Peace Talk — Autumn 2006
The Quarterly Newsletter of Peace Action Maine
Last year, Waterville Area Bridges for Peace & Justice, was excluded from the Winslow 4th of July Parade, the state’s biggest Independence Day Parade. This year our peace float won second prize out of 90 floats and we transformed our relationship to last year’s opponents from adversaries to partners. This is the story of how we did “peace work” grounded in local peace making.
After last year’s upsets, controversies, accusations, public letter writing for months and bitter feelings, I was tempted to take this year’s parade on as a challenge. The challenge was to find a way to connect to the organizers of the parade and find ways to work with them. Frankly, I did not do anything for a couple of months—except to visit the Martin Luther King Historic Site in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s a truly inspiring place and sacred ground. One thing that stood out about MLK was his commitment to a cause rather than to fighting against those who opposed his ideas. Gandhi was asked by one of his opponents how he planned to achieve his goals. His simple reply: “With your help.”
About six weeks before the parade, the local newspaper called me, saying they wanted to run a story about what we were doing this year. Gee, I was not going to have the media take leadership and “divide and conquer.” So, I called the Winslow parade organizer. The first surprise was to hear that they appreciated hearing from “Bridges for Peace” personally. We agreed that we did not want a repeat of last year. We decided to meet and work out a formula for this year’s success. When we stepped out onto the thin ice, we handled each other like very raw eggs (without shells). The meeting between our two groups was a big success (I had not been as nervous since my high school finals). We both said what needed to be said about last year, we acknowledged what both our groups were doing by volunteering in our communities, we expressed respect and listened. There were no animosities. Our group understood that we would not be censored, but that it was in our power to find the golden way between creating another controversy that polarized and upset everyone and creating something where all sides would feel like winners.
Our proposal for a birthday cake for America with messages of “Peace is Patriotic” and “Support our Troops—Bring Them Home Now,” peace doves and “War is Not the Answer” signs was met with relief and sympathy. We stayed in communication, especially when citizens/veterans who could not understand what was going on “behind the scenes” publicly called for a boycott of the parade. We were partners committed to the success of both the parade and the participation of the peace group. By the time the parade was a week away, our relationship had grown to the point that the parade organizers, some of whom had wanted our groups excluded for the next five years, defended our participation against any criticism from outside and prepared the ground by saying that, based on our proposal we might have one of the best floats. I myself realized how much energy I got from focusing on our common values and commitments and how my respect grew for the people who work tirelessly to put on one of the state’s biggest community events every year.
Independence Day came and we had a 35-person contingent. The float was well received. There was a sense of healing and accomplishment. Indeed, there were very few disgruntled people (of course the media spotlighted the one heckler out of 40 000 people who saw our float). Most of all, both sides were elated, were partners, having overcome our differences and worked together. So much more gets accomplished that way.
What’s next? I initiated a new group made up of liberals and conservatives. Our purpose is to create a non-political, inclusive (targeting mainstream), positive (focusing on FOR peace, rather than a reaction to violence and war) community movement—maybe a weekly peace walk. It’s a huge challenge to share the issue of peace with conservatives, but I am also convinced now that it is the only way to move forward on the issues that are important. It opens doors to connecting with the part of my community that I have always avoided. The lesson learned through the parade is that there is a huge common ground or overlap with our “adversaries.” We tend to ignore this common ground and focus on our differences almost entirely. No wonder nothing gets done. Let me conclude with what one conservative woman pointed out at our last meeting: “Peace begins with me.”