Thousands Gather in Ocean Park, Call for Peace

                                                               photo by Paul Kibbey

James Allardice
Mirror staff writer

   A crowd that swelled to 5,000 people at one point, according to the organizers’ count, gathered on the beach in Santa Monica on Saturday, February 15, to express its opposition to war in Iraq. The afternoon of meditation, prayer, music, and speeches was highlighted by 1,500 people forming Pablo Picasso’s famed work, “The Face of Peace,” on the beach.
   The human painting was laid out by John Quigley, who recently spent 71 days in a 400-year-old tree in Santa Clarita in an effort to save it from being cut down.
   Speaking at the gathering were Ron Kovic, a Vietnam vet and author of Born on the Fourth of July, former state Senator Tom Hayden, Santa Monica Mayor pro tem Kevin McKeown and Jodie Evans, who just returned from Iraq.
   Before forming the Picasso on the beach, a group of people gathered at Windward Avenue in Venice and marched along the boardwalk to join a second group of people who were meditating on the Ocean Park beach.
   Kovic called Saturday “the greatest day in the peace movement.”
   “We are tired of war,” he said. “The tide is turning and we are moving away from this war.”
   Peace on the Beach was one of many demonstratons held all over the world, with millions of people rallying against a possible military strike on Iraq.
   As people gathered on the beach in Santa Monica, over 30,000 people marched in Hollywood. According to police, it was the largest demonstration since anti-Vietnam war protests in the 1960s.
   Additional photos in the Photo Gallery.