Taylor


 * High School students standing up for peace on September 21**, 2007 Photo taken by Mr. Prentise.

**"All we are saying is give peace a chance."-John Lennon**
-UNESCO** - J. Martin Kohe** -Martin Luther King Jr. "Peace is not something you wish for; It's something you make, Something you do, Something you are, And something you give away." -Robert Fulghum**
 * "Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed."
 * "Yes, we are all different. Different customs, different foods, different mannerisms, different languages, but not so different that we cannot get along with one another. If we will disagree without being disagreeable."
 * "Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him."
 * "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."**
 * Mother Theresa**

International Peace Day, September 21st:
The week before, and the week of, peace day, our International Relations class ventured over to a third grade class room, where we met many eager little faces, awaiting us with colored poster paper, and colored pens. Or first mission, to pair up and create a Vertical Poem using the word PEACE. Each in groups of two, three of us decided to collaborate, a challenge in itself, as we tried to debate "peacefully" about what each horizontal word should be, however it came out in the end, and I think the high schoolers in my group were all amazed that the third graders were all smiles and proudly holding up the poem titled //PEACE PATROL//. This was only the first visit of three, our second trip more informational, being as our class and the third grade prepared presentations about Hiroshima, the Dropping of the Bomb. Our International Relations class focused more on historical facts about, the war in the Pacific, the making of the bomb, Truman’s Decision, the dropping of the bomb, the immediate effects of the bomb, and what occurred years after the bomb took place. Whereas the third graders read to us, //Sadako and a Thousand Paper Cranes//, a touching true story about a Japanese girl who was diagnose with leukemia (from the radiation cause by the bomb), she started folding paper cranes, in hopes that if she reached a thousand, she would be healed.... Sadly Sadako passed away before she had folded her thousand cranes, but her story touched many, and now once a year, thousand of Japanese students fold thousands of paper cranes, and place them around a statue of Sadako in the center of Hiroshima's Peace Park. The paper crane is now a hugely symbolic figure for peace, and to these third graders, this story and the meaning behind it is more memorable than any of the historical facts that we presented. Our last meeting with the third graders was to fold (or in my case, attempt to fold paper cranes), in the end, with the help of those who are just naturally good at origami, we all held up a paper crane. Each a different color, a different size, some messy, some perfectly folded, but all symbolizing the same thing. Peace. And that day we all saw eye to eye on one thing that we each need to take part in the push for peace, starting with ourselves and ending with the world. P**romise
 * PEACE PATROL
 * E**nvironment
 * A**ction
 * C**are
 * E**veryone

Working with the elementary school students was a valuable experience and I think it would be very beneficial to our school, and the CAC community if actions were taken to have the ES, MS, and HS interact more on days such as peace day. Everyone both old and young has a part in this world and the only way we will ever have peace is to work together, and I think our school is working towards that goal and its nice to see. “Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of a justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds”- Mahatma Gandhi I chose this quotation because to that is how conflict should be resolved in the world, not through nuclear weapons, or war.

Citations: Peace Quotes." __Nuclear Age Peace Foundation__. 2007. 29 Sept. 2007 .