Daily Nexus
University of California at Santa Barbara
Monday, October 29, 1984
Fall Festival Features Peace Pole, Exhibits
By Bonnie Scher
Staff Writer
"We're the crest of a wave in the peace movement,
about to break," Isla Vista Fall Festival Coordinator
Evette Justus said. The fourteenth annual Isla Vista
Fall Festival is the final part of a week-long drive
for peace presented by the American Peace Movement,
one of the Movement's organizers, David Crockett
Williams, Jr., said.
"We want to show how to celebrate peace and have
fun, but at the same time, take all the celebration
energy and generate it in a direction that will cause
sparks, lighting the flames in the minds of everyone,"
Williams said.
The festival will be a three-day musical experience
with exhibits and information on the peace movement,
Williams said. Storyboards will provide information
about various topics such as disarmament and nuclear
war. "We want to offer a maximum opportunity for
the public to get informed," Williams said.
Pre-festival events such as conferences, parties in
Anisq' Oyo park, and group gatherings are planned
in "hopes of organizing people and bringing out
energy and ideas and prayers for peace," Williams
said.
United Nations Day, which was last Wednesday,
kicked off the awareness drive. Members of
the Peace Movement gathered at the Eternal
Flame for Peace Monument on campus to pray
for peace and petition for the re-lighting of the
flame. "On United Nations Day, every year,
people around the world bring to focus what
this day means to them," Williams said.
UCSB's graduating class of 1969 dedicated the
eternal flame to the university in honor of
John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin
Luther King, Jr. The dedication plaque below
the monument reads:
"Let us take the first step. Let us, if we can,
step back from the shadows of war and seek
out the ways of peace. And if that journey
is 1,000 miles, or even more, let history record
that we, in this land, took the first step..."
Because of the energy crisis and the need to
conserve fuel, the flame was extinguished in
the early 70's, Vice Chancellor of Administration
Services Robert Kroes said. "If people are interested
in getting the monument relit, it ought to be brought
up for discussion to be reexamined," Kroes said.
Displayed during the United Nations Day rally was
"Peace Pole." Created in a peace retreat on
November 1, 1980, the peace pole is a ceremonial
log decorated with carving and symbols related to
the ideal of world peace.
Each year during fourth of July week, a group called
the Rainbow Family gathers in a remote area of the
United States to pray for peace. The highlight of
the week is July 4, when, for one hour, thousands
of people on the retreat form a circle and pray
together for peace, Williams explained.
We are bringing out the message of peace to all
people. We get along as one family because of
the mystical and spiritual feelings behind the
Rainbow Family," Williams said.
According to Williams, the Rainbow Family represents
a fulfillment of many ancient prophecies. The Hopi
Indians, Buddhists, and Christians all mention in their
religions a time when a group of people would bring
about a change of consciousness.
During the 1980 election, members of the American
Peace Movement held an 11-day prayer vigil in front
of the White House, hoping the president would join
in a prayer circle around the Peace Pole. However,
their attempts were unsuccessful. The Peace Pole
was brought to Santa Barbara in hopes of reaching
President Reagan at his ranch. Again, they were
unsuccessful.
On Veterans Day, November 11, the pole will be
taken to Washington, D.C., where the president
will join in a prayer vigil, Williams said. On
November 23, the Peace Pole will continue to
be sent onward to a prayer circle in India. Two
final stops will be made on the journey; Jerusalem,
on Christmas Eve, and Red Square, in Moscow,
on New Year's Eve.
"The Peace Pole is a symbol of people's universal
desire for peace," Williams said.
The pole will be placed in Anisq' Oyo park at the
start of the festival, he said. On Sunday, the
final day of the celebration, it will be moved
to the Embarcadero loop, where Isla Vistans and
UCSB students can join together in prayer, Williams
said. "This will further attention toward the Peace Pole
and give us more of a chance for attention in Washington,"
Williams said.
The Fall Festival begins officially Friday, November 2,
and ends after the prayer vigil on Sunday, November 4.
"Hopefully we're all going to get together here and now.
The other U.C. schools could then get together and
make their statement," Justus said.
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UCSB's Eternal Flame Memorial Peace Monument was
relit November 6, 1987, jointly by the Mayors of
Santa Barbara and its new Soviet sister city of Yalta,
in a ceremony organized by Williams and conducted
by UCSB Chancellor Barbara Uehling after a previous
blessing ceremony by Chumash elder Victor Skyeagle
Lopez, and after a new chancellor welcoming ceremony
July 15, 1987, the 42nd anniversary of the first atomic
bomb, including Rev. Gyoten Yoshida of Nipponzan
Myohoji, President Harry Truman's former speechwriter
Frank Kelly as Vice President of the Nuclear Age Peace
Foundation in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbaran Bob Phares
who walked across America with the Great Peace March
of 1986, and Michael Lindemann as executive director
of Santa Barbara's Peace Resource Center, also arranged
by Williams. Michael is the brother of free energy
historian and researcher Peter Lindemann who worked
with Bruce DePalma closely during the early 1980's in
Santa Barbara.
See more on Peter Lindemann and free energy
technologies to replace nuclear and fossil fuel power at:
http://www.free-energy.ws
And about Bruce DePalma's pioneering work in this field:
http://www.depalma.pair.com
http://www.computerhealth.org/depalma.htm