SUFP dedicates peace pole

Photos: (top) Local peace activists Paul Turley and Mike Oxley in 2004. (bottom) The Laramie peace pole in Optimist Park. Courtesy of Will Welch.

Stand Up For Peace Wyoming dedicates peace pole in Laramie
Pole honors two Laramie activists
Will Welch
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 12:56 PM MDT

The next time Laramie residents find themselves venturing down Laramie’s Greenbelt in Optimist Park, they will notice a new addition.

Close to the corner of Spruce and W. Park streets, riverside to the path, is planted a four sided wooden post with the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth,” engraved in eight different languages, including English, Mandarin, Japanese, Vietnamese, Arapaho, Shoshoni, Arabic and American Sign Language.

A small plaque with the dedication, “In Memory of our Dear Friends Paul Z. Turley, and J. Michael Oxley Stand Up For Peace Wyoming 2008” is affixed to the side of the pole facing the shore of the Laramie River.

The dedication of the peace pole was held this Saturday on a beautiful sunny afternoon at the site of the pole in Optimist Park.

This new addition to the Laramie community is a known as a peace pole and it is one of approximately 200,000 standing in different places all over the world, according to the website peacepoles.com. The peace pole is part of a continuing project that was started in Japan in 1955 in response to the nuclear bombings on Hiroshima.

Laramie’s peace pole, which was donated to the community the organization Stand Up For Peace Wyoming (SUFP), was approved by the Trees, Parks and Recreation board in the summer of 2008 after a request was sent by letter, according to SUFP member Nancy Sindelar.

Members of the community may wonder just who Paul Z. Turley and J. Michael Oxley were and how they came to such an honor. Paul Zeno Turley passed away from an aneurism in 2008 and John Michael Oxley died unexpectedly, at 40, from a brain complication.

“[Stand Up For Peace] had been discussing the purchase of the peace pole for a number of years,” said Leslie Wischmann, a member of SUFP. “When Mike died, and then Paul, we all became very committed. We wanted the community to remember them, to remember Stand Up For Peace, and to remember peace.”

At the dedication ceremony and the following potluck, attendees shared stories and offered insight about the two activists.

Paul Turley was a World War II veteran, student, gymnast, husband, father and peace activist. Conversations with the attendees revealed that he and his point of view were very well respected amongst members of the local peace crowd, especially since Turley was a veteran.

“He reminded us to respect the soldiers. He made a point to remind us that the war is not their fault.” said Wischmann. “It was because of him that Stand Up For Peace sent care packages to the troops in Iraq on three separate occasions.”

Turley was a committed demonstrator, almost never missing a week to sit on the corner of 3rd Street and Grand Avenue on Friday afternoons where SUFP still demonstrates weekly.

He also took one class per semester from the University of Wyoming and at 82, was the oldest person ever on the UW gymnastics team. “I just looked over and saw this old man standing on his head in the grass,” said Skye Swoboa-Colberg of Laramie at Laramie’s annual Freedom has a Birthday celebrations where Turley was known show the crowd a full backflip.

Leona Turley, Paul's widow, said, “He really loved his gymnastics.”

J. Michael (Mike) Oxley, was remembered as an incredibly avid activist, and a political aficionado whose sense of humor and wit were enjoyed by all who knew him.

“He was driven by curiosity,” said Wischmann. “If you asked him a question he didn’t know the answer to, it would drive him nuts and he would know the next time you saw him.”

“Mike was a real trickster,” said Sarah Egolf, his fiancée at the time of his death.

Oxley, a known progressive, ran as a Republican to challenge Barbara Cubin for her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the Republican primary of 2004 – reportedly, just to have the chance to debate her about issues he was sure she wouldn’t know about. Oxley was unable to stay in the race to due to family complications.

Egolf said he did succeed at becoming the elected Republican precinct committeeman for his precinct in Laramie when he wrote himself in for the position in the 2006 election. He, along with close friend John Hanks, were known for distributing tiny pictures of then-President Bush pasted to toothpicks and planting them in dog feces in public parks during Bush’s second term. They encouraged others to do the same.

Oxley also started the Laramie chapter of Drinking Liberally.

He passed away peacefully in his sleep while at his favorite music festival, NedFest, where he was tabling for the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. He was found curled up in his booth with his flashlight and a book by the Sierra Club about grassroots organizing.

At the dedication of the peace pole, members of Stand Up For Peace and family members of the honorees told stories, shared memories, expressed dedication to peace and spoke of the good feelings and reminders of goodwill that the peace pole will bring to passersby in the community.

Paul Taylor, a Laramie resident originally from Australia, told, and sang, an Aborigine legend from South Australia that reminded others of the necessity of resolving conflicts peacefully and the need for members of communities to spend time with each other. He followed his tale by a piece on didgeridoo.

At the end of the ceremony, Sally Palmer, a Laramie minister, led the group in the chorus, written by Fred Small: “Peace is the bread we break; Love is the river rolling; Life is the chance we take; when we make this Earth our home.”

The pole can be visited by Laramie residents in Optimist Park, located on the west side of Laramie.

Photo slideshow of the dedication, photos courtesy Larry Jansen of Laramie: