With only a couple of weeks of preparation, Fernando Suarez del Solar set off on a 241 mile march for peace on March 12. Like most of his undertakings during the three years since his son, Jesus, was killed in Iraq, Fernando is undaunted by obstacles that would convince many others to hold up their hands and sigh, "What can I do?" Nobody has to chant "Si se puede" to Fernando Suarez del Solar. He knows he can do it.
Lack of money hasn't deterred him from traveling twice to Iraq to bring medicines for Iraqi children or meeting with world leaders to plead for peace. He barely spoke English three years ago, but that didn't stop him from speaking out with passion for peace. Watch the audience when he speaks; he holds them spellbound -- they hang on to every word, eagerly ignoring his mispronunciations and grammatical errors. Like Cindy Sheehan, Fernando's tragic loss is like a permission-slip to speak truth to power, and he's not letting any opportunity to do so slip by.
Fernando is on a mission to tell young people, particularly Latinos who being targeted by military recruiters, that there are other ways to get an education and achieve the American Dream besides joining the military. He doesn't shout out in anger and rage, instead he opens his heart and shows you his own pain.
It didn't surprise any of us who know him, when Fernando came up with the idea to follow in Gandhi's footsteps by marching 241 miles for peace. It was a great idea but many of us wished he'd taken more time to organize the event so it could get the visibility it needed to have an impact. How could we have known, when Fernando's small group started out from Tijuana on March 12th, that serendipity would intercede in ways that no amount of careful planning could have possibly predicted.
I joined Fernando's Pilgrimage for Peace (Peregrinacion por la Paz) for its third day, as they traveled through my hometown of Oceanside, and I was disheartened by what I considered a low turnout. It didn't seem to faze Fernando that only about thirty people marched with him to Camp Pendleton. It didn't faze the press either - Fernando made the front page of the local papers. For some reason, Fernando is a media magnet - any time we have had an event with him, the reporters are always there with their cameras.
Four days later, with Pablo Paredes, the Navy war resister who was court martialed for refusing to board an Iraq-bound ship in December 2004, Fernando's pilgrimage had grown to eighty strong as they joined an Arlington West Memorial in Santa Monica.
Six days later, on March 25th, while close to a million people marched peacefully in Los Angeles for immigration rights, the Peregrinacion por la Paz arrived in Watsonville. In what was probably the largest march in Watsonville history, close to 3,000 people joined Fernando, marrying his opposition to war with their opposition to the oppressive anti-immigration measures under consideration in Washington.
What could top that? The march ended two days later, with Fernando Suarez del Solar, Pablo Paredes, fellow conscientious objector, Camilo Mejia, and 200 other weary marchers arriving in downtown San Francisco. And just as they proceeded down Market Street, they were joined by thousands of students who, like students across the country that day, inspired by Saturday's march in LA, had walked out of classes to voice their objection to the anti-immigration legislation. Looking at the photos of this procession, it struck me that those young people filling Market Street behind Fernando Suarez del Solar are the very people he had set out to reach sixteen days earlier: the Latino teenagers who, like Fernando's son Jesus, are being targeted by determined military recruiters.
If Fernando had put off his march for only a week, so that he could have joined our peace rally in Balboa Park, San Diego on March 18th, as many of us had hoped, this phenomenal convergence would not have happened! This is the way it is with miracles; we just have to take that giant first step when we say, "Si, se puede." After that, a power greater than any of us steps in, and if we let it, opens doors we could never have imagined. I've seen this with my own campaign and it keeps me going with confidence that we will have whatever it takes to win in November.
I hold this thought out to you as a gift from Fernando Suarez del Solar: When it seems impossible that we can change things against such overwhelming odds... that we can win peace when we are surrounded with seething anger... That we can win justice when hatred and greed empower those in power... That we can speak truth when our words are twisted into weapons turned against us... Let the miracle on Market Street remind us of the words Gothe wrote, "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
Video of the final days of Fernando's March for Peace
Photos of the March
3/19 - Santa Monica
3/25 - Watsonville
3/29 - San Francisco
You can help make this magic happen in California's District 49 by supporting my campaign at www.DREAMofJEENIforCONGRESS.com</p