A little over a month ago, Alix Bryan decided to make one of those "split-second life changing decisions." She half-jokingly said, "I want to put a peace sign on the map," paused, reflected and determined that is exactly what she wanted to do.
The next month was a whirlwind of plotting and planning-resulting in P.E.A.C.E, SCOOTER-A Patriots Exhibition Advancing Community and Environmentalism, on a Scooter.
She will literally put Peace on the map this summer, starting from the White House and ending at the "Western White House," in Crawford, Texas.
The trip route is roughly 9,000+miles and takes over ten weeks( or 2 months) to complete.
A scooter enthusiast, her Buddy125 was a natural choice for travel-they are "environmentally friendlier," and riding one brings her a lot of peace. Also, Alix felt that since everyone is awfully concerned about the environment it would help people see the natural brilliance to riding a scooter. "If I can ride one 9,000 miles-people can ride one 15 miles to work."
The impetus for the trip? Well, aside from a damn good reason for riding Highway One on her scooter- Peace is to be the message, first and foremost.
She attended a John Lennon exhibit in her hometown, Charlottesville, VA and noticed this statement, "If one billion people were thinking about Peace, we would have Peace." She thought, "why wouldn't one billion people be thinking about Peace?" To her, Peace isn't political by nature, although it has craftily been branded that way. To her, the beginning of Peace is the relationship to yourself and your environment-and at a bigger level-the way conflict is solved and policy created. Years of active involvement with the anti-war movement led Alix to realize, "protests are often exclusive-not everyone will attend-people think they are too political-and protesting itself is doesn't always provide a direct link to change at an inner or community level." "I became frustrated by marching, holding up a sign, media comes out, clicks the cameras for the articles-and nothing changes politically." War, even anti-war, is not her focus. Peace is.
"I am trying to do something where the war isn’t the focus, but Peace is. Hopefully, if we start from that perspective, we eventually all get to the same point-that war doesn’t seem to solve conflict or create justice, it just establishes power-power over and not power with-which is what a democracy is supposed to be. The more we focus on war- even “anti-war” the further we are from the heart of what Peace is and what it means to the individual. That is why this summer I am just asking people to define Peace. Let's start there. The individual who takes the time to define something has just empowered themselves and created a way to measure results. Yes, it is an uprising-not a revolution-revolutions just usually go full circle, right? This is going up and further.
I think everyone can offer me their own personal definition of Peace. I can’t think of anyone who would truly say and mean that they don’t want peace for themselves in some manner…and I’m just riding around trying to figure out what those personal definitions are. ”
The route itself is her pro-peace demonstration. "It feels like I am accomplishing more than holding up a sign at a protest-P.E.A.C.E. SCOOTER is the sign," she says.
She might just be pulling into a town near you and would love some company. Advice along the way is appreciated-roads, coffee shops, health food stores-or even a free lunch!
Stay up to date on her website, www.peacescooter.com. There she will be posting on a variety of subjects: life on a scooter for two months, musings, gear, roadways and the Peace interviews.
And she says remember- "Don't point one finger, point TWO!"
The next month was a whirlwind of plotting and planning-resulting in P.E.A.C.E, SCOOTER-A Patriots Exhibition Advancing Community and Environmentalism, on a Scooter.
She will literally put Peace on the map this summer, starting from the White House and ending at the "Western White House," in Crawford, Texas.
The trip route is roughly 9,000+miles and takes over ten weeks( or 2 months) to complete.
A scooter enthusiast, her Buddy125 was a natural choice for travel-they are "environmentally friendlier," and riding one brings her a lot of peace. Also, Alix felt that since everyone is awfully concerned about the environment it would help people see the natural brilliance to riding a scooter. "If I can ride one 9,000 miles-people can ride one 15 miles to work."
The impetus for the trip? Well, aside from a damn good reason for riding Highway One on her scooter- Peace is to be the message, first and foremost.
She attended a John Lennon exhibit in her hometown, Charlottesville, VA and noticed this statement, "If one billion people were thinking about Peace, we would have Peace." She thought, "why wouldn't one billion people be thinking about Peace?" To her, Peace isn't political by nature, although it has craftily been branded that way. To her, the beginning of Peace is the relationship to yourself and your environment-and at a bigger level-the way conflict is solved and policy created. Years of active involvement with the anti-war movement led Alix to realize, "protests are often exclusive-not everyone will attend-people think they are too political-and protesting itself is doesn't always provide a direct link to change at an inner or community level." "I became frustrated by marching, holding up a sign, media comes out, clicks the cameras for the articles-and nothing changes politically." War, even anti-war, is not her focus. Peace is.
"I am trying to do something where the war isn’t the focus, but Peace is. Hopefully, if we start from that perspective, we eventually all get to the same point-that war doesn’t seem to solve conflict or create justice, it just establishes power-power over and not power with-which is what a democracy is supposed to be. The more we focus on war- even “anti-war” the further we are from the heart of what Peace is and what it means to the individual. That is why this summer I am just asking people to define Peace. Let's start there. The individual who takes the time to define something has just empowered themselves and created a way to measure results. Yes, it is an uprising-not a revolution-revolutions just usually go full circle, right? This is going up and further.
I think everyone can offer me their own personal definition of Peace. I can’t think of anyone who would truly say and mean that they don’t want peace for themselves in some manner…and I’m just riding around trying to figure out what those personal definitions are. ”
The route itself is her pro-peace demonstration. "It feels like I am accomplishing more than holding up a sign at a protest-P.E.A.C.E. SCOOTER is the sign," she says.
She might just be pulling into a town near you and would love some company. Advice along the way is appreciated-roads, coffee shops, health food stores-or even a free lunch!
Stay up to date on her website, www.peacescooter.com. There she will be posting on a variety of subjects: life on a scooter for two months, musings, gear, roadways and the Peace interviews.
And she says remember- "Don't point one finger, point TWO!"
