Peace March # 2

Bundled up to combat the cold of Northern Wisconsin in Winter, these folks are marching for Peace.


It’s Tuesday. The second Tuesday Peace March took place today at 4:00 PM on the sidewalk in front of the Ashland, WI Post Office and City Hall Building on Main Street. We had ten marchers show up this week. That’s an increase from seven last week, which was the inaugural weekly march for peace.

The weather was a bit colder. Thirteen degrees farenheight with a stiff thirteen mile per hour breeze which came right off the Great Lake Superior. We were bundled up good today. Wool socks, mittens, scarves, goose down parkas. Ashland received about three inches of fresh snow last night. That had been cleared off the sidewalks so the footing was good. It was very sunny again this week. With the new snow and the bright sun, low in the winter sky, it was bright and felt warm when you stood with your back to the west and you blocked the wind with your hand held sign.

Of the seven people we had last week, four of them returned. The other six people then, were newbies. They brought their own anti war signs. I felt it was a good turnout seeing as it was very cold with that minus six degree wind chill.

We had more honks and waves of approval than we did fingers and downward cast thumbs. We did have two separate instances of people who were verbal and made comments to a peace marcher that was against our efforts. One older man, a Korean Veteran, was called a “pussy” by a man who passed him as he carried his “support the troops, bring them home” hand held sign.

Another man told us as a group that to stop war, we needed to stop abortion. One marcher confronted him and tried to start a dialogue with the man. He said something to the effect that the marcher wasn’t even a Veteran. I was wearing what I call my ceremonial baseball hat, the one with all the pins, and said, “I’m a Veteran.”

He came over towards me and asked me if I was pro life. I answered him that I didn’t want any more killing of anyone in the Iraq war. His argument was that if we don’t stop at the beginning, which he explained as meaning stop abortion, then it was no use to try and stop war.

I didn’t want to argue other issues. I just said that I wanted the killing and destruction of war to cease. He waved his hand at me with a gesture of, “get out of here.” I kept walking with my sign which had pictures of flag draped coffins coming home from Iraq.

We lasted an hour, then retreated to the Black Cat Coffeehouse, a half block away, to warm up with some hot coffee. An interested community member who did not join the march bought a cup of coffee for seven of the protesters.

All in all, it was a good event. Some of the people who said that they would come didn’t, and some people who just heard about it showed up and marched. As last week, Shutterwi, our own local photographer, took a few pictures and saved our efforts for prosperity.

As we talked in the Black Cat, we all spoke to our choir and decided that was okay as long as you got the others to “sing”. Does anyone reading this have a similar weekly event in their town? Please tell us about it. Now, enjoy the pictures.

Huddled more this week than last,the temperature had droped to a cold windy 13 degrees F.



The scene at Peace March # 2, January 30, 2007, Ashland, Wisconsin.