Imagine the Future: Celebration of World Peace (part II)

On December 10th of last year, we celebrated a FUTURE event, the First Anniversary of the Achievement of World Peace! This event was organized by the Human Rights Day committee, and co-sponsored by 118 groups.

On that day the weather was truly awful-it snowed all day. The traffic was stop and go, and when people finally made it home from work, they stayed.

Still, those who were able to make it had a truly exciting and joyful experience! We had uplifting performances, fun activities, and GREAT music to dance to!

So our Human Rights Day Committee has decided to do it again--on Saturday April 24th, Downtown Presbyterian Church, from 7:00 to 10:00 PM.

We will take time off from wars and misadventures of these times, and experience the goodness it is within our human power to create.

There will be performances, including Susan Ware and her Moving Experience dancers!

Gloria Osborne will lead us in a Spiral Dance.

Oliver Haynes and his band, gifted young musicians, will give us music for dancing or listening.

Come celebrate with us on April 24th!

Save the date and plan on bringing the people you love and the people you like!

Hank Stone
Info: hstone@rochester.rr.com (585) 624-3673

WORLD PEACE FIRST ANNIVERSARY STATEMENT

ONE YEAR AGO, every major country renounced war and adopted a world peace system.

Some thought we had done the impossible. But heavier-than-air flight was considered
impossible, until the Wright brothers developed the first airplane.

The 20th Century showed us automobiles, radio, television, jet travel, space travel,
worldwide telephone and Internet connections, and technical marvels of all kinds.
Still we believed world peace was out of reach.

But climate change forced our hand. Climate change, and shortages of oil and fresh
water, nuclear proliferation, and the financial crisis. We had to give up the very
story of "growth" that had brought us great wealth, and learn to operate the planet
in a sustainable way.

To get people around the world to see their stake in sustainability, we had to go
further and guarantee their basic human rights, including enough food to eat and
their physical security.

By creating a world peace system, we were able to save $2 trillion per year the
world had been spending on the war system. That money now keeps us safe and funds
social and environmental needs.

Humankind faced a stark choice. We could continue to believe in population growth,
economic growth and war, and complete the destruction of our planet and each other.
Or, we could cooperate with nature and each other, guarantee basic human rights for
everyone, and create a positive human future.

Letting go of traditions was hard. We had grown up believing that "peace on Earth"
was a feel-good story about lions lying down with lambs and living happily ever
after. We thought the change must be difficult, and take generations. But once
people saw that the need was immediate, people around the world joined together to
make it happen with astonishing speed. As we worked to create peace there was new
energy, new synergy, and new hope. World peace was an idea whose time had come.

Now, just a year into the world peace era, we find ourselves at a new beginning.
New ways forward and new benefits of our decision continue to surprise us.

We have not reached maturity as a species, but we have turned away from some of our
most destructive tendencies. We have new hope, and new confidence in the future.