Day 23 - Trenton to Princeton, NJ

We marched 14 miles today as the temperature dropped sharply, and the Autumn leaves colors were peaking. In the morning we walked out through the projects of Trenton and then on through the affluent suburb of Princeton, with its boarding schools and manicured lawns.

Folksingers Dar Williams and Anne Weiss joined us on the march today as we approached the governor's mansion. We held a rally there. Cheri Honkala, executive director of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, spoke: "This is the governor's mansion. The governor has been responsible for the misery of poor people all throughout the state of New Jersey. Many people are living below the poverty level, they can't get access to jobs and are thrown off of welfare on a daily basis in New Jersey. And Governor Christie Whitman is a woman governor. I thought it was appropriate that she get word that the March of the Americas stopped by."

Students, professors, and other supporters from Princeton Theological seminary provided dinner for the marchers. During dinner, Dar Williams and Anne Weiss sang for the marchers.

After dinner, there was an emotional candlelit vigil at the seminary. The marchers shared their prayers and hopes for the march and each of their struggles back home. The children also led the gathering in praying that they and other children might have housing, food, and other human rights, and in thanksgiving for the organizations that are fighting for those rights. Professor Mark Taylor from the Seminary gave opening comments, and Rev. Shane Claiborne led the service. Some of the bible versus highlighted included:

• Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees to deprive the poor of their rights and withold justice from the oppressed of my people...making widows their pray and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? Isaiah 10:1-4
• Jesus said "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the pirsoners, and recovery of sight to the blind, and to release the oppressed." Luke 4:18
• Here are my mother and brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother. Mark 3:35
• God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16
• Stop bringing meaningless offerings. Your incense is detestable to me. Sabbaths and convocations, I cannot bear your assemblies. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes...Your hands are full of blood, wash and make yourselves clean...seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1:10-15.

Late that night, we were able to retire to the hospitality of the Trinity Episcopal Church in Princeton, with thanks to Father Leslie Smith.

<Previous | Next>