March 25: 2018 Palm Sunday Peace Parade

[Brian]

The 16th annual Palm Sunday Peace Parade takes place this year on March 25, starting at the Reformation Church at 570 E. Orange Grove Blvd. in Pasadena at 3 p.m. and ending at Colorado Boulevard and Garfield Avenue in front of the Paseo Colorado mall.  We march on sidewalks and observe traffic signals, so no permit is necessary.  This year's theme honors the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's Poor People's Campaign, which is being revived in 2018 by Pastor Will Barber, founder of the Moral Monday Movement in North Carolina. 

Montrose Peace Vigil and Crescenta Valley United Methodist Church are among the sponsors again this year, as seen on the Palm Sunday Peace Parade's Facebook page:

www.facebook.com/PeaceParades/

Anni, Pearl and Janice pause on the sidewalk during the 2017 Palm Sunday Peace Parade.

[Brian]

The Palm Sunday Peace Parade always has great themes -- last year, it was Ending Homelessness and the year before, Welcoming the Refugee.  I have a special regard for this year's theme -- and not just because 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the Poor People's Campaign that Martin Luther King Jr. was planning until the day he died.  As a 10 year old, I watched the nonviolent daily protests and the encampment that lasted most of the spring in Washington, D.C. on the CBS Evening News.  It was the original Occupy movement.  Their messages reached me in the suburbs of L.A.  And the work continues.

Now, instead of handbills, we have the Internet.  Here's the official website of the 2018 Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

poorpeoplescampaign.org/

[Brian]

The 2018 Palm Sunday Peace Parade featured calls to join the Poor People's Campaign this spring and to organize for rent control in Pasadena, to name just two of the actions promoted by speakers at the church before the march and in front of the mall afterwards.  In between, the Lady Wisdom puppet was back to lead the parade after a year's absence.  Despite the beautiful weather, fewer people marched this year.  Still, several dozen participated -- and the crowd was more diverse than I remember from past Palm Sundays.

Those of us from the churches and other organizations cosponsoring the Peace Parade were asked to stand up and be recognized during the opening presentation.  Pastor Steve, Jeanne, Janice, Edmond and his youngest daughter stood for Crescenta Valley United Methodist Church.  And Roberta, Norm, Pearl, Anni and I represented Montrose Peace Vigil.  Our mutual friend Nina, a founder of the Eagle Rock Vigil in 2002, arrived just in time to join the march.

We'll post some photos in the next few days.

[anni]

As promised, pictures from Palm Sunday Peace Parade: