Sakonnet Peace Alliance: Bearing witness for 16 years running

Group gathers every Sunday on Little Compton Commons

Posted 11/12/19

LITTLE COMPTON — They’re still here, and they’re not going anywhere.

On Sunday — nearly 900 Sundays after they first started congregating in …

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Sakonnet Peace Alliance: Bearing witness for 16 years running

Group gathers every Sunday on Little Compton Commons

Posted

LITTLE COMPTON — They’re still here, and they’re not going anywhere.

On Sunday — nearly 900 Sundays after they first started congregating in 2003 — members of the Sakonnet Peace Alliance were back on the Little Compton Commons, standing in one line just east of the United Congregational church.

About a dozen members held banners with messages such as “Protect The Vulnerable,” “Protect Children — Not Guns” and “Resist Intolerance.” In the summer months, about double that number show up, and membership has included people from Portsmouth, Westport and Tiverton.

Sunday’s gathering began like most others — with one member selected to lead a moment of silence for U.S. military personnel who recently died while serving. 

This time it was Melinda Green’s turn. She spoke a few moments about Sgt. Nathaneil G. Irish, 23, of Billings, Mont., who died Oct. 27 of a non-combat related incident at Camp Taji, Iraq. Sgt. Irish was assigned to 25th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

Fortunately, the number of military fatalities has dropped off in recent years. “So people bring readings and poems and thoughts, so it becomes more individual. Sometimes we sing,” said another charter member, Helen Woodhouse.

“We’ve only missed this twice in 16 years, because of two blizzards,” said Betty Torphy, called the group’s “fearless leader” by fellow member Abigail Brooks.

It all began on the Commons in January 2003, during the lead to the United State’s invasion of Iraq. Three friends who were unnerved by the Bush administration’s insistent march toward war — Ms. Torphy, Phoebe Cook and the Rev. Dan Burke — invited friends to join them on the Sunday of the Martin Luther King holiday weekend to protest the oncoming war.

It was intended to be a one-time event, but the group kept meeting and morphed into the Sakonnet Peace Alliance.

Abigail Brooks said she’s been coming out every Sunday since 2003. 

“I think the idea is just to keep peace and issues that are related to peace, which we feel are also environmental as well as political, on people’s minds as they’re driving by on Sundays,” she said. “We don’t want things like immigration issues or gun issues, which are all related to peace, to fall off of people’s minds, and we want them to see there is a presence in town that represents people’s interests and keeps that alive.”

As for those banners, Ms. Torphy said they serve as “invitations to be better people and they address the Trump agenda in our positive way.”

Bumpy start

Things got off to a bumpy start 16 years ago, members acknowledged.

“It was interesting when we first started, because we got thumbs down and a Brinks truck loudspeaker: ‘If you don’t like it here, just leave the country,’” or words to that affect,” Ms. Brooks said.

Added Ms. Torphy’s husband, Fred, “We were cast as being unpatriotic. This was during the initial Gulf Wars. But that’s changed over the years. Now it’s very positive,” he said.

As members stand silently with their signs and quietly chat with one another, motorists pass by and often wave or honk to them. Sometimes, Ms. Torphy said, they stop to chat.

“That always had a good outcome — if we’re allowed to talk about ourselves,” she said.

Getting others’ notice

Members consider their activism a success whenever the greater community takes notice.

Mr. Torphy recalled the time the Alliance, without invitation, “tagged along” on the back of the annual Memorial Day — two laps around the Commons — several years ago. They carried with them banners containing the names of military personnel killed during the War in Afghanistan.

“During the Afghan war, the group got together and stenciled out the name and age (and location) of where every person died,” he said. “We didn’t know what the reaction was going to be. We got about as far as the library, and you could hear the silence for us, and we had banner after banner of the dead. It was a great reception — ‘This is what it’s really all about, Memorial Day.’”

Later they hung the banners along a fence, where they remained during the church fair. People searched for the names of people they knew, and even children took notice, members said.

“It was really very moving for everybody,” Mr. Torphy said.

Then there was the time the Alliance held an event centered around environmental issues near the end of the school day. The students in Wilbur McMahon School nearby saw it all.

“The kids in the school, before they even let out, we could see their faces at the window,” Ms. Brooks said. “They were waving and cheering to us, and when they went by in the buses, they said, ‘Yee-ha!’ It was really wonderful. Three of the teachers were dressed up in animal costumes and they were standing by the parking lot, and they came to join us.”

The environment is at the forefront of the issues currently being pushed by the Alliance.

“We’re going to change all our banners to climate banners — making peace with our planet, and making them light green and just sort of say, ‘We know that’s a pressing issue about war, too, because there have been wars because of climate change,’” Ms. Torphy said.

Bearing witness

Ms. Woodhouse said she’s attracted to the group for its social aspect as well as its political message. After the gatherings on the Commons, members usually walk over to the Art Cafe for tea or coffee and then talk about what’s been on their minds. “It just makes me focus, but a lot of it is the sense of community,” she said.

Although group members have gone to marches at the State House or in in Washington, D.C., their form of protest locally is intended to be more subtle, focused on creating community and continuing the conversation about peace.

“When we first got together, there was a lot of talk about that we should be more active. But we basically decided we were going to bear witness; anybody could go off and do what they wanted, but as a group, that was what we did.”

Sakonnet Peace Alliance

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