September 21, 2010

White Dog and Quinn woke us excitedly. "Happy Peace Day!" they woofed and sat back expecting a holiday the scale of Christmas to unfold. "How come nothing is happening?" they fretted midmorning and I had to break the news to them...most people don't even know it's Peace Day! "Get on the blog, people need to know about this. We should be getting the word out!" White Dog commanded. The Other White Dog agreed and rushed to the front porch to make an announcement.

September 21 is the UN International Day of Peace, a day of global ceasefire and non-violence: Peace Day.

In 1999, preoccupied with questions about the fundamental nature of humanity and the most pressing issues of our time, filmmaker Jeremy Gilley launched Peace One Day and set out to find a starting point for peace. He had a mission: to document his efforts to establish the first ever annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence with a fixed calendar date.

Remarkably, two years on, he achieved his primary objective when the 192 member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted 21 September as an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on the UN International Day of Peace. We call that day Peace Day.

The UN International Day of Peace on September 21 every year is not only about creating peace between nations, it’s about non-violence in our homes, communities and schools. Therefore Peace Day is relevant to every human being on the planet.

This "holiday" is a 24 hour-long platform for life-saving activities around the world and an opportunity for individuals to become involved in the peace process. Stopping wars would be wonderful but promoting peace with a random act of kindness in your own backyard is just as a vital. As WD said, "Today I am even going to let Cauliflower climb our tree!" TOWD said it best..."All we are saying is give peace a chance!"