Monks’ Walk for Peace brings out the best in us

I’m trying to figure out why all the talk about Making America Great Again? America has been great since I’ve been here, and I suspect it will be great when I’m gone. That is because it is made up of good people who do good things.

No one comes close to Americans in charitable giving. In 2024, U.S. charitable giving reached $592.5 billion. The Charities Aid Foundation and Johns Hopkins report that Americans give about $1,700 per person each year — more than three times the rate of other wealthy nations and up to 10 times the levels in France, Germany and Italy. That’s great.

A report from Volunteer FDIP, a leading volunteer organization, showed that 77.34 million Americans volunteered in 2023, or 42 percent of the population. That’s more than any other country. And that’s great, too.

I bring this up because yelling at each other, name-calling, demeaning those with whom we disagree and being unwilling to listen to another point of view does not make America great. It divides us, and there is nothing great about that. And that is not us. Or at least most of us. Yet sometimes, that seems to be all we see or read about ourselves.

While the ICE raids in Minneapolis were garnering all the media attention – to Fox News, it was the greatest thing to happen since the discovery of fire; and to MSNBC, or whatever it calls itself these days, it was the end of civilization as we know it – a very simple event was taking place that focused on the good in us. A group of Buddhist monks set out single file in December on a 2,300-mile, 108-day pilgrimage from their temple in Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C. It was called a Walk for Peace and was intended to raise “awareness of peace, loving kindness and compassion” to a nation and a world badly in need of all of the above.

Their walk took them through 10 states, including Georgia. They walked through the heat, the freezing cold and even endured one of the monks having to go through a leg amputation after a driver crashed into the group in Texas. Still, they walked as thousands lined their route to cheer them on.

My daughter had her own personal experience during the monk’s walk through Coweta County. She had just had foot surgery and was wearing a walking boot. As they passed her, the monk leading the group, without breaking stride, simply said, “May your foot heal quickly.” She later told me, “I immediately felt his peace and his presence.” So did a lot of other Americans.

One reporter described the reaction this way: “Construction workers silenced their power tools as they kept watch from the second-story office building across the street. I bowed my head and held my palms in prayer, along with the construction workers above me, the family with three kids beside me, and the older women wrapped in blankets. A police officer lowered his gaze.”

A key figure in the Walk for Peace was Aloka, the “Peace Dog,” a stray dog from India, who had been a part of an earlier peace walk in India and later became part of the U.S. pilgrimage. He had to undergo ligament surgery in South Carolina and was treated free of charge by a local veterinary clinic. The surgery was successful and Aloka rejoined the group in Charlotte. You just can’t keep a good peace dog down.

The monks’ Walk for Peace also brought out the bigots – self-described Christians – to demonstrate against them and to rail about them on Facebook. Christians are about love, as in love thy neighbor. These people couldn’t spell love if you spotted them the “o” and “v,” let alone demonstrate it.

I would suggest the Bible-thumpers read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Hint: It’s the fifth, sixth and seventh Chapters of the Gospel of Matthew.) As I recall, He is the Prince of Peace and would not be happy to have his name evoked in condemnation of a group marching for peace. No wonder church attendance is down.

Was the march worth the effort? Yes and no. The pilgrimage drew huge crowds and – minus the bigots who, thankfully, were a minority – a tremendously positive response from Americans who think our country is great and just wish it could be kinder and gentler. Then we turn on the evening news and realize that we still have a long, long way to go.

You can reach Dick Yarbrough at dick@dickyarbrough.com or at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139.