Heartwarming scene Saturday at the U.S./Canadian border

“Let peace begin with me,” sang dozens of men and women from both sides of the U.S./Canada border who gathered to participate in a Peace Walk near Porthill Saturday. Those same words, spoken by a Buddhist monk earlier in the week in Washington, D.C., were also on the hearts of many U.S. citizens, according to comments after the event.

About a dozen men and women from the Canada/U.S. choirs led for years by Vicki Blake Thompson talked about her personal influence on this very event, officially the “Walking Together For Peace” march, but shortened  as they hugged one another.

“Vicki’s whole philosophy has been to unite singers and musicians from both countries,” Alto Karen Pedey said, “and the message of the songs she has selected promotes love and peace.”

“I have been crying since a Canada border agent told us, ‘I love you Americans,’” a retired professional woman from Bonners Ferry said as she walked back to the U.S. side. Two walking with her to their cars at Jake’s Landing in Porthill shared similar feelings at the welcoming kindness of Canadian officials.

Another woman told the Canadian men in uniform that she actually had tried to emigrate from the U.S .to Canada years ago but was told she would have to have a job waiting for her in Canada that no one else in the community could fill. The men shook their heads in apparent empathy.

Once about 50 from the U.S. had joined more than 50 from Canada, plus half a dozen well behaved and beautiful dogs at the lake’s edge, Alexandra Ewashen, event organizer and leader of the Canada portion of the Walk, spoke. She kicked off the cross border get-together by saying, “Perhaps the longest journey we take as humans, is the 18 inches from our head to our heart.”

She then introduced, Chris Luke, retired chief of the Lower Kootenay Band (Yaqan Nukiy) of the Ktunaxa First Nation based near Creston. Luke, a respected elder who was chief for 30 years, hit a variety of topics in his speech, from humorously berating what sounded like a top female Canadian official to telling jokes the U.S. part of the crowd loudly appreciated.

Then, he shared a traditional prayer in Ktunaxa and English. He and daughter Cherie Luke (Inismi is her traditional name) sang a tribal song in his indigenous language. Earlier, Inismi had offered a tray of healthy snacks to this reporter and expressed love for her U.S. neighbors and gratitude for the unique opportunity for fellowship.

At the end of their song, hearing the domestic geese from the hill over the US border, Luke commented, “In the old days, we had no borders. There still aren’t any borders for the geese,” and the crowd applauded in appreciation.

A white-haired Buddhist nun in a black robe softly touched a gong at her feet as her partner read the 10 prayers read by the leader of the monks who had just trekked 2,300 miles on foot from Fort Worth, Texas, to the U.S. capitol.

She credited Julie Ewashen, mother of the event’s organizer, with her daughter’s inspiration for the Peace Walk. Alexandra said after the walk that she has studied with the nun, who is Kuya Minoque, resident teacher at Sakura-ji, Creston’s zendo.

Minoque expressed, “gratitude to organizers and to the Ktunaxa Nation and the Lower Kootenay Band for allowing us to walk for peace on their lands. We honor their enduring connection since time immemorial to the land, water and to community.”

A woman who identified herself as being from the U.S. and of the Anglican Church thanked the Ktunaxa Chief for his prayers and speech. She spoke eloquently of the event being a celebration of people from Canada and the U.S. who share many different beliefs.

The Peace Walk was begun by Ewashen in honor of the heroic Buddhist monks who walked from Texas to Washington, D.C., spreading loving kindness and peace all along the route. Both of those qualities certainly were evident at lakeside Saturday.

As people on the U.S. side heard about the walk over the two weeks of preparation, a variety of motives for taking the walk were expressed. In the process, several from Bonners Ferry were dropped off at Centennial Park in Creston to walk with the Canada group. Holly Pennington and Kate Painter were two of them.

“My whole idea is to support my neighbors to the north,” Painter’s husband, retired Army veteran Gray Henderson. “They’ve suffered a lot, as a country and as individuals, caused by our administration, including (bullying) talk of making Canada the 51st state.”

He went on to explain about his own sister and brother-in-law, both of whom were U.S. citizens but worked as speech therapists for First Nations and the school systems in Canada.

“In a way I’m here for my sister’s family, too,” Henderson said. “The last time after visiting their daughter in California, my sister scrubbed her phone’s (social media) apps out of fear.”

Some from the U.S. side Saturday did the walk to show solidarity with immigrants to the U.S. Catherine Baldaen and her husband, Didier, actually came up with the idea of following the Buddhists’ lead over a month ago, she said.

But the couple, who were from Belgium, immigrated to the U.S. 28 years ago.

“I came to America in ’98 with a three-month-old baby, a backpack and a suitcase,” Catherine said. In the years since, the couple said, they moved all over the country for jobs and to see more of this vast continent.

“I was a traveling physical therapist,” Didier said, smiling, “which is like a traveling nurse.” His wife has been a substitute teacher in Boundary County for the last 12 years and a fitness trainer for 20.

Asked if they have been concerned for their safety as immigrants here, Catherine said, “If you are fearful, you draw fearful things to you,” Didier said. “It should not be a problem so long as you are up to date with your legal status paperwork.”

One person said her big concern is Idaho House Bill 561, which would set penalties for a bill passed last year making it illegal for public entities to fly any flag except the state’s and that of the United States, such as Bonners Ferry flying the Canadian flag. She said the sponsor of the bill, Republican Representative Ted Hill of Eagle, Idaho, made nonsensical statements in a recent article in the Bonners Ferry Herald.

The bill, if passed, will result in a $2,000/day fine so long as the Canada flag flies.

“Time will tell if it does mean we have to remove our Canadian flag from city property near the Visitor’s Center after flying it there since the ‘80s when representatives of both countries hoisted it together.”