Fading ink on orange and pink fabric rustles in the October breeze as yellow leaves fall and people begin to congregate in Friendship Square holding signs that display anti-war sentiments.
The collection of tie-dyed flags strung together between the trees above them displays the word “peace” in various languages.
“Hedd,” reads one scrap of fabric. “Paz,” says another.
The banner is almost 14 years old, dating back to the foundation of the Palouse Peace Coalition – an organization that holds peace vigils each Friday night in downtown Moscow.
Bob Johnson, a retired school psychologist and founding member of the coalition, said he attends the vigil as often as he can.
“The vigil is meant to be a visual reminder that wars are continuing,” Johnson said. “It”s meant to fight complacency.”
Photos by Alex Brizee | Rawr
Moscow citizens participate in the Palouse Peace Coalition’s Friday night vigil at Friendship Square on Oct. 2.
The Palouse Peace Coalition took shape in November of 2001 as a response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the possibility of the U.S. invading the Middle East. Dean Stewart, the pastor at Moscow”s Emmanuel Lutheran Church at the time, said he, his wife and a group of their concerned friends began gathering regularly in the basement of the church to discuss the coming possibility of war.
“A lot of us were thinking “This is not necessarily a very good time. A lot of things could happen that don”t need to happen, now or ever,”” Stewart said. “We prayed and we hoped we wouldn”t have to resort to returning the violence we had just tasted.”
Eventually, the group decided that in order to influence public opinion, they would have to display their ideals in a more open setting, Stewart said. They started holding prayer vigils every Friday night in Friendship Square. Standing in a circle and facing one another, they would pray and invite the occasional inquisitive passerby to join them.
After some time, the group realized they weren”t accomplishing the thoughtful, public conversation they wanted, Stewart”s wife, Gretchen, said.
“We found we couldn”t really strategize at a silent vigil,” Gretchen said.
They then turned their circle outward and the public became more receptive to the vigils, Gretchen said. Since then, the PPC has hosted film series at the Kenworthy, brought authors and journalists to town to speak and hosted panels to provoke critical conversations – all on the basis of educating the Palouse about alternatives to war. Stewart said he is proud of all the PPC has accomplished, and attributes the group”s influence to its innovative members.
“There were a lot of very creative people in the group, and very brave in a lot of ways to say the things they were saying and do the things they were doing,” Stewart said.
At the time of the PPC”s foundation, anti-war activists were the minority as the United States prepared to invade Afghanistan.
People in favor of the vigils” peaceful message would walk by and quietly voice their appreciation to the members of the group, while the people who opposed them had no problem making aggressive scenes to display their displeasure, Gretchen said.
“Back in the early days, you couldn”t sit in Friendship Square very many minutes before someone flipped you off,” Gretchen said. “It was interesting to see over time the whole complete reversal from really upset people shouting “traitors” to lots of people honking and giving us the thumbs up. But it took years for that to happen.”
After years of vigils, tabling at the Moscow Farmer”s Market and hosting community events centered on peace, the Stewarts noted a change.
Soon PPC bumper stickers and buttons could be seen all over town, and the general public”s attitude toward the vigils became noticeably more congenial, Stewart said.
“It was amazing to see that kind of collegiality. You”d see the coalition represented all over town, across all social stratus,” Stewart said. “It was an exciting time.”
Students and other young community members are rarely involved with the weekly peace vigils. The Stewarts, who moved away and no longer partake in the vigils, would see students involved with the community events, but would seldom see them at the weekly gatherings.
“We didn”t know exactly what that meant, whether it was just that they didn”t want to come around a bunch of old farts or what,” Stewart said.
Bill Beck, a member of the PPC since 2004 and past member of various other peace-based groups, said he thinks the answer is in the younger generation”s lack of exposure to the horrors of war.
The bulk of the PPC”s membership is made up of men and women who grew up during the Vietnam War, when many of them lost, or knew someone who lost, a loved one on the battlefield.
“It”s just that there isn”t really anything happening that brings the awfulness and the misery of war to young folks nowadays,” Beck said. “We have a pretty nice, comfortable life here in Moscow. There”s no sense of what war really does.”
Still, the coalition is not discouraged by the lack of student involvement, Johnson said.
“I guess we hope that they will figure out their own ways to promote a peaceful message,” Johnson said.
Stewart said he has faith that there will be new strategies and movements to promote peace in the Moscow area, inspired by the PPC.
“There are different ways you can act in order to get some traction with your ideologies,” Stewart said. “There will be new ways to get that traction, if only for a different generation.”
The PPC”s 14-year-old mission to start a conversation among community members about the ineffectiveness of war is still alive today, Beck said.
He said that in a country where waging war is a constant reality, so is the tradition of peaceful activism. In Moscow, a string of tie-dyed banners and a congregation of chatting peace advocates holding foam boards illustrate that reality every Friday night, rain or shine.
“I think it”s just a matter of having an alternative and sustained presence. It”s enough that anybody is willing to stand up and say, “No, let”s think about doing this differently,”” Beck said. “And as long as that”s happening, there”s a momentum.”
Lyndsie Kiebert can be reached at [email protected]