Posted: 2/7/07
Peace on the Street
Maggie Rowlands | contributing columnist
mrowlands@smcvt.edu
Lots of smiling, as a close friend of mine has just led me through a meditation that incorporates mindfulness of my breathing, a peace in the here and now, in my heart and in my soul. I feel that now only will I be able to give you my full self in this article. I hope to be able to convey to you dear friend, matters of importance to me. I hope that there is a mutual appreciation, both reader and writer.
I send to you my salutation on my first voyage across the fine publication that your eyes peruse now. I hope that the conveyance of the written word may only touch lives for the better. I do not write to you dear reader out of condescension or egotism, but with a zeal and fervent prose that I wish to strike a common thread of your emotion, your mind set. Let us bring to the forefront our altruism, compassion and kindness, because in the end, good prevails, optimism continues, beauty is recognized.
I suppose that I must render to recent experiences in which I may share with you a what seems to be true acts of selflessness by some pretty special students on this campus.
These crispy frostbitten Thursday nights may be used for work in the library, conversations in rooms contained by brick dormitories, maybe a class by dark, a meal in a dining hall. For the Peace and Justice Club and Anti-up faction of this club these nights are for a movement. They are for spreading the awareness of the intangible, and an ideal of Peace at the top of Church Street in downtown Burlington. Many spirits have come to participate and, through a very realistic process, to attain peace, each individual has come back a little wiser, a little more heart-felt, and with a tight bond with some of the most virtuous human beings on St. Michael's College campus.
At 4:30 p.m. every Thursday, the Peace and Justice Club has attempted to create a younger representation of the population in America that has come to the consensus that, indeed, war is not the answer. The Peace and Justice Club gathers in the Partially basement welcoming advocates for peace, especially peace in Iraq. Some faces are old some are new, however their convictions are ageless. A dear friend of mine has taken a role as a leader in the club as I find myself busy with advisory meetings, courses, and the every changing nature of my own existence. This young man, in his most sincere characteristics, offers the services of his heart and his truck. His dark visage and good presence has given me a strength and a confidence in a belief of justice for all, love, faith, happiness and the most beautiful respect for lives, and those lost to gunshots, and bombs.
Look at the pictures folks. Look at the faces drenched in blood. Look at the civilians crying for lives lost. Look at our ignorance and self-indulgance. Where are folks? Are those standing on the street corner for Peace just anachronisms that belong in the sixties? No ladies and gentlemen, they are needed for all generations. There are artists and poets that stand with us. There are talented song writers. There was a patience and kind hearted couple. There was an intelligent young woman. There was a blessed cyclist. We all stand together for one common purpose. We are interconnected, we are forces stronger than shells and shots.
We stand with Burlington's finest, nuns, writers, an older crowd. We bring a youthful vivacity, vibrence, and true essence of the word Peace.
