Peace protester's long walk to Washington
Berkeley woman now part of White House vigil
Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, February 9,
2003
Washington
-- In most towns, it might be hard to find a grandmother who walks across the
United States for peace, but not among Berkeley's great diversity of anti- war
activists.
At the city's high-tech end of the spectrum are the
founders of the well- known Moveon.org, an Internet organization that can
mobilize tens of thousands of people and millions of dollars almost overnight.
And then there's the no-tech but equally committed
Julia Wildwood, a 56- year-old grandmother who left town in September -- on foot.
By herself.
Now she stands 2,500 miles away in the chilly winter
air with the Women's Peace Vigil in front of the White House.
"I walked across the country," Wildwood said
matter-of-factly when approached by a reporter last Sunday morning.
Does she do this sort of thing often?
No, she said, but she had participated in the
anti-cruise missile Women's Peace Camp in Puget Sound 20 years ago and was
seeking a way to commemorate that event with a new protest against possible war
in Iraq.
The Sacramento-born Wildwood stopped her work as a
private chef and baker, strapped on a 27-pound backpack, taped small peace
symbols on her bed roll and began her pilgrimage right after the How Berkeley
Can You Be Parade on Sept. 29.
"I wanted to talk with people who weren't in the
peace movement," she said. "This seems like a really important time
now to do something since (President) Bush seems to be determined to go ahead no
matter what the world thinks."
At Reedley College not far from Fresno, Wildwood
strolled into the office of the dean of instruction to ask whether any classes
might be interested in hearing her talk. She spoke to sociology and minority
affairs classes.
"All along the way, everyone I talked to -- no
matter what their religion or beliefs, Republicans and Vietnam combat vets --
they've all been against the war," she said.
There was a hailstorm near Flagstaff, Ariz., and she
got sick outside of Houston, but the trip as a whole was surprisingly free of
hardships. She slept outdoors in a one-person tent, also in motels, homes and a
Buddhist temple. "Everyone was very helpful," Wildwood said.
She didn't do it all on foot, explaining, "I
walked more than I rode, but I also accepted rides." In Louisiana, for
example, a sheriff's deputy offered to drive her across a no-pedestrian bridge
into Mississippi.
She took the southern route through Arizona to
Tallahassee, Fla., then headed north to Atlanta, where she caught a bus for the
big anti-war demonstration Jan. 18 in Washington, D.C.
She now sleeps at a Lutheran church, where she
volunteers at its homeless women's shelter, and plans to stay with the Women's
Peace Vigil until it ends on March 8, International Women's Day.
As she stood with two other women in front of Bush's
heavily guarded home, she looked tanned and healthy. A loose braid of her still
mostly brown hair hung to one side of her head, and she wore the same
hiking-shoe sneakers that she began with.
"I
think it was good for my health," she said with a grin. "I lost about
40 to 50 pounds since I left. It's another way for post-menopausal women to lose
weight besides hormone therapy and going to the gym."