Understanding Peace/Comprendiendo la paz resonates in community (10-04-07)
Row upon row of white markers covered the front lawn of Richardson Hall during the fourth annual Autumn@Adams academic and community celebration. It was a sight not many will forget, this memorial to US military, who have lost their lives in the recent Iraq War, entitled, Remembering Lives Lost-Bringing It Home.
"I saw a man ride up on a motorcycle," Gene Schilling, professor of art, said. "He looked until he found a cross among the thousands across the grass, saluted, and left." For six days people across campus and throughout the community wandered through, reading the names. Some came to find a specific cross, others were drawn to investigate from their own personal reasons.
Among the many volunteers who helped place the memorial's nearly 4,000 crosses was Patti Ortiz, Adams State computer operator and 1978 graduate of Adams State, who was joined by her husband, Art, and son, Patrick, an Adams State freshman.
"Each cross represented a person, and as I placed the cross in the ground, I took a minute to look at the photo on the cross and say (announce) his or her name, and where they were from, which was interesting to me," Ortiz said. "When the last cross was placed we stood back in awe. My son, Patrick commented to me, 'Mom, each of those crosses represents a person,' and he wished that the lawn would be covered with people rather than crosses. We left that day with a sad feeling in our hearts."
Also volunteering were students from the Associated Students and Faculty. Sophomore Donnell Jackson said: "It felt surreal because I had someone come over and find a friend's marker."
For over six hours, 30 faculty, staff, family, and community placed crosses in the still-green grass. According to Chris Meyers, of This Republic Can, the crosses are not meant as a religious symbol, but rather as a symbol of death. Each cross has a photo, the name and rank of the deceased, their age, their hometown, and the cause of death. Tied to tree branches around Remembering Lives Lost were information sheets which listed the numbers of dead from other countries, including Iraq.
Meyers was present to help set-up the crosses. He said: "I was thrilled with the number, and diversity, of volunteers who turned out to help display this memorial."
At noon on Sept. 11, the Alamosa American Legion veterans presented the colors and played taps to recognize their fellow soldiers.
Shirley Atencio, Catholic campus minister, had the idea of the memorial coming to campus. She said: "I was moved by the display and by the fact sheets enumerating the many, many more Iraqis who have died. It was a powerful visual statement of the real, tragic cost to us all when we fail as humans to use our creativity humanely."
"For the next few days, Adams State College hopes people will ask, listen, observe, read, and think about peace," said Adams State President Dr. David Svaldi as he opened this year's first Autumn@Adams event.
This year's theme, Understanding Peace/Comprendiendo la paz, was explored through a variety of media. Public school children folded cranes; poetry connected a diversity of people; films delivered messages of hope and conflict; lectures addressed global, national, and local issues. Food was shared; art was created. Peace was contemplated.
Volunteers from throughout the community made some very labor intensive events successful. More than 1000 origami cranes surrounded the Japanese American Memorial Garden, and nearly 4000 markers covered the front lawn of Richardson Hall. Nearly three-quarters of the cranes were produced by Alamosa public school art students with help from their teachers, all Adams State alumni: Sue Patterson, Boyd Elementary; Jill Wasinger, Evans Elementary; Butch Jones, Ortega Middle School; and John Dodds, Alamosa High School. Two different Adams State student organizations, First-Year Interest Groups and El Parnaso, provided another 200 cranes, and students passing demonstration tables took a few minutes to add to the supply.
Brian Turner, Anna Baltzer, and Daryl Davis appeared on campus to share their personal messages of understanding peace. Award-winning poet Turner, who served in the Iraq War, read from his collection in the book, Here, Bullet.
Before each poem, his heart-wrenching stories of how the poem was inspired moved many audience members to tears. The majority of poems in the book were written while he was "in country," during his tour in Iraq.
He said he was in a store a week or two before coming to Alamosa and a bucket of nails fell on the floor, and the sound reminded him of "riflemen fire." He said he shares his messages in an effort to remind people there is a war going on.
How does a black man infiltrate the Klu Klux Klan? That question lead to a full-house in Carson Auditorium to hear Davis show video, talk, and play music about his experiences.
He said the first time he experienced prejudice was as a young cub scout, the son of a Foreign Service office, he spent most of his youth overseas in schools populated by children of other foreign countries. As the only black child marching with scouts in a parade in a suburb of Boston, he was pelted with rocks, broken glass, and other roadside debris.
"I didn't believe my parents when they told me why this happened," Davis said. "It was unimaginable to me that someone, without knowing me, could dislike me simply because of the color of my skin."
His approach was open and humorous, as he told about developing personal relationships with KKK members and how friendship and trust break down prejudice one or two people at a time. A Grammy Award winning musician, Davis delighted the audience by ending his presentation with some boogie-woogie piano playing.
Baltzer presented photographs and stories from her work documenting human rights abuses and supporting nonviolent resistance in the West Bank with the International Women's Peace Service. Her optimism and warmth charmed the audience and invited discussion as she signed copies of her book, Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories, after the lecture.
During Truth and Pluralism, an interfaith roundtable, guests included experienced practioners from a variety of world religions. They spoke about their beliefs and entertained audience questions and comments.
Quieter events were also held during Autumn@Adams. A meditational labyrinth was available on the first floor of Nielsen Library. Atencio helped plan and coordinate the labyrinth. She said: "The labyrinth is an ancient meditational practice to quiet the mind and reflect the inner journey."
"Understanding Peace/Comprendiendo la paz was a theme that could have been approached any number of ways, because the idea of peace itself it elusive," Atencio said. "Any 'understandings' came whenever hearts met and people shared and listened to one another."
The half-hour Peace Vigil held at the Japanese American Memorial Garden included music, poetry and an opportunity for participants to light a candle in memory of a loved one. Community members Jan Oen and Bessie Konishi helped to plan the event. Oen gathered community members to read short messages of peace from the book, One World, One Heart.
Konishi spent hours demonstrating the art of paper folding to the public school children and college students. At the vigil, she told the story of how the paper crane has become an international symbol of peace.
"A young Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki was born in 1943. She was two years old when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. When she was 11, she was diagnosed with Leukemia, "the atom bomb" disease. Sadako's best friend told her of an old Japanese legend which said that anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes would be granted a wish. Sadako did not get 1000 cranes folded before her death. Her friends finished the cranes and began the project to build a monument to Sadako."
After the vigil, the cranes were sent to Sadako's monument at the Hiroshima Peace Park, as a gift from Alamosa.
The campus dining service planned a special menu for the night of Sept. 11, the same evening as the peace vigil. Chef Charles Maloney prepared food from around the country including Germany, India, Mexico, and Italy.
Associate Professor of English Aaron Abeyta coordinated the efforts that brought Turner to campus and was the master of ceremony for the third SLAMOSA Poetry Slam in the Loft.
"Imagining: a student and community art project," designed by Audrey Liu, Habitat for Humanity, stirred the creative energy of students and others as they were invited to paint a crane drawn on a large canvas by Liu.
Understanding Peace Comprendiendo la paz finished on a fun note with music, food, and funny-money gambling for the second annual Town and Gown. The theme, Peace in the Psychedelic 60s, celebrated the relationship between Adams State College and the Alamosa Community and was co-sponsored by Alamosa Uptown River Association (AURA). Tawney Becker and Rob Oringdulph, a 1971 graduate of Adams State, represented AURA and dealt Black Jack to eager gamblers.
Films shown during the week included the Iron Wall, a documentary about the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza; Romero, a movie depicting the life of Archbishop Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador, and When the Mountains Tremble, a documentary about the civil war in Guatemala.
Jackson participated in a few of the events, including Remembering Lives Lost. "I have always wanted peace and now I want it more then ever."
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By Linda Relyea
