DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — Carrying a small cross with "GREED" written across it in big block letters, Migwe Kimemia stood in front of downtown tax preparation business that offers high-interest tax anticipation loans and talked about payday loans, predatory lending and other business practices that impact the poor.

Kimemia, who works on poverty issues for the American Friends Service Committee, said payday lenders charge interest rates that exceed 300 percent annually and trap desperate borrowers into taking out new loans to pay off old ones, which sinks the debtors deeper into poverty.

"Due to the corruption of the system, the process becomes a form of indentured servitude between borrower and lender," Kimemia said. "Jesus calls us to a higher level of justice."

The stop at the tax preparation business was one of 14 on the annual Good Friday Walk for Justice and Peace that took place Friday, March 21, at Courthouse Square.

About 100 marchers followed a looping path around downtown, stopping at locations where speakers drew parallels between the Stations of the Cross, verses in the Crucifixion story, and contemporary issues such as poverty, hunger, immigration, the war in Iraq and addiction.

Marty May of Fairborn said she took part in the walk for the first time Friday and carried a cross marked "DEATH PENALTY."

"I visit three men on death row, and that's an issue that's important to me," May said. "But I was impressed with how the speakers brought up issues I don't usually think about, like voters' rights. All these kinds of things were near and dear to Jesus' heart."

Donald Hayashi, an executive at the Wesley Community Center and one of the march organizers, said the two-hour walk was more pleasant than last year when the weather was colder and windier.

"We had people of all ages in the walk this year," Hayashi said. "It's an important opportunity to say there are positive things anybody can do to make a difference in the world."