Peace Is Not Just A Word…

By Ron Merk

Peace is a word that we hear every day, a “concept” that is discussed ad nauseum in the press, on television, at cafes, and over dinner with our friends. Yet it seems an elusive goal for the human race. A few months ago, I was asked by my friend, Drey Tosi, if I would help him create a series of videos for him, and an idea that he had that would actually bring us closer to the goal of peace.

Part of that process was re-defining what peace means. Most people see it as the absence of war, but Drey believed that was just part of what peace should mean. In fact, Drey came up with the unique idea that peace is a much broader concept, defined by the absence of fear in our lives, the fear of war being only one of those fears.

But creating a broader definition of peace was just the beginning of Drey’s re-definition of peace. He understood that certain action must be taken to insure that all of our lives are free of fear. His idea was simple, find the sources of those fears, and address them. It was clear to Drey that it was governments, politicians and corporations, and their actions or lack of actions that created the problems that afflict the human race. It was also very important that we take the power back from these enormous forces and make them work for us.

Drey then created the repeace idea, and started an amazing campaign on the website: www.repeace.com to get this idea out to the world. It was Drey’s opinion that transparency and truth was important, and that we need to not only demand it from governments, politicians and corporations, but that we would reward them with our support if they complied with our demands. From this idea was born the three pledges that repeace asks all of us to make. They are very simple:

1. I will support businesses that focus on local, sustainable, quality products and services, not on buying influence.
2. I will support politicians who are accountable to me, not to corporations.
3. I will support countries that promote and defend freedom of expression.

You can take the pledges at www.repeace.com. BUT, taking the pledges is only the beginning. You must follow up by acting on them. Write a letter to a member of Congress, a CEO, and the President of your country. Tell them what you think about what they are doing, and how you want them to change things. Attend a local government hearing. Buy products from companies and merchants that don’t harm the planet and us! Small steps taken by many add up to giant steps in the minds of the people we are trying to reach. A wave becomes a tsunami that cannot be resisted. We have always had this power, but we became complacent with our comfortable lives, or perhaps overtired trying to achieve a comfortable life. Let us take our power back. We CAN change the world. But we must ACT!

I am very proud to have produced, directed and written a series of videos for repeace. Actors from all over the world, representing the entire human race, participated in this project. I hope you will watch the video, share and like it, and then go to www.repeace.com and take the three pledges.