President Obama, Please Read

 Letter Selected to Receive Global Family Day Scholarship

Dear President Obama:

 

As the countdown to a new year and a new decade carries us forth to January 1^st, 2010, hope rises around the world that this New Years Day will ring in more than revelry and resolutions that soon fade. There is a burgeoning hope that the holiday itself will become a potent symbol of peace, compassion, and world-wide sharing -- indeed, a symbol of the will of the people of the world -- the will for peace.

 

In honor of a new decade in a century in its youth, we ask that you issue a proclamation annually which calls upon the people of the United States to observe Global Family Day, a day of peace and sharing among all the peoples of the world, across every border and culture, promoting

understanding, non-violent conflict resolution, the eradication of hunger and poverty, and respect for all as bound together as one in the human family, as outlined in detail in S. Res. 357 and H. Con. Res. 221.

 

Global Family Day calls for the ringing of a bell or the beating of a drum to sound the call that we are one in our desire for peace and sustenance around the world. We ask that you ring in this New Year with a nod to our own Liberty Bell, resounding again with the liberty that is only possible where there is peace and responsible sharing of resources.

 

We await a presidential proclamation -- where the drums that beat on New Year's Day are the rhythmic sound of peace.

 

Sincerely,

MaryEllen O'Brien, Mesa, AZ

Encouraging non-violence and peace will move us closer to the utopia we strive for, and farther away from the horrendous catastrophes that are developing within this new technological age. Aside from socially, such proclamation would reap political and economic benefits for our nation, stimulating an effort to work towards this at all costs. For most, it takes the influence of a Nobel peace prize winner to realize the importance of peace,
and that is why we need you, President Obama, to help lead our efforts for Global Family Day.
Kimberley Banjoko, Queens, NY

I took this responsibility as a global citizen to submit my pledge to you for consideration
with a heartfelt desire that much as there is a unified global effort to fight terror, climate
change and epidemics, so should there be a global peace initiative in the names of Global Family Day.
Mr. Otim Denis Barnabas, Mutare, Zimbabwe

The process of conflict resolution involves painstaking task of restructuring the present world by liberating human mind from dogmatism of various kinds such as economic and political barbarism, religious bigotry and etc. While receiving the coveted Nobel Peace Prize you have proclaimed the significance of pacifism to solve crucial problems of conflicts and violence. So, why not to facilitate the process by institutionalizing in observing Global Family Day each and every year right from the very first dawn of the year 2010.
Suvendu Chatterjee, Bear, DE

Our humanity is in a new era, one of deep desire to make decisions to create change that will impact all future generations.  We have so few opportunities in a lifetime to make choices that will impact billions and billions of lives as we do today.  And it begins with a global family.
Thomas Courtney, Cincinnati, OH

We need to have a Global Family Day. With the tensions that plague our country and our world today, we urgently need to have a day set aside to remind people that we are stronger when we work together, and to promote peace and non-violent solutions to global issues.
Lauren A. Fairbanks, Brooklyn, NY

President Kennedy admonished us to seek “what together we can do for the freedom of man;” and you have asked us individually and collectively to “reach for the world that ought to be.” When and where do we begin this work? What will be our unequivocal statement in support of the family of man? I can think of no better statement to be heard “round the world” than my President’s proclamation that Global Family Day, January 1, is our newest national holiday.
Mike Gallagher, Gaithersburg, MD

"Peace is something worth purchasing, if the price be not too steep. Strenuous men advise fighting and compromise after the fight. Almost everything is a compromise. A lawsuit is a compromise, however it may result: the same may be said of war. The question is, whether to settle before or after a sea of trouble. The fighting men show animus: they are wrong-headed and wrongly moved. The men of peace see more clearly, through the momentary confusion or complexity, to the appointed end; they control self and situation and calculate the consequence. The main object of life is not destruction of any kind, but creation of whatever kind." Edwin Manners, June 14, 1906

Today the world faces many issues in which the answer is not easily found. With the establishing of Global Family Day and the unifying of nations all over the world, these issues can be examined in a different manner with the greater good of the human race number one on the agenda. Global Family Day is one step closer to World Peace!
Antwan Gupta, Washington DC

I live in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, where we celebrate New Year’s Day by breaking bread together, enjoying a warm meal of pork and sauerkraut. Some, though, have no bread to break; no meals to eat. Global Family Day is a start to ending hunger and to establishing ties with others, to fostering understanding and acceptance. We need Global Family Day, as a step toward finding a way to live together as one human family . . . as a step toward peace and harmony. World peace: that’s a big wish, but it could all begin on January 1st with Global Family Day. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. How about you?
Linda Oatman High, Narvon, PA

The commencement of the new decade is a fitting time to renew our commitment to practicing and teaching peace. I write to you in support of resolutions from U.S. Congress and the U.N. General Assembly that urge the President to proclaim January 1st as Globalfamily Day, an annual day devoted to peace and sharing. I ask that in addition to making this proclamation, you speak to the nation about the hidden lessons of our past proving that peace is possible and that you share with our citizens the concepts behind the beautiful theory of non-violence.
Michaela Kral, Richland Hills, TX

Creating a Globalfamily Day is a kindness and a beautiful first step toward a Globalfamily age. An age where all families have food, water, a place to live, work to do, and peace to play in.
Michael Lewis

Mr. President, in the last fifteen years I have travelled across the US, beyond the Atlantic, through the Himalayas and into the dry desert heat of Africa. I have sat with families over hushed fires, ate with children under naked moons, rode on oxcarts with sisters through forests in the rain. But I have also seen sick babies rent from their mothers, fathers crying for their disappeared sons, daughters forced from their homes and into a dark destiny that makes them never, ever able to return. It is in this light that I appeal to you, to help recognise what gives us strength. More than our parents, more than our nationalities, more than our history. Family - more than ourselves.
Mei-Ling McNamara, India

Declare Global Family Day on January 1st because we should begin the year reminding ourselves that we aren’t alone as the rest of the year might have us believe. No matter who tucks us in at night or reads us that bedtime story, we are all sleeping under the same stars.
Lila Louise Nawrock, NY State

I agree with the Nobel Prize Committee who stated that in a short period of time, you have succeed in empowering the people of the world to view themselves as citizens of the world united by our common shared humanity. The seed you have planted need to be watered by our deliberate action of reaching out to one another. By starting global family day, we can fathom a future where our children's children will dare play again in a free world!
Cecilia Pozi

As you know, many challenges face the global community, to that end; only by recognizing that we face them together can we truly hope to enact the changes that must be made.
Sean Liam Reilly, Jamaica, NY

We need unity and oneness to bring the love and peace we so crave and need. We need to join hands across borders and truly love one another. Come on world! We really are just one world, a global family anyway. We can do it!  We must!
Grace E. Reed

It is well accepted from the very beginning of the human history that the planet is a home for all those who inhabit here. Contrary to this fact, there are many divisions and contradictions, the true insights of the humanity is forgotten, love has happened to be a forgotten language, human societies are compelled to conquer for the futile power rather than the true spirit of the whole humanity, humanity is in crisis, coming generations are compelled to learn the art of making wars but not educated by the real and right teachings of the human history, the true essence of human being is almost forgotten. We have forgotten to love our own home. The art of stewardship, love and care to the planet, gratitude and respect towards the whole existence have been forgotten.  All this has to be rejuvenated through the true insights and the human conscience then it has to be reoriented in our societies.
Sundar Kumar Sharma, Nepal