Peace groups welcome ‘Walk for Justice' members

DeKALB - Peace advocates walking across Illinois spent the weekend in DeKalb and departed Tuesday to continue their 130-mile walk from Springfield to Chicago.

Following a day in Elburn, walkers and supporters were planning to rally at the Illinois Youth Center in St. Charles on Tuesday.

Diane Nilan, co-founder of Aurora's Hesed House and national youth homelessness advocate, was scheduled to join them to speak about national funding priorities.

From 4-5 p.m. Tuesday, they were expected to gather at the Batavia office of Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert for a brief rally, where DeKalb Interfaith Network's Cele Meyer planned to present letters collected from eight area ministers and other local constituents calling for an end to the occupation of Iraq.

Meyer expressed frustration at Hastert's failure to make himself available to constituents in his office or in a Town Hall meeting where he could hear their viewpoints on vital issues.

“He needs to turn his attention from questionable, highly profitable real estate deals to hearing from the anti-war majority in the 14th Congressional District. We call for a shift of focus from doing the bidding of his corporate sponsors to supporting legislation that will meet the very real needs of the people of Illinois, such as student loans, quality education, adequate childcare and universal health care,” Meyer said.

Following a potluck at 6 p.m., prominent peace leader and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly was expected to speak at Faith Church of the Brethren in Batavia.

Kelly recently returned from a delegation with Christian Peacemaker Teams to the Middle East and has traveled to Iraq many times to protest economic sanctions.

Joining Kelly was Rosemarie Slavenas, whose son Brian, a DeKalb High School graduate, died in Iraq in 2003.

Today, the walkers planned to rally again at Hastert's office at 8 a.m. before continuing their walk on through Wheaton. The 150-mile 30-day Walk for Justice through Illinois began June 7 and will end July 5 at the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command in North Chicago.

The Walk seeks to raise six key interconnected issues:

--ending the U.S. war in and occupation of Iraq

--full funding for veterans' benefits and for rebuilding Iraq

--no military action or punitive economic sanctions against Iran

--ending U.S. participation in and complicity with torture

--a nonviolent and just resolution to the war in Israel-Palestine

--radical reformation of the jail and prison system toward rehabilitation rather than being purely punitive

“Our country chooses to fund war-making and jail-building rather than the Common Good,” said Jeff Leys, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. “We call for the building of schools, not prisons - to commit to welcoming youth into adulthood rather than criminalizing and jailing youth. We seek fully-funded health care for veterans and universal health care for all, not war-making.”

Area events were organized by several area organizations including DeKalb Interfaith Network, Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice, Greater Aurora Peace and Justice, Pax Christi and West Suburban Faith-Based Peace Coalition.

For more on the walk, see Voices for Creative Nonviolence at www. vcnv.org.