Walk of the People – A Pilgrimage for Life

A Walk of the People – A Pilgrimage for Life was a walking personal and political action organized by peace activists Dale James Outhouse and Pamela Blockey O'Brien to bring attention to the perils of impending nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The walk started on March 1, 1984, in Point Conception, California, and traversed 7,000 miles, ending in Hungary in late 1985 after the former East Germany and other countries denied the group visas. ^[1] Some members went by train to Moscow, Russia, and Warsaw, Poland.

Background

In 1984, the global nuclear arms race proceeded at a furious pace. Some United States leaders talked of a winnable nuclear war against the Soviet Union. U.S. President Ronald Reagan and USSR Premier Konstantin Chernenko had not as much as met in the previous four years. More nuclear weapons had been installed in Europe on both sides of the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain, pointing at each other.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set its traditional "Doomsday Clock," which has marked the danger of nuclear war since 1947, to three minutes before midnight in 1984. That was the closest the clock had been to midnight in three decades, with it being at 12 minutes in 1972, when the U.S. and former Soviet Union signed SALT I.^[2]

Since political leaders were not even talking, the crucial times demanded extraordinary action from citizens. One method of trying to break through this wall of East-West division was this project, called A Walk of the People – A Pilgrimage for Life. The effort was organized primarily by peace activist Dale James Outhouse and Pamela Blockey O'Brien, a long-time organizer of peace, human rights, and social justice projects and member of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Summary of walk events, impact

On March 1, 1984, a handful of people started walking from Point Conception. The participants continued through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, then the Deep South, picking up a few people along the way. Some walked for a few hours, others for a few days or weeks, and a smaller number for several months. By the time the project reached Washington, D.C. in November 1984, the number of core walkers was up to seven, with several other full-timers joining by the time they entered New York City. ^[3][4]

Along the way, participants met hundreds of people, government officials, and religious leaders, including representatives of President Reagan at the White House and governors. They also met with representatives of the Soviet, Polish, and East German embassies in Washington, D.C., to lobby them for visas to walk. They collected letters, poems, drawings, and other messages of peace from people to distribute to people beyond the Berlin Wall.

Members flew to Dublin, Ireland, in January 1985 and walked through Great Britain, France, Belgium, and the former West Germany, meeting political and religious leaders and everyday folks. Several hundred people walked them into Aachen, Germany, in a welcome organized by local Green Party members. They were denied entrance into East Germany in June 1985 and settled in an old mill house in a border town to figure out a plan. A few weeks later, they walked to Vienna, Austria, then took a train to Budapest and some other cities in Hungary as part of a tour organized by the government Hungarian Peace Committee. They were turned down again for visas to fly to Moscow. Eventually, several members took a train to Moscow from Geneva, Switzerland, following the November 1985 Geneva Summit between Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. They met with members of the Soviet Peace Committee and others, and distributed letters and drawings.

The impact of the project ranged from people in Europe who wrote to O'Brien and others that it gave them hope to see that all Americans were not like the U.S. administration, to organizers of subsequent walks and projects who said it made those efforts easier to implement in Russia. Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo alone wrote three times on the walk’s behalf, and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter wrote twice. ^[5]

The project raised much awareness through the media. The walk was covered by hundreds of newspapers, radio stations, and television stations in the U.S. and Europe, from CNN and The Associated Press, to national television in France, Germany, and other countries. ^[6][7]

Aftermath

Some participants continued to participate in similar breaking-down-the-walls projects, including the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament and an international peace walk organized by world-wide walker Prem Kumar in India in 1987-1988. ^[8]

As the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union dissolved, the "Doomsday Clock" rose to 17 minutes by 1991. But it has since gone down to two minutes, as of 2018.

One participant, journalist Kevin James Shay, wrote a book about the inside story of the project called Walking through the Wall. The book won a 2002 International PeaceWriting Award, sponsored by the Omni Center for Peace, Justice, & Ecology of Fayetteville, Arkansas, and the Peace and Justice Studies Association of Georgetown University.^[9]

References

Further reading

• "Walkabout Peace and Justice Magazine, Barbara Hirshkowitz, editor, 1981-92". Retrieved 14 September 2018.
• "Friends of Peace Pilgrim Newsletter, 1987-present". Retrieved 14 September 2018.
• "International Fellowship of Reconciliation News, 2015-present". Retrieved 14 September 2018.
• Kevin James Shay (2012). Walking through the Wall. Lulu Press. ISBN 978-1-105-60881-0. Retrieved 14 September 2018.