A California man, who set out thirteen months ago on the Gandhi Peace walk enroute to Washington D.C. stopped over in Smithville this week
Dermot Butterly, a native of County Meade, Ireland has lived in Los Angeles for the past eight years. He came to this country hoping to launch an acting career, but found a greater calling to spread a message of peace, in the tradition of Gandhi. “I moved to the states for fame and fortune, the American dream and all that good stuff. I was an actor so I thought I’d go to L.A. I had an accent and back then I had hair. I thought I’d be the next James Bond but that didn’t happen. So I started getting involved in peace studies and really started educating myself about the world.”
Butterly, who stayed with the Bert Driver family while he was in town, says he hopes to arrive in the nation’s capitol by late summer. “I’ll be on the road for about another three months, I’m walking from L.A. to D.C.. I’m just promoting, inspiring, and at times creating peace by talking to high schools, colleges, detention centers, and with anyone and everyone I meet on the road. So the purpose of the walk is to inspire and promote peace from a personal level. We’re also raising funds. We’re building a community center and an education center for a poor village in India.’
“I just talk to people about peace, what they think about it, and what it means to them, and how they can create more of it in their lives. I teach people some meditation techniques if they want it, some yoga, and a lot of that California stuff..’
“For the first eight months I dressed as Gandhi, with the shawl, the glasses, the stick, and the dhoti, otherwise known as a huge manly diaper. I was dressed as him, but I found that it kind of freaked out a lot of people so for the last three or four months I let go of all that and now I just wear my Gandhi tee shirt and hat and that seems to make it a lot easier to talk to people.’
“When we arrive in Washington, we’ll have a twenty four hour peace vigil outside the White House. We’ll have meditation for peace, singing for peace, chanting for peace, dancing for peace, and poets for peace. Anything and everything to just draw some attention and get as many people out there as we can.”
To learn about the Gandhi Peace Walk visit http://gandhipeace.com/
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