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An Interview with Louise Diamond, of the Peace Company

Louise_Diamond

Louise Diamond has made working for peace her life focus, for decades helping leaders around the world settle conflict. Founding the Peace Company she began writing, consulting and training. Her text, The Peace Book has sold over 80,000 copies.

I started doing peace work in 1988 internationally as a professional peace builder. I got a PhD in peace studies. I started working in the Middle East and have worked all over the world in places that have conflict. Every place I went to, the work was different. In Cyprus I helped build a citizen peace building movement, and trained hundreds of people. I trained the exiled Tibetan government in negotiation to help prepare them for eventual negotiations with the Chinese. In Liberia, I helped peace leaders identify the eight warring factions to prepare for a pre-negotiation behind the scenes, that did lead to a peace effort down the road. I worked with business leaders in India and Pakistan.

I did dialogues after the Bosnian war, bringing the three ethnic groups together for the first time, when the war ended to start the healing process. I have a very rich career internationally.

When you say peace building, is that primarily negotiation or what does that mean?

Peace building is a whole range of things. For me, peace building operates at three levels: the political level, the institutional level and the social level. At the political level, it’s all about governments and politicians and decision makers, where you might, for instance, work with top leaders. As in Cyprus, the number of meetings of very high officials to look at the details of what it would take to get a peace agreement.

Then there’s the institutional level. Those are the institutions that socialize the citizens and tell them what’s the norm of the society. That would be the media, the educational system, religion, nonprofit organizations. In that arena I've worked with teachers and helped them create peace education curricula. I’ve worked with journalists and helped them explore how to report on conflict situations without enflaming it. I’ve worked with religious leaders on how to use the power of their congregations and their faith traditions to prevent and resolve conflict – violent conflict.

At the social level, peace building is about what’s in the hearts and the minds of the people. So, I’ve done a lot of work with bringing people together for dialogues, just everyday people from warring societies to meet the other, break down the stereotypes and get to know each other, develop common agenda and common interest in building peace in their society. I’ve worked with a lot of teenagers as well in those ways, to prepare the next generation. So, when you say, what is peace building? It’s all of those things.

I think peace building is pretty invisible. Helping my readers and myself gain a deeper understanding of what that means is of great value.

You're right, peace building is totally invisible. For that reason I’m writing a novel about it, to get it into the popular culture, to make it visible.

It’s certainly not in the news.

No, its not...I’ve done a lot of training in addition to those things I just mentioned. I’ve trained peace builders from places of conflict, that is the local people there, the human rights activists, or teachers or nonprofit leaders or business leaders, whatever, all walks of life, training the local people to do peace building in their own community. So, it’s not just that I’ve gone to these places and worked, but I’ve collected peace builders from all over the world to special places and trained them. I did that for many years. I’m still doing a little bit of it, not much. And, along the way, I also started working with some of the global humanitarian development organizations like CARE, Catholic Community Service, Heifer, the World Bank, who have offices in many countries. Many of them are dealing with conflict. They’re all dealing with poverty issues as well. So, I’ve trained those teams in both conflict resolution and diversity. And, I wrote a book that’s now used as a textbook all over the world. In fact, just today got the Chinese version of it.

In 1999, I realized that I had completed what I came to that field to do, which was really to bring a holistic view to peace building.

Let's take Bosnia as an example. The official response to Bosnia was to send Richard Holbrook over to broker a deal, get a peace accord signed, which he did. It’s called the Dayton Accord. And then what? They got the accord signed. So what? It doesn’t mean that you’re at peace. And they’re finding all too badly in Bosnia that that’s truly the case. You need to engage many sectors of society in sustaining that, in adopting the norms and the values and the behaviors that go with peace. You can have a document signed, but if you’re still teaching your children to hate the other, that’s not a sustainable peace. If the churches and the mosques are still preaching hatred of the other, it’s not a peace system. It’s not sustainable. Even if you have political parties, which they did in Bosnia. The Europeans and the Americans when in there and said, "Well, now we’re going to imbed democracy in Bosnia".Because it was part of Yugoslavia, which was communist/socialist, we’re going to give them democracy, therefore we’re going to create political parties and elections. And they did. They created political parties and elections, but they didn’t think it through, just like they’re not thinking it through in Iraq, and the political parties were created along the same ethnic lines that were at war with each other. So now you have those ethnic groups who were fighting, legitimized into political parties and they’re just carrying the battle in another arena. So, I introduced the notion of holistic or systems thinking and it was adopted by peace building, conflict resolution communities all over the world. I felt that my work there had was done and that it was time to turn my attention to the United States. Not to be a practitioner on the front lines anymore, but to train other people to do that and, even more importantly, to help foster a cultural peace.

We live in a very profound and almost invisible culture of violence in this society and we are the exporters of that culture all over the world. If we can turn that around in our society, we can turn it around in the world. It was for that reason that I wrote the Peace Book in 2001. First I wrote the Courage for Peace, which was kind of a taking what I’ve learned from my international work and putting it into a readable book for the general public, simple principles. And then a year later, I wrote the Peace Book – 108 simple ways to make a more peaceful world. It’s really a "how to" manual for our culture. If you want to change the way we do things in this society, the way our children are raised and educated, the way our politicians work, the way our civic discourse operates, then here are the things you can do. Whoever you are, whatever your lifestyle or profession, you don’t need to be a professional peace builder, there are things you can do to make peace viable in our society. The intention there was to help foster a citizen’s movement.

I also saw, from my work internationally, that the business community was a highly overlooked and very important element of peace building. Obviously, corporations rule the world. Many major corporations have funds that are bigger than most countries. And, while I don’t think I want to encourage that – we do really need to start building a peace economy as part of a culture of peace. And for that we need businesses that are about peace, just as we have businesses now that are about environmental sustainability, where we didn’t have that 30 years ago. There are all kinds of products and services, consulting companies and research, technologies that we could be fostering. I started the Peace Company as a for profit company to demonstrate that peace is good business. We can create jobs, we can generate revenue, we can build a sector of the economy around peace just as there’s a huge sector of our economy around war and violence.

The Peace Company now has two different wings. It has products, it has services. We started our products with just the Peace Book, and have sold over 80,000 copies. And now we have over 100 products. And we get unsolicited requests all the time for people who have other peace products that they would like us to sell, because there is no other central place where you can buy just peace products.

Then there are the services. In that arena, I do consulting work, public speaking, and interviews like this, and also training and educational programs. We’ve done special projects as well for about a year and a half. We ran a program called National Youth Dialogue on Peace and Violence, where we gave elementary through high school kids all over the country an Internet-based conversation. Now we’ve developed some teaching materials that people can use at home in home study courses. We have a very successful online course. And then I do travel and do onsite workshops as well. And we have a little faculty, other people besides me.

What we’re doing for the International Day of Peace is we’ve started a campaign called the Million Peaces Campaign to get a million copies of the Peace Book distributed, starting on the International Day of Peace and hoping that, by the International Day of Peace in 2007, we will have successfully distributed a million copies. Our ultimate goal is three million. But if you can get a million out there, then those people give them away, it will bring in triple that amount. That’s what we’re doing for the International Day of Peace.

Peace building is not a casual thing. This is life or death on the planet. Either we get this or we’ll destroy ourselves. Because sooner or later someone will push a button or lob a vial of something. Why? Because we’re caught in a mesh. We just accept it as how things are. We accept it as normal: "Well that’s just how people are. They’re violent by nature." Well, guess what? We’re also peaceful by nature. And all of our world religions seek peace as the highest value. I think it’s very important to call people’s attention to the culture of violence in which we live and to our complicity through our silence. That’s why I call it a culture of peace. It's not just about building peace in places where there’s war or violence, it’s about changing the culture, which means changing our attitudes, our beliefs, our behaviors and our norms.

And the Peace Book is a tool. It is a how to manual. The other thing I would mention. The whole principle behind the Million Peaces campaign is that Tthis level of change that we’re seeking will not happen from our leadership; it will only happen from the people. And it will happen because of our networks. We have, through the Internet now, the power of networking and can reach millions and millions of people. The key is to pass a lot of good stuff on. Which is why the Peace Book is to be given away, and why this book is downloadable, because we want to use every tool in our toolbox to reach as many people as we can.

Excerpts from The Peace Book

by Louise Diamond

Imagine

We are embarked on a great experiment: to replace the culture of violence now rampant in our society with a new culture of peace.  Knowing what that means and what it would look like when actualized can help us realize our dream.

Imagine a world where:

•    Children practice playground diplomacy, settling their own disputes peaceably, without fighting and without guns;

•    The technology for peace is as big a business as the technology for war;

•    Rival gang leaders sign a peace treaty, and turn to helping youth find jobs;

•    Ideological opponents search for common ground on controversial issues, and work together to solve the problem;

•    You can attend a university whose whole curriculum specializes in peace studies;

•    Political and religious leaders apologize for oppression of racial or ethnic groups, and seek ways to right the wrongs;

•    Movies, songs, games, television, books, newspapers, and magazines all portray peaceful resolution of conflicts as the "in" thing--full of drama, excitement, joy, and satisfaction;

•    Governments have cabinet-level Departments of Peace.

Can you imagine such a world? Wouldn't it be wonderful if the values of peace were so deep in our culture that they were routinely expressed in these and countless other ways?

In fact, many of these are already true, in small pockets around the world. The rest exist as seeds, planted in the minds of certain pioneers, waiting to find fertile soil in the ground of our society in order to grow and blossom.

Think of this book as the watering can.

What is Peace?

Peace is more than the absence of war, violence, or conflict, though that is an important first step. Peace is a presence--the presence of connection.

Inner peace is about connection with our true and natural self, and a sense of being part of something larger. This connection gives rise to serenity, balance, and a feeling of well-being.

Peace with others is about our connection with the open heart, through which we remember our shared humanness. This brings us to the practice of conflict resolution, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

Peace in our communities and in the world requires a connection to respect for our multiple differences, and for the right of all people to justice, freedom, and dignity. This leads to trust, community, and co-existence.

Peace is a state of mind and a path of action. It is a concept, a goal, an experience, a journey. Peace is an ideal. It is both intangible and concrete; complex and simple; exciting and calming. Peace is personal and political; it is spiritual and practical; local and global. It is a process and an outcome, and, above all, a way of being.

Ultimately peace is about the quality of our relationships--with ourselves and with others. How can we live together, in the smallest individual and family unit and in the largest network of peoples and nations, in ways that honor who we are as dignified human beings?

Why Peace?  Why Now?

As we enter a new millennium, we have the opportunity to examine where we have been as a human family, and where we are going. This is a precious and powerful moment. In these opening years of the 21st century, we can lay down a vision for our collective future, and a program for how to get there.

Sadly, the events of the past century have shown us the immense destructive power we hold in our hands. The 20th century was unsurpassed in human history in the sheer numbers of people killed, maimed and rendered homeless by our acts of violence toward one another. And those are only the victims we can see and count. There are also millions around the world suffering from the everyday violence that comes with poverty, corruption, oppression, and injustice.

In the United States, children kill children; racism, sexism, and homophobia continue to flourish; rifts between ethnic and ideological groups widen; violence is the daily fare of our media and popular culture; historical wounds continue to fester; and the gap between rich and poor grows bigger.

The moment has come for everyday people in their everyday lives to wake up and say, "It's time to choose a better way; it's time to choose peace as the path to our children's future." 

Choosing a Better Way

Choosing a better way means first asking, "a better way than what?"  Right now, we live in a society where many of the norms--assumptions about what is natural and acceptable--are anti-peace; that is, they promote distrust, disrespect, conflict, suffering, and the degradation of our human and natural resources.

These norms run so deep in our institutions and our daily lives that we may not even be aware of them. We just accept them "as the way things are."  For instance, we accept that adversarial relationships ("us" against "them") are normal; that competition (I win, you lose) is universally good. We polarize our differences as right versus wrong, or good versus evil. We think we have the right to enforce our wishes on others, and live as if some of us are more entitled or privileged than others. We accept violence as a way of life and entertainment. Some of the worst ills that plague our society can be traced directly to these assumptions.

Creating a culture of peace requires that a completely different set of pro-peace beliefs (attitudes, principles, values) and behaviors (skills, actions) become established in society as normative – as ‘how things are.’ 

What’s more, these beliefs and behaviors must become embedded in the fabric of our lives at three levels: political, institutional, and social.  This creates the infrastructure upon which we build a lasting peace system.

The Underlying Principles of a Culture of Peace

Let’s unpack that statement and look at the different elements.  First, what are the key beliefs associated with a culture of peace?  Different people will name them differently, of course.  In this book I have named them as the Four Principles of Peace:

1.      Community – the understanding that we are all connected in a single web of life; inter-related and interdependent.  We acknowledge that we’re all in this together. Mutual respect, appreciation of differences, and honoring the equal dignity and worth of all are expressions of this awareness, as is a commitment to social and economic justice.

2.      Cooperation – the understanding that we are co-creating our shared reality whether we are conscious of it or not, and that power ‘with’ rather than power ‘over’ makes possible a world that works for all. If we think of ourselves as partners, and share our resources fully, we can find creative solutions to our joint problems, and build bridges across whatever seems to divide us.

3.      Nonviolence –the realization that to harm another is to harm ourselves, and that love is the power that connects us and heals what violence destroys. We choose not to use force and coercion as a basis for relationship, but rather to relate to the goodness in each and every person. With an open heart--and with a moral conviction to avoid the suffering caused by violence--we can address the toughest issues of our individual and collective lives.

4.      Witness – the understanding that peace is a living presence within all of us. Like Justice, Freedom, or Beauty, Peace is an ideal with a capital letter. It is encoded in us as natural wisdom, our spiritual birthright. Our job is to activate this sacred seed from within, and relate to that same potential within every person and every situation.  When we embody peace in this way, we become a living witness to the power and promise of peace.

With these understandings, or world view, we naturally hold certain values: the inherent dignity and worth of all beings; harmlessness; respect; justice; equity; compassion; fairness; mutuality; collaboration; and universal wellbeing.

Imagine, for just a moment, what our country and our world would be like if these principles and values were truly the basis for all our actions and our relationships…

The Behaviors of a Culture of Peace

What are the key behaviors associated with a culture of peace?  If we accept the Four Principles of Peace (or something similar) as the underpinnings of peace as a way of life, certain behaviors or skills naturally arise. 

For instance, to actualize Community, we develop such skills as: conflict resolution, active listening, empathy, systems thinking, dialogue, and an appreciation of differences.

To actualize Cooperation, we activate such skills as creativity, collaborative decision-making, joint creative problem-solving, shared leadership, partnership, networking, alliance-building, and teamwork.

To actualize Nonviolence, we practice such things as: healing and reconciliation, nonviolent communication, compassion, openheartedness, speaking truth to power, and nonviolent action for social change.

To actualize Witness, we develop such inner disciplines as: centering, meditation, serenity, energy awareness, and inner peace.

These are only a sampling of the kinds of behaviors that, when they become widespread in our family, work, and community lives, will create a world very different from what we now know – a world of peace.

Imagine, for just a moment, what our country and our world would be like if these skills and behaviors were truly the way we managed our lives and our relationships…

The Infrastructure of a Peace System

What would a culture of peace mean at the political, or leadership and decision-making level? 

In terms of our national polity, it would mean, for instance, that:

·          Our political and electoral processes would be characterized by mutual respect and true bi-partisanship.

·          We would have a cabinet-level Department of Peace, a 4-year Peace Academy on par with the military academies, and a greatly expanded U.S. Institute of Peace.

·          Nonviolent conflict resolution, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding would be part of the curriculum of all military academies and training programs.

·          The government would engage in an honest reconciliation process with Native Americans and African Americans, to heal the festering wounds of our history.

·          Our foreign policies would be based on dialogue, respect, nonviolence, partnership, and multilateralism.

·          In our international relations we would reach out to build bridges with those who differ with us rather than demonize them; and we would hold global human rights, social justice, gender equity, public health, environmental sustainability, and the eradication of poverty as primary commitments.

·          Our budget priorities would reflect our commitment to the health, education, and economic wellbeing of all our citizens, and we would use our global superpower status to ensure the same for all people of the world.

·          The death penalty would become illegal.

·          Our leaders would value and model the behaviors of a culture of peace, and actively encourage others to do the same.

·          We would actively participate in the UN Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World, the International Day of Peace, and other related worldwide peace events, celebrations, and initiatives.

·          All of these and similar actions would be seen to constitute the basis of our global and national security.

What would a culture of peace mean at the institutional level?  There are several institutions that are especially important in the infrastructure for a peace system.  We will especially focus here on education, the economy, and media.

Education:  This is a critical part of the infrastructure because the schools are a key element in the socialization of our citizens into society’s norms.  Programs in peer mediation, conflict resolution, peace studies, anti-bullying, and character education would be universal.  Indeed, all schools would be peace schools.  Students would study peace processes, peace heros/heroines, and peace movements with at least the same, if not more, emphasis as is now put on learning about wars.  Corporal punishment would be illegal in all states and territories.  Teachers would be well-trained in the Four Principles of Peace and their attendant behaviors, and would integrate them into the curricula of all course areas.  Peace and conflict studies would become part of the core curriculum as well as honored specialties in our colleges and universities.

The Economy:  Peace would be recognized as a viable and lucrative field of business; peace processes and peace-related goods and services would become a major sector of our economy.  Entrepreneurs would develop new businesses; researchers in many fields would develop new technologies and new information; and venture capitalists would finance peace-related projects – all of which would create jobs, generate cash flow and a decent living for millions of people, increase our international trade capacity, and generate new and exciting career tracks.

Businesses manufacturing military goods would be encouraged to convert to peaceful products.  The large contracts now given to military contractors would be redirected to businesses involved with developing peace technologies and services. 

Socially responsible businesses would add peace to their existing triple bottom line of profit, people, and planet.  Financial institutions would issue credit cards in the name of peace-related organizations, and investment in peace-related businesses and programs would thrive.  Peace-oriented non-profit organizations would easily find funding for their important work.  In short, peace would be a major generative factor in our national and global economy. 

Media:  The media is, in a sense, the culture maker.  It fills our lives with ideas, images, and sounds.  It tells us what to expect, what is normative, what is happening.  The choices made by the media regarding what to focus on determines what we know and believe.  Therefore it is critical to have a vibrant peace media for a culture of peace.

Our newspapers and other news outlets would highlight the good work of peace taking place at every level.  Crime and violence would not be considered worthy of everyday focus.  Adversarial ‘hate’ radio talk shows and polarizing television shouting matches would disappear, to be replaced by live dialogues demonstrating the bridging of differences, reconciliation, and finding common ground.

Novels, stories, plays, poems, memoirs, biographies, and other literary genre would show the drama, passion, and glory of peace.  Every library and bookstore would have whole sections devoted to peace literature.  The music that our young people listen to would extol peace values and peace-related behavior.  The video games that they play would be interactive peacebuilding games, involving them deeply in the choice points that can swing a situation to violence or to peace, and engaging them in applying the principles and practices of peace.

Our entertainment would no longer glorify violence.  Instead, movies and television shows would show us the human drama of peace.  Reality tv would focus on real situations of survival, courage, and compassion in the midst of war, poverty, or natural disaster.  Our soap operas, talk shows, and even quiz shows would highlight peace-related themes.

What would a culture of peace look like at the social level?  The social level refers to how we as individuals, families, and communities live our lives day-to-day: how we treat ourselves and one another; and the quality of our relationships.

The individual is the foundation of social peacebuilding.  In a culture of peace, we would know ourselves as embodiments of the living spirit of peace.  We would discover how to awaken the seed of peace within that is our spiritual birthright, how to see that seed in everyone we meet, and how to relate to it rather than to outward appearances.  We would discover the power of our thoughts and words to create our reality – for peace or for something else.  We would come to know how to be in a peace process with ourselves, forgiving ourselves as needed, resolving inner conflicts, and reconciling our seemingly disparate parts.

The heart of social peacebuilding is the family, for it is there that we learn our values and behavioral norms.  In a culture of peace, parents would be actively inculcating their children with the principles and practices of peace.  They would have family rituals for resolving conflicts, for centering back into inner peace, for making decisions together.  Families would celebrate peace-related holidays and religious/spiritual events.  They would widen their circle of friends and acquaintances to include people who are different from them in all areas of diversity.  Most importantly, parents would consciously choose to create a culture of peace in their home, and raise their children as peacebuilders.

The principles and practices of peace would be expressed in our relationships with friends, co-workers, lovers, and acquaintances as well.  Here we would be especially skilled in active listening, empathy, and other good communication skills, and also in the skills associated with healing and reconciliation – apology, forgiveness, making amends, and taking responsibility.

At the community level, in a culture of peace we would be practicing dialogue and deep listening to de-polarize our society, especially on contentious issues.  Inclusiveness and consensus-building would be the order of the day.  Intolerance, hatred, divisiveness, disrespect, and verbal (or physical) abuse would simply not be acceptable behavior.

At all levels of social interaction, we would celebrate peace publicly, on such days as the International Day of Peace (September 21 each year).  When peace is associated with joy, with communal commitment, and with ritual, it becomes further embedded in our social conscience and in our consciousness as ‘the way things are.’

Imagine, for just a moment, what our country and our world would be like if our political processes, our economy, our education system, our media, and our web of relationships were organized around the skills and norms of peace…

The Existing Infrastructure for a Culture of Peace

This pro-peace movement is not new; however the focus on it is sharpening.  Many individuals and organizations have been dedicated to this culture change for years.  While there are thousands of organizations and projects working somehow for peace, there are a few that are particularly committed to actualizing a peace culture in this country and around the world.  These include the following:

UN Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World

The UN declared the year 2000 as the UN Year for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World, and followed up with the UN Decade of the same name, from 2001-2010.  We are more than half-way through this decade, and have made great progress in raising global awareness about this initiative.  However, much more remains to be done.  Go to www.unesco.org/iycp to learn more and discover how you can participate.

Culture of Peace Initiative is a UN Peace Messenger Initiative to unite the strength of individuals, organizations, and projects into a cohesive movement to make Peace a greater reality for future generations.  Coordinated by Pathways To Peace (www.pathwaystopeace.org) , it focuses especially on global participation in the International Day of Peace.  Learn more at www.cultureofpeace.org

International Day of Peace.  Designated by the United Nations in 1981 and now celebrated yearly on September 21, this annual Peace Day is a focal point for celebrations and other events around the world to concentrate global attention on peace, and to provide a day of global ceasefire and nonviolence.  To learn about the many avenues for participating in this special day, go to www.internationaldayofpeace.org.

The Peace Alliance.  This organization has created a citizens’ movement for the establishing of a Department of Peace in the U.S. government.  With chapters in many states, the initiative is educating people about the work of a Department of Peace, and engaging many in lobby efforts to bring it to a successful vote in Congress.  Go to  www.thepeacealliance.org for more information and to get involved.

The Peace Alliance Foundation.  Working in partnership with The Peace Alliance, this organization promotes and inspires civic activism for a culture of peace through training, conferences, networking, and other activities.  Go to www.peacealliancefound.org for more information.  At the global level, the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace is doing similar work.  For more information go to www.peoplesinitiativefordepartmentsofpeace.org

Propeace.net. This is an internet-based community site for the burgeoning pro-peace movement.  It’s a place for blogging, networking, and online dialogue about peace matters.  Go to www.propeace.net to join the conversation.

The Peace Company.  A pioneer of the idea that peace is good business, and setting the intention for a peace economy, the online store at The Peace Company offers peace lovers the opportunity to use their buying power for a wide variety of peace-related goods.  Its Great Peace Give-Away initiative has already put over 80,000 copies of this book (The Peace Book) into circulation.  Learn more and join the Million ‘Peaces’ campaign at www.thepeacecompany.com.

How We Will Achieve a Culture of Peace

This culture shift in society will come about by the actions of individuals and groups who understand the necessity of this change and who care.  It will happen when millions of us begin using these principles and exhibiting these behaviors – in our own lives, in our workplaces, in our communities. 

It will happen when millions of us join the campaign for a Department of Peace, start peace-related businesses, insure that our children’s schools have good peer mediation and conflict resolution programs, tell the entertainment industry we won’t watch their violent movies and television, and use our buying power for peace.

So, welcome to the peace revolution!  A culture of peace is in our hands.  We know our elected leaders will not make this dream come true for us – we must empower ourselves through our individual and collective thoughts and actions to be the agents of change.  We must honor Gandhi’s wisdom to ‘be the change we seek in the world.’ For as the Hopi Elders say, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

The Peace Book as a Vehicle for Change

This book is an invitation to each and everyone who picks it up: come and join this revolutionary moment, and help make a culture of peace a reality in our lifetime. By our individual and collective action, we can make the UN Decade of the Culture of Peace a turning point in human history, a doorway to a truly new millennium.

This book contains 108 very practical steps that anyone can take in their daily lives to express the Four Principles of Peace.  Of course there are far more than 108 things you can do for peace--the number is limited only by our imaginations. However, since every journey starts with a single step, if you practice even one of these 108 ways, you will have made a personal contribution to the peace revolution.

The book is meant to be given as the gift of peace to as many people as possible, so that the cumulative effects of our actions can produce the exponential change we seek in our local, national and global lives. Together, we have the power to make an evolutionary shift that will benefit the family of life on this planet for generations to come.

Our children and our grandchildren will thank us.