SuAnne Big Crow
Jimmy Carter
Cesar Chavez
Shirin Ebadi
Dalai Lama
Archbishop Oscar Romero
Ginetta Sagan
Cindy Sheehan
Kofi Annan
Mairead Corrigan
Rachel Corrie
Princess Diana
Al Gore
Mahatma Gandhi
Mikhai Gorbachev
John Lennon
Pumia Gobado Madikizela
Joan Baez
Rosa Parks
Julia Butterfly Hill
Corita Kent
Craig Kielburger
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Kalle Lasn
Rafael Lemkin
Nelson Mandela
Medecins sans Frontieres
Albert Schweitzer
John Trudell
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Mordechai Vanunu
Veterans for Peace
Oprah Winfrey
Pallotta Team Works
Tom's Shoes
The Peace Pilgrim
Sr. Helen Prejean
John Walsh
Pope John Paul II
Barack Obama
Women Without Borders
Invisible Children
Michael Bungay Stanier
Camila Bamanghelidjh
Aung San Suu Kyi
Get informed. Get inspired. Create the future.
Why do
we admire heroes?
What personal risk does it take to make positive changes
in the world?
Aung San Suu Kyi
Recipient of Nobel Peace Prize
[left, King Harald, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Queen Sonja
of Norway; Reuters photo June 16, 2012]
Read Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel Peace Prize Award Acceptance Speech here
"The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic,
not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense
to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life
depends on it.”
---
Paul Hawken
"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word." -- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Arches
Our latest discovered peace hero is Camila Batmanghelidjh, who creates drop-in centers for abused, neglected, abandoned and criminal children in South London. At The Arches, her approach is radically different than most who help these unloved children. With Camila's guidance, these children receive "robust compassion," a loving & nurturing care, a safe place to stay, a recognition that they are a part of humanity. The Arches also provides lunch, education, and counseling or therapy. The rest of society may dole punishment, institutional restraint, but the staff of The Arches are the source to give these sometimes dangerous children something quite different, something that their families were or are not able to provide, the experience of being nurtured by a parent. More...
Malaria
No More - insists peace hero Michael Bungay Stanier.
It can be done. Read how...
Promise Not to Forget the Children of Uganda
KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make the heinous Uganda warlord Joseph Kony famous --- not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice. Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, for kidnapping and enslaving children. Up to now there is not much being done to stop him.
Watch the film Kony 2012 on youtube.. Tell others about it. Tell the culture makers and the policy makers and wake up the politicians who chose to sleep and brush aside these crimes. Speak truth to power relentlessly. Pressure them to agree that it is important to arrest Joseph Kony and save the children of Uganda. We must care and tell others. Awareness will engender action. Poster the world. Make your own posters and tack & glue them around your neighborhood. The news media easily forgets this story; they have forgotten these children in the past and they can quickly forget now.
ANIMAL RESCUE
A safer path for animal rescue workers. Read how one peace hero,
Laurie Loughlin,
succeeded
in pioneering Good Samaritan legislation in the state of Tennessee.
Gene Knudson Hoffman (1919-2010) founder of Compassionate Listening
Teacher, peacemaker, Quaker, and a kind-hearted person, Gene Knudson
Hoffman taught the
art of reconciliation through a technique called Compassionate
Listening. Read more.
Ongoing Efforts for Recovery From Earthquake and Other Disasters
A race against time to find survivors, heal the injured, feed and aid
the displaced, and
later to rebuild, mourn, rehabilitate and move forward.
How you can help. Go to
Direct Relief
International
Have you watched the movie Invictus? Now read about reconciliation in South Africa
Recycle, Reuse, Reduce
"We face a true planetary
emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral
and spiritual challenge to all of humanity." Former US Vice President
Al Gore and recipient (jointly with the IPCC) of the 2007 Nobel
Peace Prize. [More]
"I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. But that same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire.” ---US President Barack Obama, 6/4/09
What is the consequence of war as a means to resolve disputes?
As of October 28, 2009, the US Department of Defense has identified
4,343 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq
war. The war has been waging for eight years. The total number of
casualties (i.e., counting both the dead and the injured) since 2003 may
be over one million (sources
vary in exact totals). In December 2007 the Iraqi government reporting
there were five million orphans in Iraq; half the children in that
country have no parents.
Photo and Story
Peace Hero Notable
--- Arlington West, a project that asks
"What is the human cost of war?"
A lot of viewers of the Arlington West cemetery in the sand
are commenting, "That really makes you think." Arlington West
has been erected every Sunday for six years near Stearn's Wharf in Santa
Barbara, California. The wharf is a popular tourist attraction, and
Arlington West, presents a visually provocative statement, in the
non-violent manner of Rev. Martin Luther King and Ghandi. This project
is repeated in other US cities, including Santa
Monica, California.
What does it tell you when heroes stand strong for social justice, environmental protection, freedom from slavery, nonviolence? That it is possible? What is within each of us to do something that signals an end to hunger, poverty, war? Consider how heroes anywhere --- in your family, neighborhood, country, or worldwide --- demonstrate the desire, courage, and will to make a positive change for a better world.
More About Peace Heroes | Quotations from Peace Heroes
Get informed. Get inspired. Create the future.
Examples of a contemporary peace hero include Shirin Ebadi, Coretta Scott King, the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela of South Africa, a psychologist who assisted victim families in a forgiveness-reconciliation program with apartheid-era torturers. Another example is Mark Shriver director of US programs for Save The Children. Also, Al Gore for his eco activism on climate change, Mairead Corrigan Maguire from Ireland, Mordechai Vanunu from Israel, Craig Keilburger from Canada, Rachel Corrie and Julia Butterfly Hill from the United States, and Aung Sun Suu Kyi from Myanmar.
Do others come to mind? Perhaps John Lennon, Jesse Jackson, Jimmy Carter, Thich Nhat Hanh. And many others without celebrity, without famous names or international media publicity, such as --- Ginetta Sagan, Jean Knudsen Hoffman, and Suzanne Big Crow. The list would also include Mary MacMakin who is working to provide humanitarian aid for widows in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Actually this list could include nearly everyone on earth, if all stories were told. There is a part within each of us called courage, sensibility, and something that is a different word in each language, i.e., What is within you that could add to the beginning of a change to make the world a better place? This website strives to inspire you to find that something.
Get informed. Get inspired. Create the future.
page updated 5/27/12