The International Day of Peace

12:00AM / Wednesday, September 06, 2006Print Story | Email Story

Beginning 2002, the UN General Assembly set 21 September as the now permanent date for the International Day of Peace.

The International Day of Peace, established by a UN resolution in 1981, provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of Peace on a shared date. For the first time, The International Day of Peace will be brought to Pittsfield, MA, beginning with Mayor James Ruberto joining 622 mayors across the globe with the â€œMayors For Peaceâ€ initiative requesting their respective municipalities to engage in a minute of silence. The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki began this international campaign in the eighties to promote world peace on local community levels. This will happen at 12 noon at Knesset Israel, 16 Colt Road, Pittsfield, MA., 413-445-4872 (More Info On Peace Day Below). At 1pm, following a lunch at Knesset Israel, three short films produced and directed by Fidel Moreno, will be screened with a discussion to follow. The films are, â€œWe Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting Forâ€, a short film produced for Bruce Springsteen with a strong anti-war message and a Hopi Prayer statement. â€œAll My Relations-Sacred Mandelaâ€ and â€œThis Land Is My Landâ€, Blood, Bone and All will be presented. â€œAll My Relationsâ€ was a project produced for National Geographic on the connectedness of all life on Planet Earth and â€œThis Land is My Landâ€ was commissioned by the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, and is a powerful musical narrative combined with early 1900 circa Edward Curtis Photographs and contemporary film footage of First Nations People and Aboriginal Cultures from North America, South and Central America, Africa and Asia. Also at 12, noon, there will be a "PEACE SHUFFLE" (slippers optional) held in Great Barrington, MA led bymusician extraordinaire and long time Berkshire resident Rick Tiven. The "PEACE SHUFFLE" will be slow, short, deliberate and heartfelt, and be comprised of one loop around Railroad Street to Maple Street to Main Street and back to the start of Railroad Street. After that the public is invited, free of charge, to the Town Park Gazebo-Bandstand on Castle Street for an afternoon of fine musicians, poets, rappers and spoken-word artists. At 7pm on Thursday, September 21, the International Day of Peace, at the Methodist Church, 55 Fern Street in Pittsfield, Healing Winds is excited to present, â€œVisions of Hope, Voices of Peaceâ€ featuring well known Berkshire musicians performing a FREE, COMMUNITY, Peace & Prayer Concert focusing on World Peace & Harmony. The musicians are Mark Kelso, Carol Emmanel, Rick Tiven, Robby Baier, Shirley Edgerton-Gospel Trio, Rasmoon, The Apostle, LindaWorster, Juan Basilio Sanchez, Joanne Spies, Jeb Colwell, Adam Rothberg, Sonya Sadoway, Kri Blowsie, and The Berkshire Highlanders. The concert will begin with a moment of silence, an interfaith prayer and meditation, followed by songs dedicated towards peace, harmony, love, hope and joy. Enjoy folk, jazz, rock, blues, reggae, flamenco, gospel, rap, classical, bluegrass, and Scottish Highland Bagpipes, all celebrating the spirit of world peace. ADMISSION IS FREE. From 6pm â€“ 7pm there will be a Peace Networks and Related Organizations Reception at the Methodist Church. Interviews with musicians are available. For more information please call 413-553-0736 or email humanityinconcert@earthlink.net. Background of the annual International Day of Peace The International Day of Peace, established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly, was first celebrated on the third Tuesday of September 1982. Beginning 2002, the UN General Assembly set 21 September as the now permanent date for the International Day of Peace. In establishing the International Day of Peace, the United Nations General Assembly decided that it would be appropriate â€œto devote a specific time to concentrate the efforts of the United Nations and its Member States, as well as of the whole of mankind, to promoting the ideals of peace and to giving positive evidence of their commitment to peace in all viable waysâ€¦ (The International Day of Peace) should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.â€ The Assemblyâ€™s resolution declared that the International Day of Peace â€œwill serve as a reminder to all peoples that our Organization, with all its limitations, is a living instrument in the service of peace and should serve all of us here within the Organization as a constantly pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace. May this Peace Day indeed be a day of peace.â€[Quotes excerpted from the United Nations General Assembly Resolution UN/A/RES/36/67] [Quote from the UN Resolution UN/A/RES/55/282 which amends the date of the International Day of Peace to 21 September]: â€œThe Assembly, reaffirming the contribution that the observance and celebration of the International Day of Peace make in strengthening the ideals of peace and alleviating tensions and causes of conflict, (decided that) beginning with the fifty-seventh session, the Day should be observed on 21 September each year, with this date to be brought to the attention of all people for the celebration and observance of peace.â€

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Flooding Leads Pittsfield ConCom to Bel Air Dam Deconstruction Site

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:17AM / Wednesday, April 01, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Bel Air Dam project team toured the site on Monday with the Conservation Commission to review conditions following a flooding incident.

Work has been on hold for two weeks after melting snow and a release of water from Pontoosuc Lake led to water overtopping of the almost 200-year-old, abandoned dam. The project team says deconstruction is still on track to end in December.

"They have plenty of time to finish the work, so they don't expect that they're going to need extra time, but we're all waiting," reported Robert Lowell, the Department of Conservation and Recreation's deputy chief engineer.

"… it's unfortunate, but the high-water conditions in the spring, we did have in the contract that the site might flood, so there was supposed to be a contingency for it, and we're now dealing with the complications of that."

DCR's Office of Dam Safety is leading the $20 million removal of the classified "high hazard" dam, funded by American Rescue Plan Act dollars. It has been an area of concern for more than a decade.

The dam on Pontoosuc Brook dates to 1832 and was used for nearly a hundred years to power a long-gone woolen mill. It's being targeted for removal, using American Rescue Plan Act funds, because the stacked stone structure poses a significant danger to homes and businesses downstream. Excavation of sediment began last fall by contractor SumCo Eco-Contracting of Wakefield.

Earlier this month, community members noticed flooding at the site bordering Wahconah Street; water levels were down by the next week. Conservation commissioners called for the site visit with concerns about the effects of the water release and how it is being remedied.

The group got a look at the large project area near the dam and asked questions. Chair James Conant explained that community members wanted to know the cause of the flooding.

Jane Winn, former executive director of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team, said this was specifically brought up at the Conservation Commission hearing to ensure this sort of thing didn't happen.

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