#16 / 2003 Peace Tour Concludes: Summer Hiatus

SUMMER HIATUS

#16

So, theoretically we are a nation at peace, now, but Americans are still dying and will continue to die for some time to come. So, I guess it is appropriate to back off on some of the antiwar rhetoric, but I will continue to share the information I come across in my diverse readings.

I feel the same as Alice Walker, author of “The Color Purple,” who responded to a question regarding her recent arrest in Washington for protesting the war in front of the White House. She spent a night in jail and said she felt ecstatic, actually, during her short incarceration.

“I know that I have done all I could humanly do to fight against war without stooping to war tactics myself,” she said on a cable show. And that is how I feel, too. I gave it my all. We travelled over 5,000 miles in four months, from Dallas to Toronto and back again. 

Who cared, practically no one. But I cared and I have great pride in what one friend called my “Pollyanna” effort. But my tour and reports are much more than my stance on the war, this is a year-long accounting of my grief process following my mother’ death in September, as well as a documentation of my own struggle for inner peace.

I’m happiest on the road, this I know. Currently we are on a summer hiatus, getting new tires, brakes, and hopefully a portable generator for our big quest to the Nevada desert. But I live for those moments on the road, when everyday is different, every road is new. Nothing makes me happier than to get out the atlas and start plotting my next course.