By Mindy Audlin

For several months, I have been interviewing inspired peace leaders to discuss a new world paradigm for peace. From Barbara Marx Hubbard to His Holiness Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, each leader's message shares a consistent theme:
 

To have a lasting, sustainable peace, we must do more than stop fighting. We must become visionaries—to see and establish a new world order that has never existed before in the history of humankind.  

For peace to have a meaningful, enduring future, we must cultivate peace without the impetus of violence. We must open our minds and find new and creative ways to expand joy, abundance and compassion for all living beings without waiting for a crisis.

The United Nations Web site for the International Day of Peace states: “Peace-building is different from peacemaking and peacekeeping in that it focuses on creating a long-term culture of peace, rather than solving existing conflicts or preventing old ones from re-occurring. Peace-building activities aim at building understanding and tolerance between individuals, communities and societies and establishing new structures of cooperation.”

Donna Collins, the executive director of The Global Peace Project, applied this concept when she contemplated a peace enhancement study that would transform the city of Dallas—a city whose crime rate had ranked number one in the United States for 10 consecutive years for cities of more than 1 million people.

Explaining the study, Collins stated, “We were not interested in a crime study.  We were interested in a peace enhancement study that just happened to have the side effect of reducing crime. We wanted our concentration to be on how we create a better community—how we make individuals, families, neighborhoods, the community and the city into a more cooperative, collaborative and calmer place.”

Collins' idea grew into a grassroots peace education initiative led by nationally recognized facilitators and qualified volunteers from the community. Free workshops were held to introduce participants to visioning, meditation, communication skills, the Emotional Freedom Technique, HeartMath and other techniques.

The initial peace study began in June 2008 and culminated on April 4, 2009, at a closing event for the Season of Peace and Nonviolence. By May 2009, The Dallas Morning News headlines reported for the first time, “Dallas' crime rate no longer the highest among large U.S. cities.”

Collins explained that they continued the study for 10 months and the crime rate continued to drop. She notes, “People would say, ‘Are you claiming that what you did lowered the crime rate?' Finally, I got brave enough to say, ‘Yes, I think we really did it. It wasn't just us, but it also wasn't just the new burglary unit. It wasn't just the addition of policemen here or there. Yes, we definitely did that.'”

Garland Landrith, a faculty advisor for The Global Peace Project, explains why these types of projects make a difference. “What this [study] tells us is that what we do inside makes a big difference on the outside. The other big aspect of this [study] is numbers. The same people doing the same thing at the same time [has impact].”

During his Voices of Peace interview, Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell discussed a consciousness of peace-building. He stated, “We're creating the science that shows transcendence is a doable thing. We can do it. We just have to learn to practice it.”

 

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To learn more about the Voices of Peace series, click here.

 

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