What would it take.

So what will it take to get YOU to go out on a cool or cold evening and ring a bell for five minutes?What promises or assurances would motivate you out of your comfort zone and into the evening to draw attention and perhaps the odd stare or two? Because I have none to offer of course. I have only this, I can assure that if we do not make our voice heard, if we do not speak out, if we place our futures into the hands of others like sheep we will NEVER see results.

This week the great Nelson Mandela died. And the world mourns his passing, not for who he was but for what he accomplished. He spoke out. He took his stand and spent a third of his life in prison for it. But even in prison he spoke out. He rallied a large number of people against something that was fundamentally wrong and eventually he affected sweeping changes for the better. I am certainly no Nelson Mandela and I don't want you to think that I'm trying to be. The point I'm trying to make is that he was merely the catalyst. It was his followers that affected the changes by their numbers. They needed him to lead but if he did not have a following would apartheid have ended? I don't wish to lead I just want to get something started. Mandela is proof that a large enough number of people can accomplish amazing things over time. There are numerous examples from our own time, he's just one.

The point is this. If your looking for assurances that something vast and good can happen from doing something small, remember that you won't be alone. The loudest voice is the one that gets heard. Right now we are letting others speak for us. Others that have a separate agenda we may or may not understand. My agenda is simple. I want peace.  My voice, like yours is small. But our voices together grow larger with each individual. A million of us have a voice that might be heard. Ten million would be heard. A hundred million would garner attention. A billion could not be ignored, would not be ignored. But it all starts with one. For now I'm one. On November 1st I'll be outside with my bell. My voice may not make any waves at all but I know with all my being that OUR voices could be heard.

Five minutes out of one day in an entire year, I hope you'll join me.

Why bother?

     So why bother? This isn't going to accomplish anything.

     You're absolutely correct. If nobody bothers nothing ever happens. I must say here that it is exactly that attitude that leads us down the wrong path so often. I am reminded of a famous adage that says," In order for evil to succeed it is only necessary that good men do nothing." Nothing is easy, it's simple and it cannot fail to produce the desired result which is nothing.

     If I were asking for nothing, this campaign would have been a huge success in its first attempt. But no one likes to fail. No one roots for a consistent loser ( Cubs and Blues fans excepted) because,somehow, the teams failure then falls on them. So it becomes much easier to ignore them than support them. But without support those teams have a most difficult time improving. And that is what will happen here. I'm not asking for monetary support, but simply a small investment of Faith and a smaller investment in time. What's odd is, that while most people are busy they seem much more inclined to donate time than Faith. Faith requires commitment, it requires a long view and we are all so accustomed to instant gratification.

     Consider this. I have roughly 200 (nearly average) Facebook friends. If 10% of them forward this post to their friends, and they have 200 friends then 4000 people will see this. And that's where it starts. If 10% of those forward it to 200 people then 80000 people will see it. You get the idea. Things snowball very rapidly. And if just a fraction of the world steps up to ring a bell for just a short time, but at the same time, then we will get the attention we are looking for. Someone will ask " Why were all those bells ringing?" And once we have their attention we can begin. Help me garner that attention.

     On Nov. 1st, 2014, at whatever time local sunset is in your part of the world, stand outside and ring a bell for five minutes. The sound of bells ringing in a wave that circumnavigates the world is bound to grab some attention. Don't you think?
   

What did I learn

What did I learn.

     So what did I learn from my first attempt at rallying millions of people to a cause I know we all care about. It ain't as easy as it sounds.

     I am certain that if I stopped 100 random people on the street and asked if they wanted peace throughout the world in their lifetime the vast majority would reply positively. Who wouldn't? I suppose I might get unlucky and come across an evil potentate on the street and get a negative response, or perhaps an arms merchant, but where I live that isn't likely. So if everyone wants peace, why didn't this simple idea go viral instantly and smash all records for global participation? I think it boils down to expectations.

     I would like to be a billionaire. Wouldn't you? That same 100 people all want to be billionaires, even the potentate and the arms dealer. But what we want and what we can actually achieve are often separated by a wide gulf. As I said in the first post, I'm a simple guy. I have about a .000000001% chance of becoming a millionaire, much less a billionaire. So while I would like to be one, I have no reasonable expectation of becoming one. And while we all want world peace, we all know the state of the world we live in. It's hard to imagine changing the climate of hatred and mistrust just by ringing a bell. And so, why bother? In fact when you say it out loud it just sounds silly. I know. I still think it sounds silly. But let's take a different point of view, just for a moment. 

     There's an old song that Frank Sinatra did, "High Hopes" I think was the title. In it he talks about an ant trying to move a rubber tree. No ant can move a rubber tree. Not alone, but a colony of ants can move a rubber tree in relatively short order. So it is with "Ring a Bell for Peace".  I do not possess the wherewithal to garner the attention of world leaders. But if a million people march on Washington the world takes notice of that. Imagine the attention that might be given to a billion bells ringing around the world. Yes I said a billion. That's one bell in the hands of one out of every seven people. Oops there goes another rubber tree plant.  In another time that would have been completely unrealistic. But today we have Facebook, we have Twitter, we have blogs, like this one. Mass media in the hands of the masses. A cute video of a Korean man doing a lively little dance got the attention of the whole world and kept it for several weeks. A little boy with a terminal disease wants to set a record for most likes on Facebook and the world responds. We all want peace. Let me say that again. We All Want Peace.

     If we get the attention of the world's powerful people, and we hold it, we can demand action. But first we have to get their attention. Help me do that. Spread the word. Pass this on. Oops there goes another rubber tree plant.

What is "Ring a Bell for Peace"

Nov. 2, 2013

     So this is the first entry into my new weblog about a campaign I started back in April of 2013. 

     I woke up one night after I had been dreaming. Don't exactly recall what the dream was about but I know that in it I had the feeling that I had been instrumental in changing the world fundamentally. As I lay there wondering what the dream meant I began to think of how I might actually pull of a global change of some kind. I mean let's face it, I'm your normal average everyday Joe whom no one knows outside my small circle of friends and acquaintances. In other words, I'm just like you. 

     So during this period of musing about if it were even possible to make a difference in the world I started thinking that in order to do so I would have to get the world to notice the difference I wanted to make. I had to make people see that each of them, in fact, each of you, could make a difference if there were enough of us. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made a huge difference in the lives of millions of Americans by getting them to stand together despite their differences and speak out, or act out, in favor of change. As this notion grew that all I had to do was get a large contingent of people to act on a proposal in some simple way that would grab the world's attention my plan of action quite suddenly coalesced in my mind. I needed an action that anyone and everyone could participate in. An action that was simple. An action that was easy, that took very little effort or time, and yet would make a statement no one could ignore. And so was formed my simple little campaign to get everyone in the world to ring a bell for peace.

     Our first year's event took place at midnight on the morning of Nov. 1 2013 GMT (Greenwich Meridian Time). Or at least it was supposed to. The idea was to use social media (Facebook) to get the word out for everyone to ring a bell at the same moment around the world. Looking back on that, I must admit the plan was rather ill conceived. For even though I knew that 12:00 AM GMT meant 6:00 PM CDT in my area on Oct. 31 few other people understood the reference. It was just a little too off the wall, took a little too much thought. Now, I'm not saying that people are too simple minded to follow those directions, I'm saying that if I had thought it out better I would have realized that everyone is busy planning and working and living their everyday lives. Afterall while 6:00 PM Oct. 31 was convenient for me, 4:00 AM Nov. 1 was probably not convenient for the folks in Moscow. 

     The plan however remains the same, with some minor changes, and next year we will have a better turn out because it will be easier and I have more time to work out the kinks and, now, I have this blog that all of you can read.

     So I will try to post here at lease once a week to bring everyone updates on the evolving plan for Nov. 1 2014. 

     For your part, simply find a bell between now and then. Or do like I did, download a bell shaker app for your smart phone. Simply search for "bell ringer" on either Google's Play Store or the Iphone store. There are several good ones. Carve out 5 minutes of time for world peace next year at sunset on Nov. 1, 2014 in your local area and just give the bell a ring during those 5 minutes.

     That's enough for now. Next week I'll explain how I hope all of this will work, and why it will take time but has true potential. Thanks for reading.

Warren