3 Minutes to Change 100 Lives
You have the power to change the world in under 3 minutes. How? Easy!

By joining Ten Million Clicks for Peace and then inviting all your peace-minded friends to join 10 Million Clicks for Peace, you can create a chain of kindness that spreads hope, light and happiness out into the world.

Just click here to join and then invite your friends to this project safely using your address books in under 3 minutes. (No information is stored in our system, and your friends only receive a one email inviting them to 10 Million Clicks For Peace.)

Remember, as your friends tell their friends, your Peace Impact Meter will register every person who signs up, every donation, and you can watch how your 3 minutes spreads into the world and multiplies over and over again. You can literally offer hope to several hundred people as your Peace Impact grows through your network of friends, and their friends…

Try it and feel great today that you took positive action to create world peace.

Where is Peace to be Found?
by Julian Kalmar

Where Is Peace To Be Found?
In the city or the mill or the meadow or the beach?

Perhaps in forest, or under rock?
Maybe in the quiet trail of a snail or the early morning weavings of a spider?

Hide away from the world and descend into yourself.
Close your eyes, still your mind, and imagine how you’d like the world to be.

Let harmony, comfort, and peace fill your days.
Let children’s laughter, and kind intentions fill your thoughts.
Let your mental constructions all be of kind will.

Find yourself in a beautiful and familiar forest in which lurk no dangers.
Chance upon a fresh, still pool, undisturbed, and ne’er seen by human eyes.

Smile into the peaceful pool and look at your reflection.
This pool is your life.

Today, the new Australian Government, kept its word and apologized to The Stolen Generation. My eyes misted watching the moment, but they wept on hearing the responses from many Australians later today.

The History:

The Stolen Generations is the name generally given to Aboriginal people – mainly those with some non-Aboriginal ancestry – who were removed from their families as children and sent to institutions or adopted into non-Aboriginal families as a result of government policies now recognised as misguided and destructive,, denying the rights of parents and making these children wards of the state, between approximately 1869 and 1969.

Published in 1997, the Bringing them Home Report was of fundamental importance in validating the stories of the stolen generation and of generations of indigenous people who until now have carried the burden of one of Australia’s greatest tragedies. “Indigenous families and communities have endured gross violations of their human rights. These violations continue to affect Indigenous people’s daily lives. They were an act of genocide, aimed at wiping out Indigenous families, communities and cultures, vital to the precious and inalienable heritage of Australia.”

However, the 1997 report was a considerable embarrassment for the conservative Howard administration, as it recommended that the Australian Government formally apologise to the affected families, a proposal actively rejected by Howard, who was quoted as saying “Australians of this generation should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policies.” And for the last ten years Howard steadfastly refused to utter the ’sorry’ word, and in fact, started to agitate for the rewriting of Australian History taught in government school, to more accurately reflect what he saw as ‘more important’ historical events.

When the knowledge of the removal policies became public, many Australians were shocked into action through groups such as ANTaR, Reconciliation Australia and the National Sorry Day Committee. With support, members of the Stolen Generations from around Australia held the first “National Sorry Day” in 1998, and subsequently every year since, for over 10 years. In all capital cities, thousands of people have attended Sorry Day marches and gatherings. over the past ten years and many schools through out Australia have held their own Sorry Day. Hear accounts of what Sorry Day Means here and here and from Life Matters

Today

Today, thousands of people gathered outside Parliament House in Canberra to hear the historic apology to be delivered by our new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, this morning. See it here. Thousand of people across Australia attending and viewing this historical event admit to shedding a tear. However, it is important to note that this does not represent the end of an era – but it celebrates the beginning of a new era of reconciliation with indigenous Australians.

The Dove from Welsh/French origins has felt compelled to join in the previous Sorry Day marches, but, today, for the first time in many many years, I am almost proud to be an Australian.