The International Day of Peace

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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 “Mayors For Peace” 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, “We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For”, a short film produced for Bruce Springsteen with a strong anti-war message and a Hopi Prayer statement. “All My Relations-Sacred Mandela” and “This Land Is My Land”, Blood, Bone and All will be presented. “All My Relations” was a project produced for National Geographic on the connectedness of all life on Planet Earth and “This Land is My Land” 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, “Visions of Hope, Voices of Peace” 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 – 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 “to 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 ways… (The International Day of Peace) should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.” The Assembly’s resolution declared that the International Day of Peace “will 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.”[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]: “The 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.”
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Dalton Green Committee Recommends Consultant for Action Plan

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
DALTON, Mass. — The Green Committee overwhelmingly recommended having Blue Strike Environmental as the town's consultant for its Climate Action Plan during its meeting on Monday. 
 
The town issued a request for proposals on March 27 and received two responses: one from Blue Strike Environmental, a Monterey, Calif., company, and the other from Capsus, an international firm based in Mexico. 
 
The committee wants to develop a climate action plan to achieve net zero by 2050 by seeking strategies to decrease the town's dependence on fossil fuels for homes, businesses, municipal facilities, and vehicles. 
 
The plan should be detailed enough, so the town knows what it needs to do and the timing to complete each subproject on time, the request for proposals said. 
 
During the meeting, committee members numerically rated the consulting firms based on the following categories: relevant experience, staffing plan and methodology, ability to complete projects on time, and proposed plan evaluation. Bluestrike's rating was four times higher across all criteria. 
 
Now that the committee has rated the second part of the bidding process, the bidders will submit the estimated cost of the project. 
 
The contract will be awarded to the firm offering the most "advantageous proposal" that takes into consideration all evaluation criteria and price. 
 
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