Global Agenda for a Peaceful Future

STAR OF HOPE
Global Agenda for a Peaceful Future

By John McConnell: 90 year old founder of Earth Day.

Faced with a growing global danger of total catastrophe, we need a worldwide agenda that will enable us to continue the human adventure.

The original Earth Day (March 21, 1970) followed two events I was responsible for -- the global Minute for Peace (December 22, 1963) and my Star of Hope Satellite proposal which obtained front page attention around the world in 1957.

Let's go back to the Star of Hope idea. It provides astonishing ideas that point the way to peace on our planet. HOPE stands for Help Our Planet Earth and Help Other People Everywhere.

STAR OF HOPE POINTS THE WAY
To peaceful progress on Planet Earth.

In October 1957 I obtained global attention for an editorial in my weekly North Carolina "Toe Valley View" newspaper. It urged that we launch a Satellite that would have a bright flashing light that would appear every night and be seen globally as a bright Star of Hope for all humanity.

Sputnik, the first Satellite, had just been launched on October 4th. None of the media seemed to note that this was the "Feast Day of St. Francis." And launched by the then Godless USSR! (The person who chose the date must have been a secret Christian.)

My own study and prayer life led to the conviction that we needed a common purpose that would appeal to people of all creeds and cultures - and a way to get attention for it. We needed something that would end history's terrible record of war and injustice.

When we set out to explore Space, we discovered Earth. Now we know we are one human family and have only one Earth.

But our addiction to war and our greed has almost ruined planet Earth and the future of its people. At the same time there is a growing recognition that we must change.

SAINT FRANCIS PRAYER FOR PEACE

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury...pardon,
Where there is doubt... faith,
Where there is despair... hope,
Where there is darkness... light,
And where there is sadness... joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying
that we are born to eternal life.

The Prayer of St. Francis appeals to people of every creed and culture and aids the Earth Day goal of Peace, Justice and the Care of Earth.

The Space Program should plan now to launch a Star of Hope Satellite on October 4, 2007. This will be the 50th anniversary of our venture into Space. This can obtain global attention for the wonderful way to global peace that St. Francis provided -- and aid all sincere efforts for peace.

DOOMSDAY -- OR OPPORTUNITY?

In Today's global crisis, are we approaching the doom of civilization or a new beginning for our planet? Can we get rid of our addiction to war and the lust for money by investing in devilish weapons and using them to kill the enemies we have created by our evil control of their resources?

DEFEATING DOOMSDAY -- A CALL TO ACTION!

It is imperative the whole human family mobilize for a moral equivalent of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb. Every thinking individual who receives this message is urged to quickly choose what they will do. Think about it, talk about it -- and then act.

Be aware that today global institutions induce individuals to accept as truth their propaganda and keep them from thinking for themselves. Don't let powerful people in political and social institutions do your thinking for you. Think for yourself. You know the way to a better future is for everyone to follow the golden rule -- love of neighbor and nature.

The Earth Trustee idea of the original Earth Day (March 21, 1970) provides the key: Every individual and institution must now seek to eliminate pollution, poverty. injustice and war by Earth Trustee choices in ecology, economics and ethics.

Thousands of group projects are already helping people and planet. Their impact can increase dramatically by uniting in a global Earth Trustee Campaign with one common cause -- peaceful progress on Planet Earth.

Until now, Earth Caretakers have been a sad minority. The most powerful institutions (global corporations and rich governments) have usually put financial profit first. The resulting social and environmental damage is disastrous. But Earth Trustee vision and action can change that. It provides a way for you to tap the best in your thinking and in your faith.

MASS MEDIA

Press, Radio, TV and Internet play a vital role. Actions, good or bad, begin in the mind. Those able to command media attention have a special obligation to speak out about the crisis and its solution -- the Earth Trustee vision and agenda. (See: www.earthsite.org)

Here is an opportunity for ALL world leaders to call for prayer and heartfelt dedication to ending our addiction to war and to aiding peaceful resolution of conflict. The time and money devoted to war can then be replaced by efforts for the care of Earth. We must now think and act as Trustees of Earth.

Mass media has a sacred obligation as the eyes and ears of the public to:
-- Feature solutions as well as problems
-- Headline cases of peaceful progress in the human adventure that replace hate, fear, greed and lust.
-- Give recognition and attention to people and projects that eliminate pollution and poverty and foster peace, justice and the care of Earth.

With the media's cooperation St. Francis Day on October 4 and Earth Day -- on nature's historic annual event, the March Equinox, will provide world wide participation by people of every creed and culture. This will inspire actions for Earth's rejuvenation in this new millennium -- with peace, justice and prosperity for all.
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John McConnell -- 90 year old founder of Earth Day
4924 E. Kentucky Circle
Denver, CO 80246www.earthsite.org

McConnell Family History

John Saunders McConnell, Sr. (Evangelist J. S. McConnell) was my father. He was born in Seattle, Washington January 9,1892 (died in Ahwahnee, California in 1966). His father was Rev.T. W. McConnell and when I was small, Grandpa told about his going to Oregon in a Covered Wagon and how the Indians they met did not attack them because he prayed and trusted God.

When I was a teen-ager I heard many stories about how we were related to Daniel Boone and the pioneer spirit was in our blood. When I was about ten years old we were living outside of San Diego. I was walking down a dirt road and picked up a piece of paper which had a poem on it. It said,

"Lord give me the strength of the pioneer
and the faith of his hardy soul.
Provide me with courage to persevere,
make me fight till I reach my goal.

I want to be known as a man who wins,
as a fellow with nerve and pluck,
Who finishes everything he begins
And as one who can whip his luck."

I still remember the poem and feel it contributed to my drive and persistence.

On March 22, 2005, I became 90 years old. I hope you who are younger will pick up the ball (the Earth Trustee idea) and help turn the global crisis into a new beginning for the whole human family.

Help make the March 20, 2006 Earth Day a global Turn Toward Harmony on our planet. The human family can then launch the Star of Hope Satellite on St. Francis Day -- October 4, 2007. celebrating life on our wonderful planet.

www.earthsite.org Star of Hope