A group of University of Nevada students, joined by residents, are marching from Reno to Carson City this weekend as part of the National Day of Protest rally.
The event is sponsored by the Reno Antiwar Coalition and will begin at the Reno federal building at South Virginia and Liberty Streets. There will be music and speakers who are veterans of different wars, or who have family members serving in Iraq.
"The purpose of the march is to celebrate peace and is not an anti-war demonstration," said Hitomi Mori, organizer of the march. She said the event was inspired by Neil Hendricks of Reno, who marched from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1986 with the Great Peace March.
"If they could walk across the entire country for peace, we can walk across Northern Nevada," Mori said.
The marchers plan to camp overnight in Washoe Valley and finish the trek Sunday, arriving in the early afternoon at the Legislature.
They will carry 2,000 Origami (folded paper) cranes as symbols of peace and offer them to state lawmakers.
Today, the American Legion High Desert Post 56 will hold a Rally for the Troops from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. today also at Legislative Plaza.
U.S. Navy veteran John York, of Carson City, supports the troops.
"They need to hear from the people back home that they're not there alone," he said. "That we're behind them all the way."
He said his group may join the peace marchers on Sunday.
"I'd like to see peace, but we need to get the job done over there. If they stop now they've lost everything those guys have died for," he said.
York served on the West Coast on the USS Alabama in 1945-46. He was on hand when the ship, commissioned in 1942, was decommissioned in 1945.
Those wishing to join the rally can bring an American flag or any banner in support of our troops in Iraq. Call York at 884-3377 for information.
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