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PrintA dove flies in the sky, holding a green olive branch. This is a simple picture, but for Andrea Martin, a 10th-grade student at Rock Bridge High School, the image has larger implications.
“It is a symbol of peace,” Martin said. By drawing pictures like this, she said she hopes to “get people to embrace peace more and not be so aggressive towards others.”
Like Martin, people of varying ages and walks of life, used sidewalks on Ninth Street between Broadway and Cherry Street as a medium to express their wishes for peace on Saturday and Sunday. Other chalk drawings included flowers, phrases like “Peace = Beautiful,” a bomb inscribed with the words, “No More Bombs,” and Earth enclosed in a sunflower with the word “peace” written in pink.
Columbia citizens were not alone in their expressions of peace. Cities around the world, including Washington, D.C., Berkeley, Calif., London, and Cape Town, South Africa, participated in creating a simultaneous global tapestry: “Chalk4Peace.”
The first Chalk4Peace was held in London in 2003. This year marked the first time the event was held worldwide. According to the Global Chalk4Peace Web site, organizers hope that at least 1 million people will participate in their “Say Yes2Peace” campaign.
Cat Coyne, an 11th-grader at Hickman High School, said Chalk4Peace is an effective, grassroots way for people to express themselves because everyone can participate, it only costs the price of the chalk, and it doesn’t harm anything.
Leigh Lockhart, the owner of Main Squeeze on Ninth Street and the sponsor of the Columbia event, said she believes that nonviolent forms of protest like Chalk4Peace are a better way to express anger than flag burnings or other violent demonstrations.
“It is a gentle way to remind folks what’s going on around the world,” Lockhart said.
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