12th
World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Chicago.
21 Nobel Peace Prize
winners gathered together for the first time ever on USA soil and my son Keyten
and I had the honor of being present to witness the pivotal event. With attendees from around the globe
including former President Mikhail Gorbachev, Jimmy Carter 39th President of the US, President Bill Clinton, his
Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kerry & Ethel Kennedy, actor Sean Penn just to
name a few the 3 day event elevated the awareness and necessity for not only
communication but most importantly action.
We learnt that all problems are related weather it is global
warming, poverty, hunger, clean water, etc. they all need to be addressed as
one issue as they are all equally important and have a symbiotic relationship.
There was great discussion on the ways that business can work together for the
good of all and still make a profit. For example the Garmeen Bank founded by
Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammand Yunus, had 7.5 million burrowers, 97% of
whom were Women; with 2,554 branches, loaning 7 billion USD to the poor with
nearly 100% repayment rate since its inception.
Yunus, looked at these people and saw their human value, where
traditional banks would only look at credit scores.
We all have the
instruments that we need to in order to create change; we just need to
implement them. Any conflict must be addressed with understanding and
conversation. Not only is Peace possible it is a necessity for the continuation
of our global village.
Each year, the Nobel Peace Laureates honor a distinguished
figure in the entertainment and arts community for their efforts in defending
human rights and promoting world peace and solidarity; this year the Peace
Summit Award was presented to Actor Sean Penn. The prestigious award was referred
to as "the Oscar for your humanitarian commitment" by United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees, Udo Janz. "It’s difficult to properly
respond to this while avoiding cliché,” Penn said. “But quite deliberately, I'm
thrilled to receive this tribute and to represent it to the youth of Haiti, the
strong women of Haiti, and of the world. Tomorrow is a new day where cynicism
is for cowards, and men of virtue and agency will be true heroes to their sons.
Many in my generation know cowardice well, but not the youth, and not the
women. And NEVER the Haitians. This is an extraordinary honor in an
extraordinary moment on Earth. I'm very grateful."
Currently there are 20 thousand Nuclear war heads around the
world. Since 1970 there have been 5 times (that we know about) where the
countries of the USA and Russia have gone into protocol to launch their
weapons, because they believed they were each under attack. 5 times they had
their finger on the button of potential devastation and global famine. Nuclear war is always a possibility as long
as they (Nukes) are still in existence.
It costs $7billion a year to take care of the Nukes that the
US already has; $1.7trillion is spent on war per year by the US alone. Imagine
what else could be done with that money. From a business stand point, it makes
no since to continue spending money just to maintain a “mindset” that the man
with the most weapons wins. No one would win if nuclear weapons of any size
were to be launched. Why do we have something that everyone says is never going
to be used?
Peace Prize winner Dr. Shirin Ebadi, spoke about Iran’s
possession of such weapons and took it further to include building a Nuclear power
plant and how ludicrous it is. Since Iran is located on an earthquake fault,
they have nowhere to bury the plant waste.
If their government was truly creating energy for the people they it would
be solar since they live in one of the world’s biggest deserts.
“Speak up, speak out
for freedom & rights,” was the event theme. Seek knowledge by not just
taking for granted the information being handed to us. Each and every one of
the Noble Laureates started out just like you and me, they took their own natural
talents and chose to serve others by bringing light to the darkness and to give
a voice to people not able to speak for their own human rights, ordinary people
who lead by example and were awarded for their tireless dedication to others. Laureates
relieve suffering and save lives while others stand back and let it happen.
“PEACE will bring not only an END
to WAR, but to POVERTY and HUNGER too. Peace in our hearts will find us
naturally taking care of our ENVIROMENT, NATURE, and all our planet's creatures
along with the inhabitants we share this gorgeous earth with.” Lynne Hazelden,
PlantingSeeds & The Kind Foundation
We were invited to attend this summit because Lynne Hazelden
and I are co-creators of an organization called “Peace In OUR Lifetime.” We
collaborate with many organizations including
‘Peace Jam,’ ‘
Peace One Day,’ and ‘
Imagine Peace,’ in order
to bring about the awareness that Peace is consciously created every day. In
our world we have more people who chose to live in Peace then chose not to. If
you are one of these people we invite you to add your voice to Peace by
downloading your free peace certificate. (No email address necessary.)
www.peaceinourlifetime.org
Prospects for peace are better today than they have ever
been. We live in a time when communication through technology is possible to
help create conversations between us and people who we have been told are our
enemy. We can now see for ourselves directly that people all around the world
have many more similarities then we have differences. We can start working
together rather than racing against each other to create jobs, which provide a
living wage for families around the globe.
These are basic human rights, to work and to live with dignity.
Kerry Kennedy said, “Moral courage means to standing up not
just to the government but to your friends and family for what you believe to
be right.” With all of the problems we
are facing globally it is easy to stand back and ask, but what can I really do?
The answer is simple; anything you do will make a difference. “We
must become the change we want to see.” Mahatma Gandhi
Not
only do I believe that Peace is possible, I see it every day. It is where we
put our focus that helps expand our understanding, think about everything that
you did today, did it result in anyone dying? Did it help or make someone’s
life easier? What difference did your actions make? Over 6.8billion other
people also chose actions that did not put anyone else’s life at risk. Globally
the overwhelming majority of people consciously chose to create peaceful
movements. Only a handful of people did anything violent, or harmful, but
because of what is brought to our attention, our focus is on the violence
rather than the peace that is created daily. What we focus on expands, where is
your Focus?
Humbly,
Marcia Johnson
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