http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/02/10/08_pilgrim.htmlTo Be a Pilgrim
October 8, 2002
By Kevin J. Shay
In 1953, the Korean War and McCarthyism raged. The United States and former Soviet Union tested thermonuclear devices within nine months of each other, causing the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to set its traditional "Doomsday Clock," which has marked the danger of nuclear war since 1947, to two minutes before midnight. That was the closest the clock has ever been.
In this paranoid atmosphere, Mildred Norman, a New Jersey native, social worker, and volunteer for peace organizations, left behind her life and took a walk. She didn't stop for almost 30 years until her death in 1981 at the age of 72.
Calling herself Peace Pilgrim, Norman criss-crossed the country six times, carrying petitions to stop wars and the world arms race, wearing a tunic that said "Walking Coast to Coast for Peace." As she said, 1953 "was the proper time for a pilgrim to step forth....There was a great fear at that time, and it was safest to be apathetic....A pilgrim's job is to rouse people from apathy and make them think."
By taking that profound, seemingly simple action, Norman touched unknown thousands, perhaps millions of people. She didn't stop wars all by herself, but she helped get the ball rolling. She was by no means the first pilgrim; enlightened souls from Buddha and Laotzu to Christ and Gandhi previously had walked the earth for causes beyond themselves. But Norman did more than her part.
And she touched me. In 1984, I was a few years out of college, active in the peace and anti-nuclear movement in Texas, attending demonstrations like the 1983 March on Washington, writing and working to avert a nuclear war that the Reagan administration and former Soviet Union seemed bent on initiating.
I heard about a walk for peace, human rights, and environmental causes being organized from California to New York via Texas and the Deep South, then through Europe to Moscow, Russia. As I learned more, I discovered Peace Pilgrim's walks and the efforts of others. And for the next four years, I became a peace pilgrim.
In 1984, the nuclear arms race proceeded at a furious pace, and Reagan and others talked of waging a "winnable" nuclear war against the Soviet Union. Reagan and then-USSR Premier Konstantin Chernenko had not as much as met in the previous four years. The Atomic Scientists' clock was at three minutes before midnight in 1984, the closest to midnight since 1953. It had been as high as 12 minutes in 1972, when the U.S. and Soviet Union signed the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.
To me, the walk was a powerful statement, an affirmation of life in the midst of such dark times, an inspiring project that could make a difference - however small - in helping the world out of its nuclear nightmare. It was something I could do to stretch my limits, to increase my contribution to the causes, and perhaps inspire others to do likewise. While it would be years before group reality television shows like Survivor became popular, this walking group experiment was a type of Survivor, only with a higher cause than getting on TV and making some bucks. As it turned out, we weren't able to walk in Russia, but we visited Moscow to deliver thousands of peace messages and letters, put down some 7,000 miles, and raised a slew of awareness through the media and personal contacts.