Still standing for peace

Today the Portland chapter of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom  celebrated the hundredth anniversary of their efforts to change the world. They gathered at the Walk of the Heroines, a park where women’s contributions to change are engraved in stone.This is Carol Urner, elected president of the local group in 1963. She pointed to her son, a portly white-haired man with a camera, and explained,

“That’s Kirby, my son. I used to pull him along on peace marches in his little red wagon when he was too young to walk on his own.” Carol turned to Eleanor Davis, who started the Portland chapter in the 1950s, and asked, “Was that Viet Nam we were marching against, when Kirby was a baby?”

Eleanor wasn’t sure. “Viet Nam? Maybe it was Korea.”

Carol mused, “It wasn’t Iraq, that’s too recent.”

“Must have been Viet Nam,” Eleanor nodded. “Whatever war it was, we were always there, marching against it.”

“Yes,” Carol concluded. “We were always there.”


In the Extra, Carol and Eleanor, pushing their walkers, are still standing for peace.