[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 20702]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



           IN HONOR OF STONEWALK AND CIVILIANS KILLED IN WAR

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JOHN W. OLVER

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, August 5, 1999

  Mr. OLVER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor those civilians who 
have lost their lives because of war. When conflict erupts, too often 
civilians pay a bitter price. I rise in remembrance, so that the many 
women, men and children who have been forced to yield their lives are 
not forgotten.
  But I am not the only one who has chosen to remember civilians killed 
in acts of war. I am joined today by a dedicated network of Peace Abbey 
volunteers, who have just concluded an historic journey from Sherborn, 
Massachusetts to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC. This 
journey is called ``Stonewalk,'' and judging from its name, it's clear 
that the volunteers did not arrive in Washington empty-handed. In fact, 
they managed to pull a 2000 pound memorial stone the entire way.
  The success of this feat is a tribute to past and present victims of 
war. Stonewalk involved volunteers from nearly all of the Atlantic 
states. The journey lasted 33 days and covered roughly 480 miles. The 
one-tone stone is appropriately named the Memorial Stone for Unknown 
Civilians Killed in War. It will be presented as a gift to Arlington 
National Cemetery today, the fifty-fourth anniversary of the bombing of 
Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Prior to Stonewalk, an identical memorial 
stone was unveiled by famed boxer Muhammad Ali and visited by over 
5,000 people.
  While the story behind this stone is courageous, the truth behind it 
is sad and bewildering. At this very moment, bloody conflicts around 
the world are costing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of civilian lives 
per day. The toll on victimized families in Kosova, Colombia, or Sierra 
Leone is no less painful than that placed on the many families here in 
the United States who have lost relatives to war. As a world and a 
nation, we have much work to do to resolve our conflicts peacefully, 
and to avoid the senseless death of civilians.
  Mr. Speaker, I commend Peace Abbey for memorializing the civilians--
the women, men and children--who have died throughout the history of 
war.

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