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Here Comes the Future |
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by Steven Leeper
Chairman of this Foundation |
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Project Now, the book, the art events, the building across from Parco.
Hiroshimajin Daigaku, the new college that makes all of Hiroshima its campus.
Peace Day Live, the global concert on September 21, 2012. Masterpeace, the movement, the clubs,
the global concert in Cairo on September 21, 2014. The Shift Network, global telesummits for peace.
Pathways to Peace, globally coordinated local programs for peace. Footprints for Peace,
globally organized walks for peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons and nuclear power.
Earth Village. Earth Charter. World Referendum, for global voting. World Federalist website,
a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The Arab Spring. The Occupy Movement.
So much is happening so quickly.
Young people are taking their future into their own hands. They are no
longer waiting for the adults (governments and corporations) to decide.
They are creating a better future for themselves. Some work politically,
through protests, strikes, walks, recall elections, sit-ins, tent cities,
noncooperation, and civil disobedience. Others deliberately avoid politics,
seeking to change the world through massive outpourings of peace through
art, music, prayer, travel, and person-to-person communication. One way
or another, young people are waking up, looking around, and saying, "We
have to do something before it's too late."
Tactics and messages vary, but certain universal themes are emerging.
| 1) |
This planet and human society were not created for the happiness of a tiny ruling majority,
the 1%. We insist that our resources and our systems benefit everyone; the 99% need to be happy as well.
We must change the current economic system. |
| 2) |
We do not want to fight. We do not want violence. We are a family.
We want to get to know each other, share with each other, and live together in peace.
We must change the militaristic political system. |
| 3) |
We do not want to destroy the environment that supports us.
We want to live in respectful reverence for nature,
and we are willing to live simply and use less energy and resources to do so.
We must change our way of life. |
| 4) |
We love our world. We love nature. We love music, art, expression, growth,
and love itself. We love each other. We do not want to fight or argue with
anyone, and we will resist every effort to set us against each other. |
As chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, my view of the
world is pretty biased toward peace. Still, my experiences in hundreds
of schools with thousands of young people have convinced me that young
people today (up to about 40) are the most peaceful, nonviolent, loving
generation of human beings that have ever existed on Earth. They are certainly
far more advanced than I was at their age. The question is, will the "adults"
get out of the way and let them save the world, or will we kill them all
on our way out.
This question will probably be answered in the next five to ten years,
which is why Mayors for Peace continues its Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear
Weapons (the 2020 Vision Campaign). A number of people have asked me lately,
"What's happening with Mayors for Peace? Haven't been hearing much
in the news."
I guess it's true that Mayors for Peace has been relatively quiet lately,
but that's not because we've been sitting around waiting for the future.
We, like the young people who are helping and inspiring us, are busy creating
it.
You have not been hearing much lately because our first steps have necessarily
been internal. We are making deep, fundamental changes. Now that we have
reached our goal of 5000 cities, we are preparing an important shift—from
growing larger to growing stronger. Though we continue our recruitment
efforts, we will be putting far more effort into creating and funding a
powerful campaign organization capable of implementing campaigns quickly
and simultaneously in many languages all across the globe. |
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The Executive Conference in Granollers, Spain last November was a remarkable
turning point that confirmed and officially initiated this shift. For first
time ever, we had participants from Africa and Latin America, and the energy
from the "global south" was highly influential in all our discussions.
At that crucial meeting, we decided to celebrate the 5000-city milestone
with a global A-bomb exhibition campaign. We are preparing a new set of
posters now that we will present to the world in Vienna this May, and we
intend to have these posters displayed in as many of our member cities
as possible during Peace Week (Aug. 3 to 10) 2012. Of course, we |
Mayors and delegates participated in the 8th Executive Conference |
will be happy if the exhibitions are shown any time in 2012, especially
around International Peace Day (Sept. 21) or United Nations Day (Oct. 24)
and Disarmament Week (Oct. 24 to 31). But this project is not merely an
effort to hold a lot of A-bomb exhibitions. It will test and foster our
ability to stimulate and administer a global campaign. We expect to learn
a great deal from this first truly global project.
The Executive Conference also decided to expand our petition campaign
calling for an immediate start to negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention.
This signature drive has been underway in Japan since 2010, but we all
agreed to take it global and make it go viral on the Internet. For this,
we will need the help of our young supporters, the ones who demonstrated
an ability to use the Internet to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures
in a few days.
Above all, we agreed that, for administrative and campaign purposes:
we need to 1) define global sub-regions, 2) assign, authorize and define
the roles and responsibilities of leadership cities to manage those sub-regions,
and 3) find a way to get more of our members involved in funding the campaign.
These agreements obviously imply profound management changes requiring
careful consideration. Therefore, we came to another epoch-making agreement—to
hold a staff-level working group meeting in Hannover, Germany, to overhaul
our management and campaign systems.
In January, key staff from nine cities attended the first meeting of
what we are calling the Hannover Process. We spent three days brainstorming,
identifying good ideas, and exploring the cultural and organizational problems
they raise. At the end, we all felt we had just begun, but we all agreed
it was an excellent beginning. Currently, several concrete proposals are
being deliberated within the nine Hannover Process cities. The Process
will continue by email and Skype with the goal of presenting unanimously
agreed proposals to the delegation of executive cities that will attend
the NPT Prepcom in Vienna in May.
The ultimate goal of the Hannover Process is to develop a set of management
proposals that will be formally approved for implementation at the 2013
General Conference in Hiroshima. Here, too, we are planning major changes.
In addition to inviting member mayors from around the world, we intend
to invite national government officials and all the top NGO leaders. Our
intent is to make the 2013 General Conference of Mayors for Peace a substantive
international disarmament conference that will establish shared strategies
and tactics for a unified global campaign. This campaign will culminate
with a disarmament summit in Hiroshima in 2015 attended by heads of governments,
the launch a nuclear weapons convention process, and the total elimination
of nuclear weapons by 2020. |
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Mayors for Peace Web Site |
To make this plan successful, we need your help. Please:
| 1) |
Go to your mayor and ask him or her to go to Hiroshima for the 2013 General Conference.
(Mayors do not have to be members of Mayors for Peace to attend this conference, but we assume they will join as well.) |
| 2) |
Go to your City Hall and ask them to sponsor an A-bomb exhibition in your city in 2012. For materials and details, contact:
mayorcon@pcf.city.hiroshima.jp |
| 3) |
Go to our website, sign our petition, and send it to all of your friends, relatives, acquaintances and enemies. Visit:
mayorsforpeace.org or
2020visioncampaign.org. |
| 4) |
Get involved in saving the world. Our Mayors for Peace website will help you help us rid the world of the nuclear threat,
but hundreds of wonderful groups are doing wonderful things right in your area. Please look them over, choose the one you like most, and join the movement. |
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The "adults" (governments and corporations) don't really want
to kill us, but they are dominance-seeking war-culture dinosaurs desperately
in need of enlightened, peace-culture guidance. They need to know another
world is possible, that you are willing to sacrifice to move into that
other world, and that you will resist wholeheartedly the destruction of
this planet or any group of people on it. Please find any way you can to
send them this message before their old war-culture habits carry us all
right over the cliff. Thank you. |
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[Profile]
Steven Leeper
Born in the U.S. in 1947; obtained a Master's Degree in clinical psychology
from West Georgia University in the U.S. Worked as English instructor at
Hiroshima YMCA. Co-President of Transnet Ltd., a consulting, translation
and interpretation business, Overseas Liaison Advisor for Molten Corporation,
U.S. Representative for Mayors for Peace, and Expert Advisor for this Foundation.
Took Office as chairman of this Foundation on April 23, 2007. |
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