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Jan. 10th, 2004 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
muscadinewarning: x-posted
A person from our Thursday night Prayerful Practices spiritual group shared this article with us about a peace movement originiating in Portland, Oregon. I wonder if we could do anything to contribute as a LJ community.
He's not asking for much
By GREGORY D. KESICH, Portland Press Herald Writer
The letters have already started arriving in the mail boxes of 190 leaders of nations, rebellions and warring factions. Each one bears a South Portland postmark.
The letters make a simple request: Put an end to war for one 24-hour period, from midnight to midnight on Aug. 22, 2004. No guns. No tanks. No killing.
The "Just 1 Day" campaign is the idea of Kevin Malcom, a 45-year-old auto-parts clerk with a vision: A single day of peace that would show the world that it is possible, here and now.
He's been called naive and unrealistic, but he says he doesn't mind.
"I have to do something," Malcom said. "I can't just sit back and say there is no hope."
The point, he said, is to introduce peace to people who have known only war in the hope that it will make them want more.
"This is what it feels like, this is what it sounds like, this is what it smells like to not be afraid for just one day," Malcom explained from a corner at People's United Methodist Church in South Portland, which he jokingly refers to as Just 1 Day's "World Headquarters".
"I'd never seen the world at peace, and it bothered me," he said.
Malcom has never traveled outside the United States, but since his childhood he has had a keen sensitivity to events around the globe.
He remembers watching the nightly body counts from Vietnam, broadcast into his parents' Cape Elizabeth living room by Walter Cronkite, and thinking that each number represented a family that had lost someone.
Almost a decade ago, Malcom wanted to "do more" at the People's United Methodist Church, where he has attended services since childhood. He started an international network of churches, eventually counting members in Africa, Asia and Europe, who correspond with each other using Malcom as a communications hub.
"I couldn't sing, so I wasn't in the choir. I'm not good with finances, so I didn't join the finance committee," he said. "I decided to do this."
The group, "A Circle of Friends," is based on the principle that people are the same all over the world. As a result of their communications, congregations in Kenya hear about the progress of a church expansion in Maine, while a group in Kazakhstan might say prayers for a Belgian woman who just had an operation.
The more people communicated, the more they realized that they have much in common, Malcom said.
But as Malcom learned more about the world, he grew troubled. He found that there were at least 40 active conflicts, including bloody civil wars that rarely work their way into the pages of American newspapers. He learned that people he had come to know and care about were constantly afraid because of the decisions of world leaders.
Malcom came up with the idea of "Just 1 Day" last summer and enlisted the help of his contacts around the globe. He also asked for help from Allison Thrower, 19, to write the letter to the world leaders.
Thrower met Malcom when they both worked at a Scarborough ice cream store, and found they shared the same belief that people can change the world. She agreed to draft the letter and serves as the campaign's co-chairperson.
"Kevin has a really big passion for peace," she said. "He has learned so much about the world that really upsets him. Most people want peace, but he's really out there trying to make it happen."
Malcom said the results have been few and hard won. Requests for support from local and international peace groups have received only a few positive responses.
"So far, the big winner in this is the U.S. Postal Service," Malcom said. "The guy who has the easiest job is our treasurer, because we don't have any money."
But there have also been some successes. The governments of Great Britain and Israel have pledged to do everything possible to be at peace that day. The effort has received a positive reaction from a peace group in the Middle East.
The odds may be against them, Malcom said, but the stakes are so high the effort is worth it.
"If this doesn't work, about 8,000 people will die on Aug. 22, 2004, as a result of war," Malcom said. "We should not be afraid to ask our leaders to stop, for just one day."
Staff Writer Gregory D. Kesich can be contacted at 791-6336 or at: gkesich@pressherald.com
A person from our Thursday night Prayerful Practices spiritual group shared this article with us about a peace movement originiating in Portland, Oregon. I wonder if we could do anything to contribute as a LJ community.
He's not asking for much
By GREGORY D. KESICH, Portland Press Herald Writer
The letters have already started arriving in the mail boxes of 190 leaders of nations, rebellions and warring factions. Each one bears a South Portland postmark.
The letters make a simple request: Put an end to war for one 24-hour period, from midnight to midnight on Aug. 22, 2004. No guns. No tanks. No killing.
The "Just 1 Day" campaign is the idea of Kevin Malcom, a 45-year-old auto-parts clerk with a vision: A single day of peace that would show the world that it is possible, here and now.
He's been called naive and unrealistic, but he says he doesn't mind.
"I have to do something," Malcom said. "I can't just sit back and say there is no hope."
The point, he said, is to introduce peace to people who have known only war in the hope that it will make them want more.
"This is what it feels like, this is what it sounds like, this is what it smells like to not be afraid for just one day," Malcom explained from a corner at People's United Methodist Church in South Portland, which he jokingly refers to as Just 1 Day's "World Headquarters".
"I'd never seen the world at peace, and it bothered me," he said.
Malcom has never traveled outside the United States, but since his childhood he has had a keen sensitivity to events around the globe.
He remembers watching the nightly body counts from Vietnam, broadcast into his parents' Cape Elizabeth living room by Walter Cronkite, and thinking that each number represented a family that had lost someone.
Almost a decade ago, Malcom wanted to "do more" at the People's United Methodist Church, where he has attended services since childhood. He started an international network of churches, eventually counting members in Africa, Asia and Europe, who correspond with each other using Malcom as a communications hub.
"I couldn't sing, so I wasn't in the choir. I'm not good with finances, so I didn't join the finance committee," he said. "I decided to do this."
The group, "A Circle of Friends," is based on the principle that people are the same all over the world. As a result of their communications, congregations in Kenya hear about the progress of a church expansion in Maine, while a group in Kazakhstan might say prayers for a Belgian woman who just had an operation.
The more people communicated, the more they realized that they have much in common, Malcom said.
But as Malcom learned more about the world, he grew troubled. He found that there were at least 40 active conflicts, including bloody civil wars that rarely work their way into the pages of American newspapers. He learned that people he had come to know and care about were constantly afraid because of the decisions of world leaders.
Malcom came up with the idea of "Just 1 Day" last summer and enlisted the help of his contacts around the globe. He also asked for help from Allison Thrower, 19, to write the letter to the world leaders.
Thrower met Malcom when they both worked at a Scarborough ice cream store, and found they shared the same belief that people can change the world. She agreed to draft the letter and serves as the campaign's co-chairperson.
"Kevin has a really big passion for peace," she said. "He has learned so much about the world that really upsets him. Most people want peace, but he's really out there trying to make it happen."
Malcom said the results have been few and hard won. Requests for support from local and international peace groups have received only a few positive responses.
"So far, the big winner in this is the U.S. Postal Service," Malcom said. "The guy who has the easiest job is our treasurer, because we don't have any money."
But there have also been some successes. The governments of Great Britain and Israel have pledged to do everything possible to be at peace that day. The effort has received a positive reaction from a peace group in the Middle East.
The odds may be against them, Malcom said, but the stakes are so high the effort is worth it.
"If this doesn't work, about 8,000 people will die on Aug. 22, 2004, as a result of war," Malcom said. "We should not be afraid to ask our leaders to stop, for just one day."
Staff Writer Gregory D. Kesich can be contacted at 791-6336 or at: gkesich@pressherald.com
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Date: 2004-01-10 01:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-11 01:44 pm (UTC)