Photo shows David & Liz (in green water proofs) handing the Cumbrian Miles to Silvia & Jon of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence (UK Base Camp Organisers)

I have just completed the most exhausting yet exhilarating week of my life. Dusty Clogs, based upon the Dusty Sneakers for Peace Programme in Canada, took off and assumed a life all of its own. You can imagine the weeks of preparation for any event with all the meetings for risk assessment, policy documents and public liability etc etc…yawn…which we had to enter into…most done for us by the local Council bless them before their officer was told not to have anything to do with something as political as Peace (True by the way he was warned off)…which left Liz and I as two grey haired pensioners to organise the whole thing ourselves.

With our computers steaming hot we produced all the mass of publicity for TV, Radio, Press, Health Journals and other magazines as well as networking all our various groups and friends from Amnesty International onwards through all the Diversity, Multicultural and Interfaith groups that we belong to…also we got U3A Walking Group involved(University of the Third Age…for oldens like us). I spent some time talking to groups from Diabetics to Amnesty, Probus and so forth) meantime our hallway was getting fuller of the signs we would use on the designated route in a central park in Carlisle…we kept it simple by printing with PowerPoint and laminating and stapling onto little stakes. We also ordered some big vinyl banners with our logos on it. We had two Logos…the World March and the Carlisle Clogs Image with permission of the local museum, who said that we were not to use the Welsh Clogs I had previously found and gained permission to use.

Then we went mad and invited the UK organisers from the UK World March Base Camp to our final day…what if no one came?

The first two days we were based in a large Garden Gazebo in the park which we put up and took down each day…to act as the lap counting house, certificate giving point, somewhere for people to sign up for future events and of course our fist aid post…but the wind all but blew it away…so we asked the park Keeper if we could fetch in our Caravan…which we stripped out and kitted out over night as our daily base…again we took it home each day.

The idea was for people to walk laps of the park which was a measured distance in kilometres which we would then convert to miles…we had six days to walk the equivalent miles for North to South of the County (68 miles)…and everyone got a Certificate of Achievement neatly rolled up with an elastic band to keep it in place.

The first day I was being interviewed by the media but the people who turned up walked 24 laps which was 21 miles. The next day people came because they had seen us on Telly…so we did 30 laps which was 26.5 miles…and on the third day we achieved our first target and completed the 68 miles…so we set a new challenge…to walk the equivalent of the 84 miles of Hadrian’s Wall…and ancient line of division between England and Scotland.

On the final day (day 6…Saturday) when we had the World March Organisers with us we stormed through both targets and walked a few extra miles for love. The World March not only passed through Cumbria but it also wiped out the ancient line of division on its way…and Silvia and Jon will take our miles to Argentina with our love to present them to the President of the World March Organisation in January.

The weather was the very worst that Cumbria has seen for years…with severe floods and high winds (you may have seen it on the news) but we battled through it all. In all 62 walkers took part over the week with ages ranging from seven to seventy six. Most of our friends came and did a lap…some stayed and did more. One dedicated soul came and walked each day. They walked a total 181 laps which gave us a total of 158.5 miles…with each person averaging 2.5 miles.

Carlisle has never had a Peace Movement event before this year’s Peace One Day. Dusty Clogs was only its second event. We have been on a steep learning curve but know it will only get better from here on in…even if we do have opposition from within the council…it is good to rattle a few cages for Peace and Nonviolence. As John Grogan from Dusty Sneakers wrote to me “Peace is contagious…let’s make Peace a Pandemic…remember to pass it on.”

…And we have a lot of new friends who we know will support Peace Events in the future…And Carlisle is now on the World Peace Map.

The first World March to circle the earth calling for the end of war and nuclear weapons, and the elimination of violence of all kinds (physical, economic, racial, religious, cultural, sexual, psychological). Join the March and help build a new, global, nonviolent consciousness!

The World March will begin in Wellington, New Zealand on October 2, 2009, the anniversary of Gandhi´s birth, declared the International Day of Nonviolence by the United Nations. It will end in the Andes Mountains (Punta de Vacas, Aconcagua, Argentina) on January 2, 2010.

The March will last 90 days, traveling through 160 countries over all six continents, celebrated by activities and events involving millions of people along and beyond its route. It will pass through all climates and seasons, from the hot summer of the tropics and deserts, to the icy cold of Siberia and Antarctica.

http://www.worldmarch.co.nz/

Since this march was first announced so many countries, regions, heads of state, parliaments, famous people and local areas have endorsed the ideals for which the march stands that scarcely a day goes by without another head of state or writer joining the ranks; probably it would be easier to say who does not endorse such a venture.

Originally the ‘marchers’ were going to come to London for half a day. But with so many areas from Orkney and Scotland to Lands End wanting to become part of this earth movement a UK office had to be opened up. Each area are organising its own events. For some this took place during festival time in the summer like Cardiff having a huge concert.

It is important that Carlisle and Cumbria are not left out of this Word Peace March. Borrowing an idea from Canada called Dusty Sneakers where “ Many schools already participate in “Dusty Sneakers” running programs where the students are encouraged to run measured laps, document those laps, and track them on a map to represent that if those laps were stretched end to end, how far we travel together. It makes fitness fun, while demonstrating the strength of community.”

For Cumbria I have suggested that we adopt a Cumbrian theme and call it Dusty Clogs for Peace where we encourage both adults and children (including School Teams please) to walk, jog or run laps which we will register and measure so that we cover the sixty miles North to South through Cumbria. In this sense we can claim that we were part of the World Peace March through Cumbria.

One good lesson is that peace only can come about through co-operation.