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