The seasons change, the fashions change, the people in the photos age—or die—the trees behind them grow, lose their leaves and disappear, the cars in the foreground become antiques.
But 34 years after they held their first vigil—February 26, 1986, to protest war and later, specific wars—the Schoharie County Peacemakers gathered Saturday along Main Street, Cobleskill for their 1,000th consecutive Saturday Peace Vigil.
Membership in the loosely-organized group has waxed and waned over the three-plus decades, but the fact that Saturday there were more Peacemakers standing with signs and flags than at that first vigil—32 according to founder Jack Daniels’ scrapbook records—shows the importance of what they’re doing in 2020, said longtime member Katherine Hawkins.
In fact, at the same time as Saturday’s vigil, Black Lives Matters protestors were gathered in Veteran’s Park and Elliott Adams, another longtime Peacemaker, was setting up a display of photos of Black Americans who’ve been killed by police, “Say Their Name,” at their side of Main.
“It’s about peace and justice, not just peace,” Ms. Hawkins said. “Black Lives Matter is a peace and justice issue. It’s all important to us.”
Though some find their signs provocative, and they’ve been told to “shut up and go home,” Ms. Hawkins said most of the responses to their quietly standing on the corner are honks of support, thumbs ups, and shouts of encouragement.
And that’s only gotten to be more so the longer they’ve stood vigil, she said.
The Peacemakers’ streak of consecutive Saturday vigils began the first weekend of October 2001, under President George W. Bush, in anticipation of the bombing of Afghanistan, “not with food as we had hoped, but with bomblets small enough for children to pick up and detonate,” Ms. Hawkins said.
It’s not, however, a Red and Blue issue.
“Our vigils have continued through the eight years of Bush, eight years under Barack Obama, and nearly four years under the present administration. The wars must end,” she said.
And that’s their ultimate goal: the end of war.
“We’ve been there 1,000 Saturdays,” Ms. Hawkins said. “It’s not a celebration. It’s an observance. Myself, I do it so I can look myself in the mirror.
“Is it possible? Maybe not in my lifetime, but I have to try. Your silence won’t protect you.”
As a group, she said, the Peacemakers have long advocated for diplomacy. And they’re dismayed to see that “America’s wars have been brought home and now we’re fighting among ourselves.”
In addition to Mr. Daniels, Ms. Hawkins pointed to some of the other Peacemakers today’s vigilers stand on the shoulders of: Pastor Bob Smith, Carroll Garner, and Ron Ruland, a Navy Vietnam veteran Ron Ruland, who died this spring.
“It’s time for the violence to stop and for diplomacy to begin,” she said.
“It’s time to teach peace and love in all things, and that we are all one people, here and around the world.”