Sunday, March 25, 2007
Give peace a chance
Prescott Peace Day Festival lives up to its name
By MARK LEWIS
The Daily Courier
Sunday, March 25, 2007
The Daily Courier/Jo. L. Keener Laurel Freeman works on a
peace banner, center, as a peace flag flies in the front of the court house
plaza during the Prescott Peace Day Festival.
PRESCOTT Peace signs, bare feet and smiling faces.
Anyone who spent time at the courthouse plaza Saturday afternoon likely saw at least one of these, if not all three.
The Prescott Peace Day Festival attracted modest crowds under cloudy skies throughout the day. A handful of people who looked to be of retirement age attended, but it was mostly a gathering of the young and middle-aged.
Helga Kent, a nurse who moved to Prescott in December, was among them. Dressed conservatively
in a down jacket and jeans, she listened quietly as Navajo flutemaker Michael Goodluck opened the day with a song.
"I feel like this is my small contribution," she said. "I've matured and I'm concerned about our planet and this country. It's very troubling."
The Ala Peanut Butter Peace Coalition, a group of area activists, organized the event, which coincided with the four-year anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The actual anniversary date is March 20.
The group had intended to have the event on Saturday, March 17, but postponed it for a week because of St. Patrick's Day.
"We didn't even want to think about the effects of alcohol on people who don't agree with us," said Angie Ruth, one of the festival's organizers.
With the financial backing of several area peace activists, Ruth flew to Washington, D.C., in late January to march on the capitol with thousands of like-minded individuals.
Her experience there with backpack and bedroll was the impetus for Saturday's festival.
"The place was packed," she said of her Washington experience. "They were so full of energy that it gave me energy.
"We really need to be more active all over the place, and we've got to do it in a fun, peaceful way. We don't need any aggressive shouting."
Only a handful of people appeared to be out of step with the festival's objectives. One of them, Dale Nickel, 62, of Phoenix, spent his early childhood in Prescott and came up for a day trip.
"I didn't realize it was a peace rally," he said. "My first impression was, 'Did I just step back into the 60s?'
"There's a certain look and attitude with people that are involved in peace demonstrations," he added. "I'm sure they're nice people. We just share political beliefs and that's what it's all about."
The day unfolded as its organizers intended, with different musicians, poets and lecturers taking turns on a small tent-covered stage while everyone else amused themselves however they wished.
Under a courthouse plaza tree, Namti School of Massage was giving free massages while a few dozen yards away a group of college-age kids taught bicycle maintenance.
On the plaza's northern walkway, the sidewalk section with the Yavapai County timeline, close to a dozen different groups had set up booths with literature and petitions for various environmental and social initiatives.
They included the Prescott Greenways Project, the Yavapai County Democratic Party, Save the Verde and the Yavapai County Green Party, which is trying to build a membership base in time for the 2008 presidential election.
Contact the reporter at malewis@prescottaz.com
http://prescottdailycourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=43390
