Two new symbols of peace now stand on the coronary heart of Sonoma State College, everlasting reminders of the human value of struggle and the college’s dedication to a extra peaceable world.
Throughout the campus’s first-ever Peace Ceremony on Tuesday, greater than 100 college students, college and group members gathered to unveil a Rotary Peace Pole and two Hiroshima Peace Timber, grown from seeds of timber that survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
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Jay Pedersen, left, a retired Sonoma State College panorama engineer and SSU landscaper designer Scheyenne Eryant end up planting a Hiroshima Peace Tree, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, on campus in Rohnert Park. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
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Jay Pedersen, left, a retired Sonoma State College panorama engineer and SSU landscaper designer Scheyenne Eryant end up planting a Hiroshima Peace Tree, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, on campus in Rohnert Park. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
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The pole bears the message “Could Peace Prevail on Earth” in eight languages: English, Pomo, Spanish, Chinese language, Tagalog, Japanese, Vietnamese and Russian.
“These peace memorials mirror the Sonoma State group’s dedication to constructing a greater world by way of schooling,” college spokesperson Jeff Keating stated. “We hope they are going to encourage and maintain curiosity in the reason for peace, and can function calls to motion and celebrations of hope for generations to come back.”
The ceremony was led by Rohnert Park Mayor Gerard Guidice and featured remarks from a number of audio system, together with Dr. Troi Carleton, dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts; SSU Interim President Emily Cutrer; and Dulce Maria Leon, scholar chief of the Rotaract Membership, who helped carry the venture to life.
“Peace isn’t one dimension suits all,” Leon stated. “It seems to be totally different to every individual and each group, however the want is at all times the identical: a world the place folks really feel protected, revered and valued.”
The Rotary Membership funded many of the venture, with extra help from the Sonoma County chapter of Veterans for Peace, which lined a few third of the price and has helped erect greater than 80 peace poles at colleges throughout the county.
Veterans for Peace President Fred Ptucha, who served 4 excursions as a naval officer in Vietnam, was a founding member of the group within the Eighties and introduced it to Sonoma County in 1991. The peace poles have been a ardour venture for him and different members of the group, Ptucha stated.
“A key summation of what Veterans for Peace believes is, ‘Honor the lifeless, heal the wounded and cease the wars,” Ptucha stated.
Veterans for Peace President Fred Ptucha — a former naval officer who served 4 excursions in Vietnam — co-founded the group within the Eighties and introduced it to Sonoma County in 1991. The peace poles have since turn out to be a signature venture for the group.
Dominick Favuzzi, the group’s vice chairman and a U.S. Air Power veteran who served from 1975 to 1980, stated the purpose is to remind communities of the heavy toll of battle.
“Our goal right here right now is to point the true prices of struggle,” Favuzzi stated.
With the newly planted timber and a set of golden shovels as a backdrop, SSU examine overseas scholar Nayeli Nuno-Ledezma shared a narrative from her time in Japan.
She recalled assembly a 92-year-old girl who survived the bombing of Hiroshima at age 12 however misplaced her father quickly after to extreme burns and accidents. The girl nonetheless lives with the lingering well being results of radiation publicity.
Nuno-Ledezma urged the viewers to recollect these survivors and to hold their tales ahead.
She referred to as on attendees to see the peace pole and timber not simply as symbols however as a cost to remain dedicated to peace in “how we converse to 1 one other, which insurance policies we help, who we defend and the way we reply when hurt is finished.”
“Allow us to be the era that remembers after which acts,” Nuno-Ledezma stated. “Let peace prevail on earth and let it start with us.”
