Dean Carter, of the King Memorial Church, had attended the World Assembly of Religious Leaders for Disarmament, called by Fuji last year in Tokyo, when he announced plans for our March. Dean Carter told the press that he thought the two major problems facing the country were: (l) the threat of nuclear weapons, and (2) that so few people knew about (1). He explained that although civil rights and other struggles for equality must continue, that these struggles would have been meaningless if we lost the struggle against nuclear weapons. Rev. Timothy McDonald also met with the walkers. He was Assistant Pastor at Ebenezer Baptist (King's old church) and now heads Operation Breadbasket. At Martin Luther King Memorial Church and on the Morehouse College campus our Hiroshima display was seen by many blacks.

   February 21, Rest day in Atlanta #2
There was less rest today than yesterday. We had divided ourselves into four groups in order to attend four different church services this morning. Ishiyama, Shima, Carole, Mercury, and I attended Oakhurst Baptist Church, one of the most liberal, socially active Baptist churches that I have ever encountered.

When the issue of integration arose several decades ago, they decided that the Gospel directed them to take positive steps to integrate their church. Though they lost many of their original members, they gained many new members. Oakhurst is still predominantly white, but today was holding a joint service with a Black Baptist church nearby.

We attended the prayer service of the church deacons before the church service. We would be introduced toward the end of the service. Then one of us would give a prayer for peace. Usually, Rev. Ishiyama would give our prayer, but the deacons thought this would offend some of their members. A Catholic sister had given a prayer in the Roman Catholic tradition a few weeks ago. Even this upset some members. Being Baptist, I was asked to give the prayer.

There followed a large interfaith service in the city park, and fifteen speakers represented an impressive cross-section of religion and science. Pamela gave the opening address, a fiery attack on the leaders of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. who are preparing for nuclear war.

We met briefly with the famed Trappist Thomas Fidelis, whose monastery was near Atlanta. About a month before, he had contacted us, saying he would like to join us in Atlanta to walk the rest of the way to New York. But his superiors had denied him permission to join us. They thought it would be a breach of his vow of silence. When we were in South Carolina, Morishita got a letter from him, saying he had appealed the denial to the Vatican but had been advised to serve the cause of peace by praying for it in his monastery. Today, however, he was allowed to join in the interfaith service, sitting with the Buddhist monks on the stage.

Later Pamela described Morishita's meeting with Thomas, who is like an incarnation of St. Francis and is also a Zen adept. Reverend Morishita and Brother Thomas Fidelis made an emotional pact. Thomas gave Morishita his guardian angel to watch over him.

Thomas wanted to see how the prayer banner was carried. The two stood together, one in saffron and the other in black and white robe.

After supper Mark drove us to Pamela's house where all the walkers were given medical exams by a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility. It was apparent that many of us were showing signs of either physical or mental fatigue. My pulse was 118. I received a prescription for antibiotics for my chest cold. Kurimori and Ishiyama had elevated blood pressure. The stresses of talking about nuclear war all the time, and always being in contact with the same people, were taking their toll.

   February 22, Rest day in Atlanta #3
This was our final rest day. I slept until 10:00. Carole, Mercury, and I put the final touches to our presentations for Emory that afternoon. We went over our speeches with each other to be sure of correct sentence structure, etc. Kurimori was especially nervous. This was to be the first time he had spoken at length in public -- and it was to be in English! A tutor had worked with him all weekend on the correct pronunciation of some words.

Morishita read for about thirty minutes from Fuji's journal covering the time that he had participated in India's salt walks, led by Gandhi. The passage dealt with the power of non-violence on a day when the marchers had come under fierce attack by British troops. Many marchers were killed or injured. Yet they did not respond with violence.

Each of the walkers then spoke for about ten minutes. I spoke on civil defense, giving details of the l98l workshop. Bill made the connection between the arms race and the poor, drawing on his experiences at the Center for Creative Non-Violence. He told us of Reaganville, a tent city built by CCNV across from the White House to provide housing for DC street people during the winter months. They were already victims of the arms race, along with the poor of the Soviet Union, Poland, and the Third World in the hundreds of millions. Carole closed the program with a presentation on the beauty of human life.

The program was excellent even if a little long. Molly Brown, a college sophomore, was so impressed that she dropped out of college the next quarter and joined us in Durham. go to page 18