Four of us had a meeting today at my house as planned. I opened the meeting with a reading of highlights of Julia Ward Howe's biography and the complete text of her proclamation in order to set the stage for our discussion of participation in the Peace Wants a Piece of the Pie event. We studied the mass mailing I sent out 4/30 and the budgetary pie charts, and I made available other materials I have accumulated such as the copy of the DoP Bill and a copy of the US Constitution and Amendments. We also reviewed literature from The Peace Alliance, Syracuse Cultural Workers (especially their poster on building global community), and War Resisters (the publisher of that other pie chart that takes "trust funds" such as Social Security out of the equation.)

The motion to participate in the Mother's Day event was carried unanimously, even though only three of us can attend. Hopefully, more will join us in response to the mass mailing. I volunteered to handle the media contact since I have a connection with both the local mainstream newspaper and a local progressive tabloid, and I have the day off 5/2, which is the suggested start day for the media campaign.

While we were talking, our hands were busy writing this web address on the tops of all of our copies of the flyers from The Peace Alliance. When we meet after the Mother's Day activity, I would like our main agenda item to be development of a list of places to put up posters and leave stacks of flyers, and the division of labor among those in attendance. I hope there are more of us by then, since the four of us only have two vehicles at our disposal, and each member of the meeting should be responsible for part of the list we generate. I am also planning to do another conference call about fund-raising as soon as possible; just the cost of copying materials is becoming a burden to me.

We spent a great deal of more sociable time together as well. Nancy and I performed "Blue in a Red State" for the two men; we both sang accompanied by me on bass and Nancy on egg rattles. I took the others on a tour of this website, and George helped me "defrag" my hard drives and get my media player updated. It was a beautiful day, so we took a long walk to get another copy of "What the Bleep," and we shared a meal at a local deli.

Both our formal and casual discussion ranged from the spiritual readiness of humanity to embrace global peace and the practical considerations of its implementation to dynamics of interpersonal relationships, and it seemed that everything said by one of the others reminded me of something Marianne Williamson had said, which I then shared with the group. That turned out to be a very effective way to report on the visit from Marianne, and I think the group can feel her support for our efforts.

Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Marianne expressed the same sentiment at the retreat on Saturday; she said that, throughout history, social change have never been based on majority decisions; after all, the majority represents the status quo. I remember the number 10% coming from either her or one of the participants.

My sincere hope is that other groups around the country will be participating in this event, too. If that happens, we will surely be generating the kind of collective vibes that, according to both Marianne and "What the Bleep," will strengthen our position. Perhaps that larger "we" will even get some national media coverage!