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Concord Peace Vigil is on winter hiatus until Spring 2022
Since 1991, members of the Concord Peace Vigil have held a banner and walked in Monument Square around the flagpole. The banner says “We walk with all who suffer because of war.” We met one Friday a month from 8 to 9 am over the years 1991 through 2001. After the start of the US Government war in Afghanistan in late 2001, Vigil members decided to meet every week, weather permitting, still on Fridays from 8 to 9 am, and have continued to the present time. We are not a club and welcome any who wish to join us, even for a short time. We appreciate the positive messages many of you have signaled as you drive by. 2021 is our 30th year. We all are older (and wiser). For health and safety reasons we now suspend the vigil during the winter months. The current war in Afghanistan, the longest active war in our nation's history, is finally over. 20 years and we continue to remind the people who read our banner that war effects everyone. We do not recruit walkers but everyone is welcome to walk. Many of the original vigil walkers are no longer with us. If you drive by and wish to stop for 'laps around the pole,' please do so. We end shortly before 9am and reconvene at the Main Street Cafe on Main Street, Concord. The discussions are lively and the participants friendly. SAD PASSING OF ANN ENO Today, November 2, 2020, we lost her but we carry on in her memory. With like-minded women and friends, the Peace Vigil was founded in 1991. The message remains; her spirit reminds us to never falter and to carry on until war is no more. On December 6, 2019, our stalwart walker Ann Eno turned 90. "Isn't that something,"she said. On November 20, 2020, at the regular Vigil in Concord, some of Ann's ashes were spread under the large spruce tree which we circle every week. Two hymns were sung and the following eulogy was read: There is a flower known to botanists, one of the same genus with our summer plant called “Life-Everlasting,” a Gnaphalium like that, which grows on the most inaccessible cliffs of the Tyrolese mountains. It is called by the Swiss Edelweisse, which signifies Noble Purity. Ann Eno lived in the hope to end wars and bring forth peace. The scale on which her actions proceeded was so large as to require longevity, yet we are the less prepared for her sudden disappearance. The country knows not yet, or in the least part, how great a daughter it has lost. It seems an injury that she should leave in the midst her incomplete task, which is left to us to finish,—a kind of memorial to so noble a soul, that it should depart out of Nature after all she has done to bring peace to a troubled world. But she, at least, is content. Her soul was made for the noblest society; she had in a long life exhausted the capabilities of this world; wherever there is knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, she will find a home. (from RW Emerson’s Eulogy for HD Thoreau) And we lost our other Anne, Anne Victor Please follow the link to her obituary. A celebration cannot replace the loss of her guiding spirit. https://www.deefuneralhome.com/obituaries/Anne-Victor-?obId=19791836#/obituaryInfo Another original participant, Sibylle Barlow died April 24, 2021 at age 94 Sibylle Barlow Obituary (1927 - 2021) - Concord, MA - The Concord Journal (legacy.com) From Arthur Burton, nom de plume 'Walt Waldo Walden: ON Earth Day I WALKED 5 HOURS NONSTOP WITH THE Earth Flag AND THE World Citizen Flag FROM 20:00 HOURS EST TO 01:00 HOUR ON THE FOLLOWING DAY IN THE CENTER OF Concord, Massachusetts. THERE IS THE CIRCLE FOR THE TRAFFIC AND IN THE MIDDLE OF IT A VERY HIGH FLAG POLE WHERE IF ONE WALKS AROUND IS ABOUT 60 STEPS AND WITH THE RIGHT PACE IS A MINUTE OR LESS FOR ONE COMPLETE TURN, SO I DID AT LEAST 300 CIRCLES WALKING. THIS WAS AS ALWAYS A PRAYER, MEDITATION AND Tapasya (PENANCE, ASCETIC AUSTERITY - Sanskrit). Arthur Bogomil Burton 
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