EXTRA, SPECIAL (2nd) EDITION: Happy International Peace Day 2017 - Sep 21st

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The Guide's giant MUSIC NEWS EDITION was already published today. Scroll down for it, or it's a click away at: https://acousticamericana.blogspot.com/2017/09/big-edition-music-news-features-on.html
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THIS is an EXTRA, SPECIAL, short edition. It's here because, dammit, we all need it. Please, stay with us a minute. You'll be glad you did, and you'll surely want to share something that's in here.

There's a wonderful video link below. watching it will genuinely surprise you -- we guarantee that. And it will give you heart and hope. But don't just jump down to the link, yet.

Pause long enough to read this brief message. Today is a big deal throughout the world, except here. If anyplace needs to change that, it's here, and it's us, as artists and supporters of the arts who can do it.

The "International Day of Peace," also unofficially proclaimed as "World Peace Day" in some countries, is observed as an annual holiday on September 21st, though, as we alluded, it is kept strangely quiet in the U.S. The day is dedicated to a thoughtful focus -- on the necessity for attaining world peace, and specifically to bringing an absence of war and violence.

That great and grand goal also works in increments: the day has been used to attain a temporary ceasefire in a combat zone for humanitarian aid access.

First celebrated in 1982, this day is a time of thoughtful focus by proclamation in many nations, and by political groups, some military groups -- and by individuals and informally organized groups -- in short, by we, the people, often facing diversion, obfuscation, distraction and opposition from powerful interests that profit from arms sales and perpetual war.

In 2013, the day was dedicated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to peace education, citing that the key preventive is to reduce war not occasionally, but sustainably.

Thus the issues of justice and self-determination, and an end of exploitation, must form the new agenda as the ways to end conflict -- armed and otherwise -- and to end the forces that drive war.
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We're getting to that amazing video.

The Guide is especially motivated to share in proclaiming this day, in accord with so many artists who are, and have always been, in the forefront as tireless voices for peace. We received a message from a troupe of jewelry-making artisans this morning. It included the video link, and it is the basis for what follows. (More about those artisans in a moment.)

"Anybody watching the news lately knows we’ve got our work cut out for us. But this day is set aside to honor a higher ideal. It exists to remind us of patience and compassion and inclusion, and a hundred other things that make humanity a kind of miracle," reads the message we received from those activist-artists. Their message continues, "Much in this world may be beyond our control, but interpersonally, each day offers us another opportunity to embrace the best of ourselves, to do a little better, to get it right. Anybody can fight... but..."

"Albert Camus said it best: 'Peace is the only battle worth waging.'"

Yes! So... Does everything need to be so hopelessly polarized, at such rancorous extremes?

Is there a possibly that we can say, "Maybe not, maybe we can find a way out of all this"-?

Perhaps we just need to see some sign of hope.

Check out the front lines of the battle for dialogue instead of shouting-down each other -- the battle for understanding instead of fight-or-flight primitive reaction. It happened this week as a group of Black Lives Matter protesters are INVITED ON STAGE to share their message with a group of Trump supporters. While far from universally welcomed, these brave and articulate activists got way out of their comfort zones, took a chance to engage in dialogue rather than debate, and left a small corner of Washington D.C. a little more united for their efforts.

It's a lesson to every artist who gets the chance to stand in a spotlight -- and to everyone who ever gets an opportunity to go on any stage, anywhere, and use a microphone.

Now let's WATCH THE VIDEO. You'll immediately recognize a scene that could, so easily, have turned violent. Except see how it ends, with peace and hope.

And stay through the very end, because it's a lot more than you expect:

https://www.fromwartopeace.com/blogs/news/international-peace-day
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LEARN MORE about activities and events today (and beyond!), and differences people are making around the world, at the official site for "International Peace Day" / "World Peace Day" at:

www.internationaldayofpeace.org

You may not be able to get that site today, due to the demand -- all over the world, people are trying to get there to get involved! And in this ridiculously cyberian age, that's a good thing.
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(Thanks to "From War to Peace" for their message, which is incorporated into ours above, and for the link to the video of what happened in DC. "From War to Peace" makes dismantled ICBMs, bombs, and other high-tech big weapons systems into, of all things, peace-themed jewelry. Check them out at:

https://www.fromwartopeace.com)

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No copyright on this one. Feel free to share it as widely as you like.

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The Guide's giant MUSIC NEWS EDITION was already published today. Scroll down for it, or it's a click away at:

https://acousticamericana.blogspot.com/2017/09/big-edition-music-news-features-on.html

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See you next time. Happy International Peace Day!