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Creating a Culture of Peace: 2001, 2011, 2021 |
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Dubuque’s United Nations International Day of Peace 2011
Peace lies at the heart of each individual, all families, communities, territories, and nations. Peace is the dream we hope and strive for. It is possible to see a world turn from violent to nonviolent solutions within our lifetimes. Now in our second year, our group of Dubuque-area residents invites all to participate in a city-wide, week-long celebration of the United Nations International Day of Peace during the week of September 17-25, 2011. The Day of Peace is recognized around the world every September 21. Since its 1981 inception, the Day of Peace has marked humanity’s personal and planetary progress toward peace. This year, we have chosen as our local theme to reflect back and look forward from the vantage point of the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001. We want to focus on multicultural respect, interfaith understanding, and the promotion of human rights and responsibilities. The activities, celebrations, artistic expressions, and speakers that we are planning will support these ideals.
 Featured event: At 7 pm on September 21, 2011, come for a short Intercollegiate Choral Concert followed by an exciting dramatic presentation by Chicago playwright and actress Rohina Malik, who will perform her one-woman show “Unveiled”, about five fictional Muslim women who find inner strength when confronted by prejudice and pressure following the September 11, 2001 attacks. This free program will be at the Alumni Center Ballroom at Loras College.
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During my years as a science teacher, my two-fold efforts for peace and justice were to provide a classroom atmosphere of peace and justice and to develop a sense of justice/care toward the earth through lessons related to the physical environment. I remember collecting debris with my students along the roadway during that very first “Earth Day” in 1970, of developing an “oil spill experiment” at the time of the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989, and of collecting recyclable milk jugs in my classroom before the city collected them. Wonderful memories all, to be sure!