Monrovia, California, USA - In Monrova, a suburb of Los Angeles, young people gathered at a local coffee shop on September 21 to promote peace in a fun and creative way that engaged the whole community. An initiative of the United Nations established in 2001, the International Day of Peace is a day of global ceasefire and nonviolence, as well as an opportunity for individuals, organizations, and nations to pragmatically implement actions of peace on a shared date.
The result was music, poetry, and art all in the name of peace. Children of all ages made hundreds of pinwheels for display in the coffee house and to hand out to people on the sidewalk. The pinwheels carried messages of hope for peace.
Musical performances and the spoken word also marked the night with a festive feeling appropriate for an international holiday. Ares Meyer offered a poignant poem titled “Peace,” which both challenged and inspired the audience to reflect more on their personal contributions to a peaceful world and to become a “peace maker,” not a “peace taker.”
Young and old, strangers and friends alike, shared markers and scissors as they decorated their pinwheels and melted the barriers, until nothing was left but a feeling of family.