By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
The words PEACE FOR ALL are outlined on the ground at the Harbor Avenue property known as Pier 1, as shown in the drone photo taken by West Seattle Indivisible today, in advance of their International Day of Peace mega-gathering tomorrow morning.
If 1,000 people show up, they’ll line all the letters, three across, as a “human banner” in honor of Peace Day. If fewer show up, organizer Laurie Reinhardt says, no worries, they have contingency plans, all the way down to 100 people filling out a single letter at a time, then moving to the next, and the next.
We visited the site today for a look at where Reinhardt’s idea will take shape, one way or another, whatever size it turns out to be. She stresses that it’s not meant to be a feel-good quick photo-op – it’s meant as a metaphor for the fact that, individually, people can only do so much, but together, “we are greater than the sum of our parts.” She hopes those who show up to be part of it will “really feel that” before leaving to go back to their everyday activities.
Before we get into how the event will unfold, some logistics points. A banner marks the fence by the main entrance to the property, 3 1/2 acres that have been long up for lease (after housing a crane yard for a while), being borrowed for this event with the owner’s permission.
Reinhardt and 70+ volunteers will get there first thing in the morning, but the gates won’t open for participants until 8:30, so don’t show up before then. Parking is on the street (though a small part of the west/north end of the property is set aside for volunteers to park, maximizing the number of street spaces available for participants).
After checking in, participants will move further into the site, which has an unbroken waterfront view – we asked Reinhardt to pose in the middle of one of the letters in PEACE:
They’ll have some amenities for the crowd – food trucks and portable toilets. Each letter will have a captain to show you where to stand and to hand out the flags made at the event we mentioned last weekend. The photo won’t be taken at one specific moment – there’ll be at least four drones photographing multiple times while the crowd listens to music and speeches, emceed by Port Commissioner Hamdi Mohamed, addressing global, national, regional, and local issues and possibilities. There will be a moment of silence, led by Admiral Church’s pastor Rev. Andrew Conley-Holcom. The speeches and photography aren’t expected to happen until some point after 9:30 am – when they are pretty sure everyone who’s showing up has arrived.
Side note: While we chatted at the site this afternoon, Reinhardt said the original idea was to “think big” and see if this could be done on the West Seattle Bridge. She even got so far as to fill out a “25-page application,” before, she said, city officials including Mayor Harrell himself (who is also scheduled as a speaker on Sunday) realized it wasn’t that great an idea, especially on a day with a home Seahawks game.
So instead, “human banner” participants – all ages ages 14+ welcome – will gather on a West Seattle waterfront site frequented by “real” Seahawks (Ospreys are among the birds Reinhardt said they’d seen while at the site earlier, and we heard Bald Eagles’ distinctive call while talking). They’d appreciate it if you pre-registered, but you’re also welcome to just show up in the 2100 block of Harbor Avenue SW.
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