Tomorrow was Good Friday, so the walkers agreed to fast first, because of the date; second, to express our solidarity with people who would be arrested tomorrow for disarmament activities. Patrick O'Neill would be one of those arrested for throwing their blood on the walls of the Pentagon.

   April 9, Smithfield to Goldsboro
I caught a bus to Greenville today to meet with the Greenville Peace Committee and also to have a physical exam. The others walked to Goldsboro. Today was the first day of our fast.

Before we left St. Ann's, Pamela called. We talked for about an hour. She was upset that we had decided to split the walk to accommodate the Goldsboro and Norfolk events and insisted that everyone be in Norfolk at 4 o'clock the next day, our scheduled arrival time. She said that anyone who was not in Norfolk on time did not belong on the walk. We were upset that such a thing could get so blown out of proportion. It also gave us the impression that the decision of the walkers meant nothing. This was the height of the conflict between the walkers and our organization.

We felt that we were being told to just do the walking -- leave the thinking to the organizers, who really knew what was going on. As I left the walkers, we had not decided what we now do tomorrow, but it was becoming clear that we would have to bow to the wishes of our coordinators.

While waiting for my bus I went across the street to buy a box of aspirins. The walk had just left. The cashier was screaming, "Go back to Russia! Go back to Russia!" I explained that some of the monks had also walked for peace in the Soviet Union. Then she became almost hysterical. "God damn it! Bomb 'em all! I hope they bomb them all!" This was the Smithfield that I had expected.

During a short layover in Wilson I called Judy Watson, another social worker for the blind. Judy had heard that I was on the walk. She asked the standard questions about how were my feet and how many pairs of shoes I had worn out. Then she said, "You know, I kind of believe in that junk." Judy had two teenage boys. She said she feared they could be drafted to fight in a war.

In Greenville I kept my doctor's appointment for a check-up by someone who knew my medical history; he found me in good health. Back at the Carroll and Edith Webbers', I napped in their Board Room, where large pieces of cardboard, destined to become picket signs, leaned on the walls.

The Greenville Peace Committee had held regular weekly meetings since formation in l968 to help oppose the Vietnam war; now these were Fridays, with potluck at 6:30 to start. (Since the signing of the INF treaty in l987, they have gone to two Fridays a month.) Five members of GPC were now planning to ride their bicycles from Greenville to New York for the first week of SSD-II.

They would talk to people along the way. The Webbers had ridden their tandem bicycle to the first special session in l978.

   April l0, Drive from Goldsboro to Norfolk

I rode with Carroll from Greenville to Goldsboro. The walkers met for about five minutes, to try to make some sense out of today's schedule. We had to leave Goldsboro in less than ninety minutes. The van was hurriedly loaded. Vicki Casey would leave later in the afternoon to drive our luggage up to us in Norfolk.

It would be not be possible to attend the vigil scheduled after the interfaith service. So we drove to the entrance of the base to hold our own vigil for l5 minutes. Then we drove to the AME Zion church for the program. This was the first time the N.C. Peace Network had received the support of a Goldsboro minister for its vigil at the base. It was significant too that the first church to support the vigil was a Black church. About 75 people attended the program, which was high-spirited. Most of them were church leaders and peace activists from across the state. People came from as far west as Winston-Salem. Unfortunately there were not many from the Goldsboro area itself. Jim Berry gave a very good speech. The program ended with lively singing.

We got into our car and van to be driven north. Others began the two-mile walk to the base. We waved goodbye to our NC friends as we drove past them walking toward the base. The ride to Norfolk took almost four hours. I was one of Edith's passengers, while most rode with Carroll in the van. Both Carroll and Edith are very ecology-minded. They ride bicycles everywhere, even on long trips; the vehicles had been borrowed from Greenville friends. The Webbers detest automobiles' wasteful use of natural resources. This was a sacrifice for them to be willing to provide us this transportation. In this case, though, what kept Edith spluttering -- in those moments when her concentration on the overall good of the movement relaxed -- was something else: that Norfolk, with ten days, couldn't spare two hours or a few of the walkers for a long-planned vigil.

On the way up, most of us napped; we were still using all of our free time to sleep. We did not have good feelings about our arrival in Norfolk, Virginia. We had heard some details of our activities in the Tidewater area. We realized that our rest break of ten days had been almost completely taken away from us. This was much as we had predicted it would be when we were in Atlanta. I had not had a true rest day since Aiken, SC. And we were still upset over the threat to withdraw all hospitality from us unless we arrived by four o'clock today.

We arrived at the right place with half an hour to spare. Police cars were everywhere. As soon as I got out of the car, three reporters interviewed me, and I wished we had stopped at that last rest area ten minutes ago. Naturally there was the question, "Why are you being driven from Goldsboro if this is a peace walk?" I answered that we were being driven to have a chance to rest for ten days before beginning the final stage of the walk through the North. We had walked over l,300 miles and had still 600 miles left. The reporter remarked casually, "I've seen your schedule, and it doesn't look very restful."

After a 2.5-mile walk to downtown Portsmouth, I finally met Langdon Bristol, our local coordinator. We talked about the problems caused by the conflict in schedules.

Our supper tonight had been prepared by the church members. After the meal we held a meeting to review our ten days of activities in the Tidewater area. Tomorrow would be a rest day, as well as a week from tomorrow. We approved, with a minor change. The monks wanted three days for a prayer fast outside Douglas MacArthur Park. Langdon had involved thirty-five churches in providing us meals and housing. We had speaking engagements almost every day. We decided that half the people would fast for the three days, the others keeping the scheduled activities of eating and speaking. Morishita, Nagase, Sandy, Mary, Molly, and Kurimori were to begin the fast Monday and end Wednesday evening.

   April 11, Easter, Rest day in Portsmouth
I was the only one who stayed at the church that day. The others got up at 4:30 a.m. to go to the Easter sunrise service at the Edgar Cayce Institute. The Japanese did not understand what they were going to. Most of them came back around noon shaking their heads. Morishita told me that they held hands and danced around in a big circle on the beach. It was very cold, too. I slept until midmorning, then wrote some letters and took time off to shoot some basketball. It felt good to be lazy and have the entire day to myself, with absolutely nothing I had to do. A Filipino family, the Vargases, prepared us a Filipino supper. go to page 34