement she heard at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Houghton, where she has found people who share her concerns.

Joanne Thomas of Allouez pauses in front of the Hancock welcome sign during the Dec. 15 Peace Vigil. Until recently a seasonal Keweenaw resident, Thomas said finding people who share her spiritual concerns about peace, especially through the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, has made her want to remain in the area as a year-round resident.

"My concern now is the potential escalation of the war in the Middle East," Thomas said. "That's very unsettling."

She noted the U. S. pulling out of the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty with Russia could lead to a war that might spread to other parts of the Middle East.

"I'm concerned it could be another Vietnam," Thomas added. "The only way we can achieve world peace is through respect and diversity in various spiritual paths in the world."

Families joined the Dec. 15 Peace Vigil walking from Houghton to Hancock and back. Pictured here in downtown Hancock are Lisa Peterson-Havens, second from left, of Hancock, with her sons Max, far left, and Sage, carried by Barbara Hardy of Hancock. Behind them are Hancock residents Sue and Ed Stephens.

Sue and Ed Stephens of Hancock were also among last week's Vigil participants. Ed Stephens said they joined the Vigil "to support a more rational, softer response to the terror."

Some bystanders were willing to comment on their reactions to the Peace Vigil.

"They're entitled to do it," said one gentleman, who preferred to remain anonymous. He was Christmas shopping with his wife in downtown Hancock as the marchers passed.

Inside Northwoods Trading Post, Carol Anderson of Hancock, a sales clerk in the store, said she was not in favor of the Vigil.

"I'm not for it," Anderson said. "I think the Taliban -- mainly Osama -- should pay for their crimes."

Christmas shopper Linda Aslani of Hancock, while she did not wish to express her own political views, said she had no objections to the Vigil.

"I'm all for people to express their opinions by marching," Aslani said.

Julie Michaelson of Houghton, carrying the  Earth flag, joins Vern Simula of Toivola, carrying the U.S. flag, followed by Hancock resident Merle Kindred and Norman Kurz of Calumet, during the Dec. 15 Peace Vigil in Houghton.

Jim Christner of Coburntown, owner of Jim's Pawn and Antiques in Hancock, expressed a similar view.

"Everybody has their own ideas about what's going on. I keep my ideas to myself," Christner said. "Absolutely, they have the right to express their opinion."

Christner said he did military service himself years ago.

"Fortunately there was no war (then)," he said.

* See Keweenaw Now's Photo Essay on the Dec. 8 Vigil for Peace and Nonviolence.

** Read about the Guatemala family's visit to the Copper Country.

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