A Passion For Peace

Code Pink

CODEPINK is a women initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement that seeks positive social change through proactive, creative protest and non-violent direct action. There are over 100 local CODEPINK groups around the world.

They published a book, earlier this year, Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism. And they're organizing a mass mobilization in Washington D.C., which will take place September 24 – 26, 2005.

Celebrating Peace!

Celebrating Peace! provides peacemaking resources for children and their families. Each of their programs focus on four concepts of peace—Peace for Me, Peace for Us, Peace for Everyone, and Peace for the Planet—and each engages the children and their families through interactive experiential learning. The positive life skills demonstrated through the programs cause an empowerment, which liberates the gifts and abilities of the individuals and the communities which they serve.

Their programs include:

• Young Peacemakers Club: The skills of peacemaking have been promoted by this global grassroots effort in such diverse settings as schools, churches, homes, community centers, and as a special focus in other existing organizations. In 2002 alone, children in 58 countries were impacted by this peacemaking message.

• The PeaceMobile is a traveling children’s museum that teaches positive life skills. Embracing the enthusiasm, excitement, curiosity and spontaneity of children, the PeaceMobile promotes peace through intergenerational play. Children and their families learn how to build peace through a fantastic array of interactive, hands-on activities and exhibits.

• The Kindness Campaign is an initiative where the children of the world have the opportunity to focus on what it means to be kind. The concept is simple, but the benefits are long lasting. What a great way to build self-esteem, hold up mutual respect and increase the awareness of positive acts in everyday behavior.

International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace - IFLAC

IFLAC envisions “one world and one humanity, all living in peace.”

Founded by Dr. Ada Aharoni, IFLAC Pave Peace is a voluntary Association that strives for peace by building bridges of peace through culture and communication. Its major goals are:

• To strive toward the promotion of peace and mutual respect between people and nations.
• To promote social, cultural and religious tolerance between people.
• To eliminate violence in all its forms.
• To organize peace culture researchers, writers, and intellectuals.
• To encourage creativity that promotes culture and peace.

Striving for freedom of speech and expression, and for freedom from hostile and oppressive violence, whether it is war, or gender, physical, mental or moral oppression, IFLAC believes in the right of people everywhere to live in peace, and in their rights to pursue their various cultures, as well as human endeavors, and to obtain equal civil justice.

Toward these ends, IFLAC organized an "International Congress on Conflict Resolution Through Culture and Literature," which was held in Shavei Zion, Galilee, in June 1999. Subsequent conferences have been held in Sydney, London and Bursa, Turkey.

The 2005 IFLAC Pave Peace International Conference is being held in Los Angeles, California, from August 3 to August 6, 2005.

84,800,000

I just googled "peace" and discovered that 84,800,000 web pages contain this precious word. It made me wonder about other words and other web pages...

war
189,000,000

peace
84,800,000

terrorism
54,700,000

fear
62,600,000

anger
15,900 000

compassion
9,560,000

forgiveness
4,310,000

nuclear weapons
7,470,000

nuclear disarmament
539,000

hunger
13,800,000

feed the hungry
225,000

end world hunger
43,500

homeless
12,000,000

help the homeless
83,600

house the homeless
26,200

pollution
32,400,000

global warming
12,900,000

clean air
4,960,000

Let's work on reversing these numbers
by focusing on, writing about, and living:

peace, instead of war

understanding, instead of fear

compassion, instead of anger.

Living Compassion

Living Compassion is creating a more conscious, compassionate world, moment by moment, one person at a time. Theirs is a vision of global community, connecting like-hearted people from around the world, each working toward a caring, peaceful planet. 

• CompassionWorks offers retreats and workshops and is the foundation of the four programs of Living Compassion. Step-by-step practices are taught for transforming self-hate into self-acceptance, dissatisfaction into well-being, and suffering into compassion. Participants learn conscious compassionate acceptance for themselves and others.

• The Peace Project: Assisi. Imagine in Assisi, the city of St. Francis and St. Clare, an international, grassroots center for peace. A place where everyone can experience the teachings, symbols and practices of peace from traditions, faiths and cultures all over the world. A place which is not against anything, but is wholly for peace. Living Compassion is working to make this vision a reality.

• African Vulnerable Children Project: The people of southern Africa are faced with life-threatening challenges every day.  Among the most severe are HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, and starvation.  Children are especially effected. Even if they themselves do not become sick or die, children are likely to lose one or both parents to disease.  Living Compassion is working to improve this situation by providing food and other necessities.

Zen teacher, Cheri Huber, is the founder and director of Living Compassion.

John F. Kennedy on Peace

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process,
gradually changing opinions,
slowly eroding old barriers,
quietly building new structures.

-- John F. Kennedy

First Week's Poll Results

Well, my survey and site meter have been up for a week, now, and www.aPassionForPeace.com has had 150 visitors, with 30 people taking the survey.

24 people have committed to "writing a piece for peace," while
6 have stated that they won't participate in the writing challenge,
but support peace.

Thank you all for joining in this chorus for peace.

Breathe In and Breathe Out for Peace

This practice comes from Cheri Huber at www.LivingCompassion.org.

Pay attention to your inner peace. Practice this when you are sitting still and watching your breath:                                                                                                                                    
As I breathe in, I'm with the breath
As I breathe out, I'm with the breath
   May all beings be free

As I breathe in, I'm with the breath
As I breathe out, I'm with the breath
   May all beings be happy

As I breathe in, I'm with the breath
As I breathe out, I'm with the breath
   May all beings end suffering

As I breathe in, I'm with the breath
As I breathe out, I'm with the breath
   May all beings feel joy

As I breathe in, I'm with the breath
As I breathe out, I'm with the breath
   May all beings find peace

The Peace Abbey

The Peace Abbey, in Sherborn, Massachusetts, is dedicated to creating innovative models for society that empower individuals on the paths of nonviolence, peacemaking, and cruelty-free living. They offer a variety of programs and resources that teach, inspire and encourage one to speak out and act on issues of peace and social justice. Faith in action is the cornerstone of their fellowship and activist pacifism is their creed.

Some of their programs include:

• The Courage of Conscience Award: It is out of a desire to promote the causes of peace and justice, nonviolence and love that The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award is given. Recipients have included Mother Theresa, Ram Dass, Helen Caldicott, Rosa Parks, Mikhail Gorbachev, Julia Butterfly Hill, and Dadi Janki, who is the latest recipient.

• The National Registry for Conscientious Objection: The National Registry was created at The Peace Abbey following the war in the Persian Gulf in early 1991. It provides men and women of all ages with an opportunity to register their objection to personal, national, and international violence.

• The Pacifist Living History Museum: Stewards at The Peace Abbey serve as curators and archivists for the many relics, personal affects, manuscripts and documents placed at the Abbey by members of the Peace Movement, friends and supporters. Items at the museum include Peace Pilgrim’s blue tunic and sneakers, a 13th century sacred relic of Saint Clare of Assisi, and a metal tip from the first dismantled Soviet ICBM Nuclear Missile.

Martin Luther King, Jr. on Nonviolence

Nonviolence means avoiding
not only external physical violence
but also internal violence of spirit.
You not only refuse to shoot a man,
but you refuse to hate him.

--Martin Luther King, Jr.