Yasuda: “… a short walk”
NEW PALTZ – Human rights activist Jun Yasuda, a Buddhist nun in residence at the Grafton, New York Peace Pagoda, is continuing her “Water Walk for Life,” tracing the route of the proposed Pilgrim Pipelines in protest and praying to protect water, health, climate and peace.
The 69-year-old nun began her walk last Saturday in Mahwah, New Jersey and will end it in Grafton on August 6.
To most people, that may seem like a long distance, but to Yasuda, it is a short one given that she has walked across the country more than once.
“I crossed the United States from California, San Francisco, to Washington, DC eight times by foot, so this is really a short walk,” she said.
As Yasuda walks through the Hudson Valley she is in prayer.
“We use a Japanese drum and chanting, almost all day, 10 miles, 15 miles, all day, chanting.”
The walk, which traces the Pilgrim Pipelines, is traveling through Harriman, Tuxedo, Newburgh, New Paltz, Esopus, Highland, Kingston, Saugerties, Catskill, Coxsackie, Bethlehem and Albany.
Marchers on Route 17 near Sloatsburg
