People world-wide know we have a serious problem with pollution, poverty and violence. Internet provides an opportunity to remedy the problem. Now is the time to start.
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Actions good or bad begin in the mind. The following Earth Trustee action will change people's minds and fill the media and the world with solutions and hope for the future.
Help the Earth Trustee effort. There is no special "Earth Trustee" organization to join (though any organizations can adopt and advocate the Earth Trustee policies and agenda). All you need to do is make a heartfelt decision to think and act as an Earth Trustee, striving each day to do things that will help people and planet. Share this idea with your closest friends and any organization of which you are a member. Help in pursuing this goal is at The Earth Trustee Web Site:
http://www.earthsite.org
Report your support, suggestions and solutions to Eforum or other message boards. Forward this page to friends and ask them to do the same. As they in turn spread this good news it will soon spread through Internet and help bring world peace and a "new civilization of love."
For those of any religion who believe in the power of prayer the following is an exciting opportunity. It will also appeal to those who believe in the power of positive thinking.
EARTH DAY and EASTER WEEK
A Time to Test the Power of Faith and Love
Two thousand years ago a drama of tragedy and triumph planted new seeds of hope in human minds. Hope for brotherhood, freedom and love. Hope that the spirit could be more powerful than the sword.
Two hundred years ago, the hope had evolved into a world-view that made possible great experiments in democracy. But still the sword seemed more powerful than the spirit: the soldier who fought was more a hero than the man of reason who persuaded by understanding and good will. People were not yet ready or able to use the great powers of the spirit for good will and peace.
Today we have an opportunity to prove the power of that ancient hope and the possibility of its earthly fulfillment. Circumstances are propitious for a global test of its validity. Today, a disillusioned world is at last groping for eternal verities. New potentials of the mind and spirit are being discovered., A new world-view is emerging -- a view of our planet as a nest in the stars, a home for "earthlings" who are beginning the great adventure of exploring the deep skies of space.
There is a new awareness of the importance of each individual and, at the same time, a realization that we share with all people a need for water and food, for beauty and for one another. Then, people were disconnected by space and time. Now, an event can transcend distances, can speed to every part of the world in a few seconds.
Now, in this great moment of opportunity, let us call for a test of the power of faith and prayer to end wars; the power of the spirit to defeat the sword. Let us circle the earth with an appeal that all who believe in the power of thought or prayer join at the same time and for the same purpose all over the world.
PEACE BELL
On Earth Day, Thursday, March 20, 1997, the United Nations Peace Bell in New York will ring at the moment Spring begins (8:55 a.m. EST); a minute for prayer and commitment to act as Trustees of Earth in a global effort for Earth's rejuvenation. At the same time, the Peace Bell at the United Nations Center in Vienna will ring.
GLOBAL PRAYER PETITIONS
Radio and TV are encouraged to repeat the ringing of the Peace Bells at 2:00 p.m. EST (1900 GMT). This will begin ten days of global simultaneous silent prayers for peace and forgiveness wherever there is conflict. All individuals are urged to participate. Radio and TV can assist by providing a minute each day at that time with programs that replace words with sounds of music and views of Earth from Space, or other images and sounds that inspire reflection and prayer. Message Boards on Internet can post local times around the world and state support.
GLOBAL PRAYERS OF PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING
Lent will end with Easter, which will begin seven days of prayer at 1900 GMT for praise and thanksgiving. This will be a time to thank God for answered prayers -- and provide scholars and scientists, as well as the rest of us, evidence that prayer works. "Oh the faith that works by love, will move the mountains when we pray. Oh the faith that works by love, will turn the darkness into day."
MINUTE FOR PEACE BACKGROUND
The first observance of Minute for Peace was at the time of President John F. Kennedy's death. His efforts to see peace realized through the United Nations were ended in Dallas at 19:00 GMT, the very moment on the global clock when the United Nations Charter was signed eighteen years earlier. In the Minute for Peace broadcast given at the end of the mourning period (December 22, 1963), the words of President Kennedy were repeated: (From Kennedy's speech at the United Nations, September 25, 1961): "Never have the nations of the world had so much to lose or so much to gain. Together we shall save our planet, or together we shall perish in its flames. Save it we can--and save it we must -- and then shall we earn the eternal thanks of mankind and, as peacemakers, the eternal blessing of God."
Let each individual who believes in the power of prayer, of faith, of goodwill, join with others each day at the time of Minute for Peace, conscious of being linked with others throughout the world at that very moment as they pray for peace, or purpose peace in their hearts and minds.
To humanists, this will be a time to ponder peace, to celebrate peace with a new awareness of our common humanity.
To Christians it will be a means to realize the potentials of their faith, that if they agree at the same time, for the same purpose, they can ask what they will and it will be done. Each day during Minute for Peace, they will ask, in love, for peaceful progress in their lives and throughout the world.
To people of all religions, these daily Minutes for Peace, or Earth Minutes, will be an opportunity to join in a spirit of love. For adversaries, it will encourage each to take the first step toward reconciliation. It will encourage many to proceed with faith that lasting peace will come, not by the sword, but by the power of the spirit, by the power of love unfeigned for those who appear to be, or may be, enemies.
To all, Earth's Minutes for Peace will be a time for all people, as Earth Trustees, to dedicate and consecrate this ground we call our earth home to a new birth of freedom and good will, a new promise of peace to our children and to the whole human family.
John McConnell, founder of Earth Day. Personal Page: http://www.themesh.com/eday.html
Make every web site an Earth Trustee web site and "peace will prevail on our planet."