Singing for Peace
In a complicated world sometimes the simplest solution can be the most effective, at least that’s what Jane Hanson believes. Jane, an educator from London, like many people, was haunted by the escalating wars and violence around the world. She believed that a ‘critical mass’ could be created if choirs from everywhere sang for world peace. So she created the ‘One Day One Choir’. Last year on World Peace Day, September 21st, a hundred thousand voices from 44 countries joined the ‘One Day One Choir’. The aim is to bring together a million voices in the next couple of years to sing for peace.
The SeaSide Singers
This spring the SeaSide Singers, a community choir in Port Stephens, NSW, are rallying their community to come and sing with them for world peace. This will happen on Sunday, September 20th leading up to World Peace Day. Jeanette Antrum, the president of the SeaSide Singers, said “We are asking the schools in our area, the churches and choirs in our area and everyone who wants to do something for world peace, to come and join us. We see our choir as a catalyst to bring our community together and what better way than to invite folk of all ages to sing with us for peace.”
Could World Peace Be Just One Song Away?
To date, world leaders have been unable (incapable or unwilling) to create peace. We believe world peace will not occur from the ‘top down’. It will occur when enough people want peace enough to create a surge of invisible energy from the ‘bottom up’. It will happen one person at a time until a Critical Mass of energy for peace is created to tip the balance. Most major social changes happen in this way. Arthur Schopenhauer said “all truth passes through tree stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” A critical mass occurs when approximately ten per cent of the population changes its mind and acts on its new belief.
The ‘population’ forming a critical mass can be anything. When ten per cent of the molecules in an iron bar are magnetized, the whole iron bar becomes magnetized. When ten per cent of the people in East and West Berlin believed the wall that separated their city should come down, it came down in one weekend. When ten per cent of the Macaca monkeys in the islands off Japan began washing and eating their sweet potatoes, all the monkeys in the surrounding islands followed suit quickly. And the monkeys could not swim between the islands! This is the well-known ‘Hundredth Monkey Principle’.
Be The Change
Gandhi said “Be The Change You Want To See In The World”. ‘One Day One Choir’ is one of the many ways that people are stepping up to create a critical mass for world peace. Apathy and fear are the two biggest factors that are propelling our world into a deeper and deeper black hole. Use your voice and join other voices to sing for peace. Get your choir to join the ‘One Day One Choir’ movement and sign up on the Internet. Or get your friends or schoolmates together to sing for world peace on World Peace Day.
For more information on how the SeaSide Singers are bringing their local community together to sing for world peace this year and what songs they will be singing, email Terry Tebo at [email protected]