On the Road to Ground the Drones

About 20 peace walkers completed the 165 mile walk from Chicago to Battle Creek Michigan on Saturday. On the Road to Ground the Drones is an annual event coordinated by Voices for Creative Nonviolence of Chicago and this year also by Peace House of Kalamazoo, Michigan and Kalamazoo non-violent Opponents to War.

Last year the walk spanned 200 miles from Rock Island, Illinois to Des Moines, Iowa, also points of drone operations. Organizers this year said that they wanted to focus on Boeing corporate headquarters in Chicago where the manufacture of drones and conventional war planes are designed but also on the Michigan Air National Guard Facility at the Battle Creek Airport because of the proposed site of a new drone command center.

Brian Terrell is a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. He lives and works at Strangers and Guests Catholic Worker Farm in Maloy, Iowa We first met him at last year’s On the Road to Ground the Drones after he had just been released on May 24th after serving a 6 month federal prison sentence for participating in a peaceful assembly in protest of drones at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Here he speaks with KGNU’s Cecelia Kluding during one of the last stretches of the walk.