Of all the problems in our world today, war has to be the worst of them all.  I think it’s even worse than poverty.

Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud.  I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth.  I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace.  ~ Charles Sumner, American politician and statesman from Massachusetts.

War is the absolute folly of mankind.  Without war the human race would evolve to its next highest level and Planet Earth would be a place of a much higher civilization.

After the Viet Nam war, we had the first period of peace longer than 20 years in the history of our country.  I actually thought we had learned something by that travesty, but then we went back at it again and have been doin’ it ever since.

Heroism at command, senseless brutality, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.  ~ Albert Einstein

If one of the five most intelligent men who ever walked the planet felt this way, why do we go on fooling ourselves and giving others excuses for this, man’s gravest mistake?

We must daily act!

The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned. ~ Dag Hammarskjold, second Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Of course you ask, “But what can I do?  I’m just one person.”

We don’t have to engage in grand and heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,

can transform the world.” ~ Howard Zinn (Historian) Author of: “A People’s History of the United States” & “and Terrorism and War”

Here’s an opportunity to do your part:

Odyssey Networks invites you to participate in A Million Minutes for Peace.

People of different faiths from all over the world will stop at noon and pray for peace for one minute – each in their own way on September 21st – the U.N. International Day of Peace.

Join us.

http://www.amillionminutesforpeace.org/

It’s simple.

It’s global.

I am presently orchestrating and recording Sebastian Temple’s classic song, The Prayer of St. Francis, to be performed at this event by Inspirational music artist, Jenny Burton, from Watchfire Music.

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me bring your love
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord
And where there’s doubt, true faith in you

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope
Where there is darkness only light
And where there’s sadness ever joy

It’s just 10 minutes of your life.  Spend it the right way.

Either war is obsolete or men are. ~ R. Buckminster Fuller