Your state Capitol could use a hug.
It has been promoted for months, and on Sunday, it happens if there are enough hands and long arms to encircle the buildings of the Arizona state Capitol complex, 1700 W. Washington St., Phoenix. Or parts thereof.
Arizonans are about to give love to the state and its leaders as they gather anew for the second session of the 48th State Legislature, which convenes next week. It is mean as a symbolic hug for the state. Its to envision the year 2008 as one of peace, prosperity, bipartisanship and cooperated for all elected officials, constituents and all Arizonans.
Organizers of The Arizona Embrace 2008 say they would like to have 1,000 people to stand hand in hand and make a big unbroken circle that would surround not only the old Territorial Capitol, but the Executive Tower and the two buildings of the legislative branches. Short of that they may have to choose what buildings they actually have enough bodies to do a hug.
Colleen ODonnell Pierce, District 3 coordinator of the Department of Peace Campaign, and executive director Terri Mansfield recently stepped things off to determine what the need was. Terri is 5-foot-2 and Im about 5-foot-8, and we counted out steps around a building and figured that one pace is about a persons width, she said. If we stretch out the arms, it takes even less people to get all the way around.
We figured out that if we are to form a circle around the historic building (Territorial Capitol, dating to 1901 and made a museum in 1981) and the Tower because they are connected, it would take about 700 people, PIerce said. To get around either the Senate or House building would take 200 to 250, so it just depends on how many people we get down there. We are expecting at least a couple hundred, Pierce said. With our publicity, we hope to get a lot more than that.
The hand-holding is slated for 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and will be preceded at 1:30 p.m. by speeches and prayers. Mansfield and the Rev. Paul Eppinger, executive director of the Arizona InterFaith Movement, will be co-hosts. Among speakers will be Rep. Mark Anderson, R-Mesa, and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix. The First Institutional Baptist Church Choir will provide music. (www.interfaitharizona.com or www.azdopcampaign.org).
With so many problems confronting Arizona, this is a way for folks to rise above party, race, religion and other differences, Pierce said. It conjures memories of May 25, 1986, when I was organizer of my churchs contingent in the Hands Across America effort. That Sunday, about 7 million Americans joined hands from New York City to
Long Beach, Calif., for 15 minutes. Its purpose was to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness through the solidarity of a human chain from coast to coast.
We got assigned a stretch along Interstate 10 west of Phoenix (empty space then but developed today). Ours was near mile marker 117 between Goodyear and Buckeye, and we got 80 church members and friends there via a chartered bus. At 1 p.m., we joined hands. We had little clue at the time whether our chain was unbroken from coast to coast. It wasnt.
There ended up being huge gaps in the chain along the 4,152-mile stretch, but organizers said that if all the people taking part were put in straight line, it would have spanned the U.S. Nearly $20 million was raised, far short of the $50 million goal.Compared to finding people to stretch from coast to coast, getting enough Arizonans to embrace the Capitols buildings seems simple. As far as we know, it has never been attempted in Arizona or in any other state, Pierce said.
