CMU faculty, students call for unity at fourth annual peace flag raising ceremony
Students and faculty gathered to share speeches and music at the fourth annual raising of the “Pro Concordia Labor” peace flag April 3 in Warriner Mall.
“Pro Concordia Labor” translates as “I work for peace” or “I work for harmony.”
The flag was raised to remember Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated April 4, 1968; to wish CMU President George Ross godspeed before he steps down July 31; and to commemorate E.C. Warriner’s presidency at CMU, which lasted from 1918-1939.
Bella Barricklow — a junior majoring in English Literature, Language and Writing — has previously raised the peace flag both at The Hague and the estate of Countess Cora di Brazza, who designed the flag in 1897.
Barricklow said the flag shows people they are not alone.
“The flag acts as a thread between histories,” Barricklow said. “What the flag tells us is we don’t have to start (our movements) from scratch.”
Director Emerita for Diversity Alexandra Klymyshyn discussed the ways King’s legacy is sometimes misunderstood.
“It is all too easy to confuse nonviolence with being passive,” Klymyshyn said. “It takes vigorous striving to achieve peace, to stop violence.
“We need to dedicate ourselves to fulfilling the promises that are owed to all people,” Klymyshyn said. “Only then can black and brown and white truly walk together as brothers and sisters.”
Philosophy professor Andrew Blom echoed these statements.
“I, as a white person living 50 years after King’s life was taken, may listen to this dream and feel its power, its moral truth, its resonance with the highest ideals of American democracy,” Blom said. “Yet when I listen only to the dream, I don’t hear King shouting over these five decades that I am asleep.
“If we listen, we hear King warning us not to let the major victories of the Civil Rights Movement become a lullaby into complacency."
Warriner was an activist in the 19th century and early 20th century peace movement that spawned the peace flag. His commencement address in 1923 was called “The Outlook for Peace.”
Hope Elizabeth May, philosophy professor and director of the Center for International Ethics, will give a Central Talk on Warriner’s work for peace and how CMU is continuing that work. The talk, “To think in world terms: the moral vision of E.C. Warriner,” takes place 5 p.m. April 4 at the Mount Pleasant City Hall Commission Chambers, 320 W. Broadway St.
For more information about the peace flag, visit proconcordialabor.com.
