Inner Michael

It was a senator from my home state, Wisconsin, who is the originator of “Earth Day” at a teach in first held on April 22, 1970. It later became a U.N. Proclamation by General Secretary U. Thant and eventually 141 nations were added.

Today, on the 42 anniversary of Earth Day, as a member the The Peace Alliance, I received an important announcement:

This Monday, April 23rd, the peacebuilding community will mark a historic milestone.

President Obama will speak at the US Holocaust Museum on Monday to unveil the Atrocity Prevention Board, a high-level board within the National Security Council, which will greatly enhance our country’s capacity to make peacebuilding a priority.

Listen to the President’s speech via webcast at 9:45-10:30am ET Monday, live from the Holocaust Museum: www.ushmm.org/prevent.

After the speech our team will visit the White House to celebrate this milestone. Join us virtually at 1:00pm ET at www.ushmm.org/prevent as Senior Administration officials speak on a White House panel describing the role of the Atrocity Prevention Board.

Years of underinvestment in civilian tools, like diplomacy and development, have hindered the US government’s ability to help prevent atrocities around the globe. Establishment of the interagency Atrocities Prevention Board (APB) is an important milestone in developing a comprehensive policy framework to prevent future atrocities.

We are proud to be a part of the Prevention and Protection Working Group, a coalition of peacebuilding organizations that have advocated for this reform. Over the last seven years The Peace Alliance has called on the Administration to focus on making peacebuilding a priority at the highest-echelons of power. Monday’s announcement is a major development towards making that vision a reality.

Please tune in for the President’s speech on Monday and the following panel discussion to celebrate this historic development.

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There are those around this planet who work tirelessly for earth and for peace. Today I honor them and their work on behalf of our planet. I also salute thousands of Michael Jackson fans who “make a change” as Michael’s legacy on this planet. The two who come to mind immediately are “A Million Trees for Michael” and “Cadeflaw” who just recently began a campaign to adopt schools in Gary, Indiana to assist poor students to receive a good education.

I am convinced that collectively Michael Jackson fans have the power to change the world. It’s “people power” and Michael knew it well. As a child, Michael watched a television show called “Kid Power” and he knew from an early age, the power of community and communitiy initiatives. If Michael Jackson fans could lay down their differences and cease the infighting (once again raging in the fan community) they could change the world.

As we see by the presidents announcement scheduled for tomorrow. the way to begin is with diplomacy. Diplomacy is the scaffold that must be in place for builidng the framework of any initiative. Diplomacy is key. Are you a diplomat? Do you know how to be a diplomat? Would you like to?

As a citizen diplomat in the decades of the eighties and nineties, I had a vision. Kay Kennedy features that vision in her book :Looking Back” where she chronicled the experiences of those who experienced of changed history because of their singular involvement in an event that shaped the future. For me, peace has  been a mission since childhood when I vowed “When I Am a Grownup, I Will Do Something” which is included in Kay’s book along with two poems: “The Wall.” which is about the Vietnam memorial and “Missile Silo in North Dakota” which took 3 years to write.

You may read “When I Am A Grownup I Will Do Something” here”

http://onewordsmith.blogspot.com/2008/12/when-i-am-grownup-i-will-do-something.html#more

Artwork is soulspeak and in order to speak to the soul I created pieces that showcased the earth and created emotional attachment and soul urgings:

http://onewordsmith.blogspot.com/2009/01/more-art-in-service-of-hope.html

Here is a poem that was written in the air at 30,000 feet on Earth Day 2009:

For the Earth and My Reason:

Four billion.
Four billion years
she
has been becoming!
Has she too, pondered
her reason for being?
Was her
destiny
engraved and sealed
with invisible DNA
evolved from
mystery
and blueprints in bones?

The water ran right there,
carved
that valley.
Hills puckered here
with gathers over there,
a plateau
ends here,
the river meanders–
all features of character
on the face
of forever
in the spiral of time.

They say time waits for no
one.
Does the Earth wait?
Did she?
For what? Whom?
Has she
consciousness?
is she or has she
a self? Or random in
her accident of
cause
waiting for effect?

All these millennia–
a pregnant
silence,
never knowing,
never ending,
never not becoming;
while I
become,
then disappear.

Today she is familiar,
greets
me,
telling stories,
speaks with my tongue.
I ask her to
remember
because she will be–
long beyond me.

A loudspeaker voice
says
“fasten your seatbelts;
we begin our descent.”
We do descend to
Earth,
in this metaphor for life
a soul becomes biology
for a perfect 3
point landing
to arrive in matter.
Perhaps to matter?
To call her
“home.”

The Captain says we are
“preparing to land–”
while the
metaphor continues
and God knows itself
drawing the first breath,
with
a burst and a bang
the labor begins.
A messy affair
this humanity
birthed.

I know that once again
I too prepare to land
somewhere
outside this perspective,
outside its intimacy,
inside its wisdom.
A
sigh escapes
from somwhere deep,
a tear appears,
as the voice far and faint whispers:
“Awaken; remember!
You are my
reason
and now my voice.”

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Here’s Your Invitation:

How will you let the Earth speak to you today?

Please allow Earth to speak to you today…

Shhhh!

What is she whispering and what will you do to honor her?

(Please send me a comment telling me what you did to honor Earth Day)

RevB@innermichael.com

Here are a couple of quotes to get you inspired:

“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.”
―    Arundhati Roy

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
―    Arundhati Roy

Happy Earth Day Everybody!

You can change the world. Did you get your invitation?

http://onewordsmith.blogspot.com/2009/02/did-you-get-invitation.html#more