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Walking for Democracy

ROBYN LYDICK Staff Writer

Jeanette Wallis could not walk safely to her own door, but today she is walking across America in support of the First Amendment.

Wallis never considered herself political, but by the time she walked into the Corridor Aug. 14, she was an accomplished activist.

Wallis was walking home from the grocery store, Dec.1, 1999, when she was tear-gassed by Seattle police. Her neighborhood was one half mile from the World Trade Organization meeting and protests.

After the Supreme Court ordered a halt to ballot counting in Florida after the 2000 election, she decided to find out what Americans thought about their government.

Wallis and her dog, Sherpa, and a support driver, Kosovo veteran Steve Navarro, are walking across the United States, collecting grievances from citizens.

She will try to hand-deliver the notes to President George Bush next spring. She calls them grievances from the First Amendment: the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. “I expect to get arrested,” Wallis said.

She stopped in Bennett (Colo.) at the home of John and Amy Gallagher.

“I’m a collector of people, “ Amy Gallagher said.

“I found her support driver at the Country Rose,” she said. “We were eating dinner and he was getting cold drinks. Jeanette was still walking. I gave him a map and said they were welcome to stay in our basement.”

Wallis and Navarro took Gallagher up on her offer and spent part of the evening talking about the walk.

“We couldn’t be more opposite ends of the (political) spectrum,” Gallagher said. “But I agree: people have lost sight of the fact that we are the government.”

She began in Seattle April 1, 2001, although she has collected grievances since Bush’s inauguration.

“Around the time of the election, I heard about Granny D, (real name Doris Haddock) an 89-year-old woman who walked and cross-country skied across America in support of campaign finance reform,” Wallis said. “I asked myself ‘What kind of person would do that?’ Now people ask that about me.”

She has logged 1,700 miles so far, stopping for the winter after Sept. 11.

“I learned what happened the next day by a guy who stopped me in Idaho,” she said. “It was not a good time to be walking in protest.”

The former Texas debutante candidate said the walk has been a humbling experience.
“I’m finding out we all want the same thing,” Wallis said. “I thought I’d have to teach, but I’m learning. We all want peace and security. We just have different ways (of getting it).”

Along the way, Wallis has “depended on the kindness of strangers” she said, quoting the play “Streetcar Named Desire.”
“When I left, I had one $5 donation from a coworker,” she said, laughing.

Colorado has been kind.
She is on her second pair of Chaco walking sandals. She called the maker, based in Paonia, in Delta County, and told them who she was and what she was doing. She was told they would charge her half price, or $45. The package contained a surprise.
“I opened the box, and there was a note telling me they didn’t charge me anything,” she said.

One of Colorado’s colorful characters, gonzo journalist and drunken gun fanatic Hunter S. Thompson, invited Wallis and her support driver to his Woody Creek home.
“He threatened to shoot us a couple of times, especially after Sherpa went after his peacocks, so I asked if we could go outside and he could fire a warning shot over our heads so we would get the point,” Wallis said. “He laughed and calmed down after that. He gave me ideas for publicity, like walk naked.”

Thompson even contributed a note to Bush: “I am tired of your … lies. Stop murdering people. Calm down. Lay off. Thank you.”

Most people Wallis and Sherpa encounter are tamer than Thompson.

“Usually I get this mouth-agape look at this girl and her dog walking along,” she said. “People are great, they’re wonderful and warm. I don’t get that in cities, not Boise (Idaho), not Salt Lake City. It made me love the small-town America I thought I hated.”

Not all the attention is on the 31-year-old Wallis, many people stop because of Sherpa. “She’s the best ambassador I have,” Wallis said. “So many people want to ask about the dog.”

During a stay in Boulder, Wallis met Rennie Davis, of the Chicago Seven, a protester arrested at the Democratic Convention in 1968.
Davis, now a Boulder resident, offered his home to the walker and dog.

Wallis plans to publish a book of the grievances and lecture after the walk is over.

The letters cover many topics. Wallis carries a booklet with letters from earlier stages of the walk. Writers are identified by first name, last initial and city.

“Farmers and ranchers need timely assistance with a longer term to either poor conditions to recoup and incentives to continue farming instead of selling off to subdivisions,” wrote Lea S. from Idaho. “We are losing a way of life our country was built on.”

A man from Salt Lake City is concerned about the push to homeland security.

“What is most disconcerting is the fact that all the resources—my tax dollars — are going to the restriction of my civil liberties,” wrote Marko M. “I’m afraid of terrorists, too, but I still remember what it means to be an American, and no amount of fear could motivate me to accept the kind of government meddling you propose. It seems to me that the terrorist have already won.”

A Nevada man challenged Bush to make great decisions. “You are the most powerful person in the world. You have the power to create a better, more stable life for all people,” wrote Stewart A., of Nevada. “You have the power to change how you will be remembered: a person who bowed to corporate greed, or a person who did the Lord’s work and elevated the dignity of all people.”

Wallis has a Web site, thewalkfordemocracy.org.

The site has a road journal, a place to submit letters to Bush, and a place to donate.

Wallis is not sure the president will receive her.
In Denver, an alternative weekly told her she wasn’t newsworthy.

Still, the walk is as important as the ending.
“I’d be happy to encourage others to stop complaining and take action,” Wallis said.

text and photo copyright 2002
Robyn Lydick / All rights reserved
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