“ AS I WENT DOWN BY THE RIVER TO PRAY….”
FOLLOWING THE RIVER from SPRINGFIELD, MASS to VERMONT YANKEE, VERNON, VERMONT
2012 WALK FOR A NEW SPRING: REMEMBER FUKUSHIMA March 16 – March 22, 2012
The Connecticut River has been an historic route for many peoples over many centuries. And now it becomes the route of 2012 Walk For a New Spring: Remember Fukushima. We walk to Remember Fukushima, in the knowledge that nuclear energy is neither safe nor clean. Already the Connecticut River, the earth, and the people have suffered contamination from Vermont Yankee. The threat of any sort of accident at the aging nuclear reactor in Vernon, VT is all too real and the consequences would be unimaginably catastrophic.
On Friday, March 16th, 2012 Walk for New Spring: Remember Fukushima will meet up with Grafton Peace Pagoda Walk that has come up from New Jersey and New York. They will meet at AGAPE, in Hardwick, MA and then will journey to Springfield, walking as one body to gather in fellowship at Arise for Social Justice, Springfield.
The next morning on March 17th, please join us at The River Front Park (W Columbus Ave and Memorial Bridge) for the initial ceremony of a week-long series of ceremonies along the Connecticut River. After the Ceremony, we will walk to Chicopee for lunch, followed by a walk to Holyoke . There will be a second ceremony along the Connecticut River at the farm land of NUESTRAS RAICES (24 Jones Ferry Road, off Route 5 near lower Westfield Road. At this point, from Springfield, Mass to Yankee Nuclear Plant in Vernon, Vermont, the Walk will “FOLLOW THE RIVER,” journeying along the route of the Connecticut River through Western Massachusetts to Vermont.
And therefore, each day, the Walk will go “down by the riverside” to offer prayers to the spirit of the river – prayers for the healing of the waters, prayers for healing Mother Earth, prayers for the awakening of all of us for our human duty to shut down Vermont Yankee.
WE URGE EVERYONE,(AND PARTICULARLY WE URGE WESTERN MASS FOLKS), TO JOIN US – March 16th – March 21.
JOIN FOR AN EVENING GATHERING IN YOUR COMMUNITY
March 16th: Worcester to Springfield
March 17th: Springfield to Chicopee to Holyoke
March 18th: Holyoke to Northampton
March 19th: Northampton to Montague
March 20TH: Montague to Northfield
March 21st: Northfield to Vernon
JOIN FOR AN HOUR ! JOIN FOR A DAY! JOIN FOR THE FULL ROUTE ALONG THE RIVER!
Join us as we walk together in love and solidarity for a nuclear free future.
Join us so that together we can search and open the path to help us realize the possibility
of a more just, sustainable and compassionate world, built on respect for living beings and for the earth that sustains us.
Let’s become a ground-swell of concerned residents. Let our walking together speak for itself.
By gathering together and walking as a community , we become “the walking prayer:”
“(the) prayer for the suffering of the Japanese people and a plea to the people of New England
to recognize the grave dangers that nuclear energy poses to our lives, where we live, and all life on Mother Earth.”
The children of today and the children of the future call to us to take action. We answer their call by walking with Walk for a New Spring, following the River, and offering prayers for healing at the River’s edge .
details to join the walk or support the walk when it comes to your community,
contact: Tim Bullock:413-485-8469; email:walk4newspring@gmail.com
WFNSP sponsored by New England Peace Pagoda, co-sponsors: AFSC Northampton, Arise for Social Change, Sprngfld;
Nuclear Free Future; House of Peace, Ipswich, MA; MassPeaceAction.