Attending New England Peace Pagoda 40th Anniversary Ceremony

Speaking about our work and Keep Space for Peace Week

Over 200 people from many places attended this moving day of celebration of peace with true justice

On Saturday morning MB and I drove south to Ipswich, Massachusetts where the House of Peace, run for many years by dear friends Carrie and John Schuchardt, is located.  

After lunch John and I made our way through very busy traffic to the Boston airport to pick up renowned peace activist Kathy Kelly who flew in from Chicago to join us for our Sunday trip to Leverett to attend the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the First Peace Pagoda on Turtle Island.

Along the two hour drive to Leverett John regaled us with the deep history of the region. Everything from the American Lexington-Concord revolution story that replaced rule by the British with the American oligarchs who were exterminating the native people and amassing legions of slaves from Africa as free labor for the new colonizers.

Even the military bases and prisons we passed drew sharp memories from John as we drove west along the colorful 'Mohawk Trail'. 

John was involved from the outset with the creation of the New England Peace Pagoda. But first Nipponzan-Myōhōji Buddhist Elder Monk Gyoway Kato befriended Slow Turtle, Supreme Medicine Man of the Wampanoag Nation to get permission to even consider building the Peace Pagoda on native land.

Slow Turtle, who also eventually helped build the Pagoda, said at the 1985 inaugural ceremony, "It is probably the first time we felt really good about people coming here to our land [and asking our permission] for a good purpose. We've been honored by the Buddhist monks who have come amongst us and told us of their ways and their thoughts, and wondered if we felt the same and thought the same about peace throughout the world. And we do."

After Sunday's moving Buddhist ceremony in the unusually intense autumn heat, an incredible Dharma talk was given by Venerable Kato who touched all our hearts with a beautiful and righteous Palestine solidarity message. 

Always moving story-teller Kathy Kelly was the keynote speaker and was followed by John Schuchardt and myself.

During my brief words I thanked Nipponzan-Myōhōji for their steadfast peace work  in our country over these many years. Monks and nuns were present from around the US for this event. Many of them led the 10 peace walks I have organized - 5 in Florida and 5 in Maine since 1987.

I described the work of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space to prevent the arms race from moving into the heavens. To illustrate the point I described Trump's 'Golden Dome' plan to build a 'Star Wars' shield over the US and Canada that would cost at least $20 trillion (according to the Congressional Budget Office). I asked the crowd how the government would pay for it. You can just imagine the responses.

I shared the story about Lakota Medicine man Lame Deer who described how when the white people came to this continent they were blinded by their love for the dollar bill - what he called the 'Green Frog Skin'. As a result Lame Deer said the colonizer's spiritual connection to the Mother Earth was snapped like breaking a twig in half.

I concluded my words by saying that Nipponzan-Myōhōji has long been helping us to heal this broken spiritual connection.

Three portraits were hung next to the ceremonial alter that John Schuchardt had arranged be sent by Maine artist Robert Shetterly. His Americans Who Tell the Truth series now includes almost 300 portraits of activists from across the US. Portraits of James Douglass, Kathy Kelly and Bruce Gagnon were displayed for the audience to see.

John & Carrie (on right) Brother Kato and Kathy in center and Sr. Clare on left. Me in back.

During John Schuchardt's remarks he reported that a new book has just come out authored by Douglass entitled Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of JFK, Malcolm, Martin and RFK. Shetterly always inscribes quotes on the paintings from those he features in this remarkable series. John concluded his words by reading the last words on the Douglass portrait, "Hope comes from our confronting the unspeakable". 

Virtually everyone at this spiritual/political event was talking intensely about the perilous times we are now facing. No one knows for certain what might come next or how we can turn our own nation toward sanity, peace and real justice.

What lingers in my mind though are these clear and truthful words by Jim Douglass - "Hope comes from our confronting the unspeakable". 

We should all try to make that our mantra in the days ahead. 

Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo

Bruce