International Day of Peace

Many blessings, prayers, well wishes and love sent from my area of the world to you all.

What is one way you think you could have an active part in bringing peace to this earth?

<3

I think I can have an active role in bringing peace to this earth by setting a positive example through accepting and appreciating those who do not think like me. This site has given me the opportunity to become friends with people whom I wouldn't have otherwise and I'm thankful for how these relationships have opened my eyes. I'm still working on this though. It's hard for me not to judge people who support Trump for instance because I despise the man. So yeah, my being nonjudgmental is a work in progress lol, but I am working on it.
PnQ has also allowed me to meet people who are experiencing things we hear on the news firsthand, such as the chaos in Syria. I hope my small connection to Syria through Noura allows me to bring other people closer to the crises there. The closer we feel to problems in other countries, the more inclined we are to help. When we have no connection(s), we tend to nurture an "us versus them" mentality.

I believe peace is brought about through understanding.

^ Yes, love it!

Nodding my head to basically all of what you said. I think it's easy to have "hostile thoughts" so to speak, or maybe in our hearts we have anger toward someone or a lack of understanding, therefor we turn away. Such beautiful people on PnQ have opened up a whole new world (how corny can I get here) and issues that I've started to consider, care about and put passion behind. That "us vs. them" mentality is easy to slip into if we don't open up and care to listen/ appreciate others' stories or struggles.

What a wonderful thread.
Peace and love to all.

I would spread a little peace by

1) always smiling at everyone I meet.
2) being kinds always
3) not judging anyone as everyone is going through a battle we know nothing about
4) if someone argues with me (I am not one for arguing usually) then walk away or try to see from their point of view.
5) telling people I love them more often.

Jane I too am nodding to your answer

For international day of peace yesterday, people were SO cranky! I got yelled at more than usual at work, and I kept telling my boss "no one got the memo it's International Day of Peace!!!!". We had to laugh about it, or we'd cry.

What is one way you think you could have an active part in bringing peace to this earth?

Being peace! My personal way is by trying to do my best to shine God's light and love to people that I'm around or come into contact. I breathe instead of get impatient, I let others go ahead of me, I pay kind compliments to someone who frustrates me (lol, it helps perspective), I work in social services in my community helping seniors, I volunteer my time in my community, I try to always post helpful and kind/positive things on social media, I extend grace and forgiveness even if I don't want to. I run a small business and give 10% of all money to a local charity... and one of my personal most important pieces is I never stop growing! I constantly try to change my character, behavior, habits to be a happier, healthier, kinder, more tolerant, more gentle person. In my faith, we strive to be more and more like Jesus. If Jesus is perfection and we never fit that mold, then I will be able to continuously grow and never be stagnant!

I always attempt to give my heart to others no matter how much they have wronged me

Sunshine, that shows what a wonderful person you are.

Inner peace is necessary before we can even begin to consistantly project external peace; so I participate in yoga, meditation, nature walks, and smiling at myself in the mirror.

External projections include: mostly vegan diet ("conscious eating"), protesting "free trade" agreements and other activist activities, trying to be kind to all living beings, smiling at strangers, giving back where I can (i.e. registered organ donor, volunteering with my old university), and listening.

My biggest peace project of the moment is my master's thesis which I hope will find a biological correlate and evolutionary lineage of the origin of consciousness in living entities. This stretches from humans, to animals, plants, right down to bacteria. It may even include the Earth itself as a conscious entity. If we can prove that consciousness exists in all beings, and is influenced by not only our biology but also our external environment, then it should shift everyone away from being so damn greedy and selfish/entitled and reach a new level of peace: not just for humans but for the environment we are so rapidly destroying. Like the Origin of Species shifted our attitudes towards people with different coloured skin, and in different economical classes :)

^ That sounds extremely cool. I've always had this underlying assumption that consciousness would've originated in the direct ancestor of primates, but that's clearly wrong. Crows are extremely intelligent (there was one experiment done that trained crows to trade trinkets for food, but the person responsible seemed to have lied, but there's been similar studies done to show crows can recognize faces, and pass that information onto other crows) & dolphins were just recorded having conversations just like humans. Apparently they're capable of having 3 conversations simultaneously, I can't remember which part of their brain exactly but their 'feeling center' is proportionally larger than ours. This coupled with their intriguing behavior (I think it was orcas that guided whale fisherman to pods, so they can be killed and in return would get parts back, I think it was lips and fin? & using pufferfish toxin as a recreational drug) raises the question of consciousness as whole. Sorry getting a bit off track, good-luck with your thesis!

To answer the thread, I'd think just little acts of kindness sort of has a positive butterfly effect on the world. I try to do them as much I can.

That's super interesting about the dolphins and the multiple conversations! I can't even manage more than 2 at once (even more than 1 is challenging haha). I got so deep in to bacterial intelligence, plant intelligence, everything. The Earth intelligence/consciousness is the hardest to prove and most abstract. I think the origin has something to do with the stuff between the organelle's within our cells: a structural protein that makes these tubes called microtubules. The argument is consciousness "abides by the rules governed (yet not completely understood) of the universe", so with the quantum world filtering in to biology we may be able to find an answer for the hard question. Such a great time to be in science or philosophy as the two worlds are surely about to overlap for the first time ever.

Alright enough of that talk now. Peace and love and knowledge <3

Instill and teach the best document ever written, The DOHR, established and written in 1948, we've abandoned those principles. It's very hard to instill peace when people can and do profit off of the opposite.

Bob, what is the DOHR? Excuse me but I am obviously a tad uncultured.

I'm an Atheist, my best friend is Christian, my sister is Alawi, my lab partner is Shia, and the guy I'm seeing is Sunni. That's the most peaceful thing we could do here in Syria: to coexist.

Ether,

The Declaration of Human Rights

Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.

(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.

(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.

(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

You know, I always knew the DOHR existed but never read it. Thank you, they are very good words to live by. Shame so many world leaders (and individuals) violate it on a day to day basis.