by Audrey Anderson
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Lewis and Meg Randa and their family, of the Peace Abbey Foundation, held a heartfelt ceremony to honor the 30th anniversary of the Pacifist Memorial on North Main Street. They presented two 2024 International Courage of Conscience Awards and dedicated several new bronze plaques at the memorial.
According to the Peace Abbey’s web site, www.peaceabbey.org, the Pacifist Memorial was “created as a community service project by the students and staff of The Life Experience School in 1994 as a result of the inspiration of President Kennedy’s quote regarding conscientious objection: ‘War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.’ '' The Pacifist Memorial was dedicated on October 2, 1994, the 125th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.
Tim and Jane McHale and their group, Music with Heart, opened the program by inviting the crowd to join in singing some familiar songs, including, among others, “I am Everyday People” and “We Are Free.”
Barry Levy, MD, was first to be recognized with a 2024 International Courage of Conscience Award. Focusing on public health in war time, Levy wrote three books “War and Public Health,” “Terrorism and Public Health,” and “From Horror to Hope: Recognizing and Preventing the Health Impacts of War” and focused his career on the health consequences of war and terrorism.
Next Tim and Jane McHale and Music with Heart received a 2024 International Courage of Conscience Award for their work in bringing music to homeless shelters, prisons, residential facilities, and other places where they are called to serve.
Bronze Plaques were dedicated next to the following deserving impactful figures and events.
Bayard Rustin’s plaque recognized him as “the principal organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.” He was a “prominent leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights.”
Fred Rogers, “television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister,” was commemorated for the devotion of his life to “educating young children to be kind, gentle and thoughtful peacemakers.”
Also dedicated was a plaque memorializing the Stonewalks organized by the Peace Abbey. Originally created to memorialize innocent civilians who perished in times of war, a heavy stone was pulled on a caisson throughout the northeast and to Washington, D.C by volunteers. Another Stonewalk was held in 2001 after the terrorist attacks. A memorial stone was shipped to Japan in 2005 to be a part of the 60th anniversary of the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in World War II. In 2020, another Stonewalk was organized to honor the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A fourth bronze plaque was dedicated to the sacrifices and courage of war correspondents, who distributed information about the true experience of war at great peril to themselves.
Featured speaker Charlie Sennott, founder of the GroundTruth Project (www.thegroundtruthproject.org), journalist, and author, then spoke about his work with publishing news from war zones and the great sacrifices of the correspondents, photographers, video producers, podcast writers, and others who publish what they see in person in the midst of war all over the globe.
