|
|
| GPMI Applauds Plaque Honoring Peace Activist Rebecca Shelley. |
|
Green Party of Michigan December 4, 2003 For More Information Contact: Greens Across Michigan Join in Spirit with PeaceWays Friends, Heritage Battle Creek, and Other Area Groups. Memorial to Go Up in Quaker Park Sunday Afternoon. The Green Party of Michigan (GPMI) yesterday lent its voice to the chorus praising peace activist Rebecca Shelley, who will be honored with the placing of a bronze plaque in Battle Creek's Quaker Park on Sunday. The plaque is a joint project of the PeaceWay Friends circle of area Quakers and Heritage Battle Creek. Other groups and individuals have also supported the project, including Voices of Peace. The plaque will be installed at the park -- close to downtown, on Fremont and Groveland Streets -- early Sunday afternoon. The ceremonies will start at 1pm with a program at Kimball House Museum (196 Capital Avenue). This will be followed by a short walk to Quaker Park and the unveiling of the plaque. The park is already the site of a replica of a 19th-century Quaker meetinghouse and markers honoring another famous woman in US history with Battle Creek connections -- Sojourner Truth. Shelley was born in 1887, and came to the Battle Creek area in 1918 already an experienced war protester. She founded PeaceWays in Pennfield Township in 1959, and lived there until her death in 1984. Shelley intended PeaceWays to become a center to "promote World Peace and the practice of Universal Human Brotherhood . . . to build a world community free from ignorance, poverty and war." Into her 80s and 90s, Shelley continued to march in protest of US involvement in wars and against nuclear weapons. Her passion for peace also shaped her two books of poetry. One of her verses asked: "Can we discern through crumbled empires' dust, / Whose holy wars were right, whose causes just?" "Rebecca Shelley was a courageous campaigner for peace," declares GPMI member John La Pietra from Marshall. "Greens from across the state will join in spirit this Sunday with all those in Battle Creek honoring her grassroots work and celebrating her memory." GPMI's formal statement offers congratulations and thanks to the PeaceWay Friends, Heritage Battle Creek, Voices of Peace, and all the other local organizations and individuals involved in raising the money for the plaque -- and winning approval from city authorities for its installation. It concludes by "urging all lovers of peace to take to heart the example of Rebecca Shelley" and work for her goals of peace and social justice. For more information about the Green Party of Michigan, please visit the GPMI Web site at: http://www.migreens.org # # # * congratulates and thanks PeaceWay Friends, Voices of Peace/Battle Creek, Heritage Battle Creek, and other local organizations and individuals responsible for obtaining funding and authorization for the plaque; * joining -- in person and in spirit -- with all those celebrating the dedication of the plaque on Sunday, December 7, 2003; and * urging all lovers of peace to take to heart the example of Rebecca Shelley and re-dedicate themselves to working, in her words, "to promote World Peace and the practice of Universal Human Brotherhood . . . to build a world community free from ignorance, poverty and war." # # # Ecological Wisdom * Grassroots Democracy |
