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hi,

Sorry for not posting here in quite some time. I'm working hard on a new look for Names for Peace as well as new text. I received a wonderful email recently from a woman in Australia regarding Names for Peace. She wanted to sign up but felt the site didn't explain well enough what it is exactly that Names for Peace does.

This must be a question others have as well as our sign ups per site hit has dropped to about 5%. I'll reprint here some of what I wrote back to her as this explains the best I can what we are doing and what we are planning to do with Names for Peace.

Right now all we are actually doing is collecting names and planning. The sign ups that we receive come from every corner of the globe and that's encouraging but we need to have closer to 50,000 names for the numbers to mean anything.

The numbers behind the group are the key to being able to do anything meaningful. We have no funding or backing of any type.

What we do right now is build the community by collecting names. That is our first goal. Once a person is signed up they receive a unique ID key via email. This can be used for them to represent themselves as a member rather than having us use their contact information or name as representation on their behalf. This is a very important point for us.

For any event the community will be called upon to represent itself with individuals making their own choice about whether to take action or not. This will allow us to work with a very large group without ever taking action on anyones behalf. We need things to be done with not only each members consent but with their own actual hands-on participation.

Privacy is the key to why this can work across the globe. The list itself will never be used other than to show the number of members. If proof of our numbers is required a request will be sent to members who themselves may decide if they wish to participate and can then represent themselves.

Many interested people are in countries where they might not have the freedom to openly take part in events or be publicly associated with Names for Peace so the list must remain closed. This is why we do not consider this to be a petition, protest or a political action. In addition we strongly believe that peace is non-political and in everyone's best interest. We are trying to show the numbers of people who want peace throughout the world as well as connecting them (we have a hunch that the numbers are vast if we can find them) and to use that as clout to back up work we will do in the name of saving lives.

We want this to become a real community not just an online collection of names. We are planning to sponsor events for members, concerts, socials, think-tank gatherings etc. in different parts of the world where there is enough interest. Possibly linking up simultaneous events via screens or other media. Fund Raising may become a part of what we do but at this point we are only thinking in terms of volunteers, solving problems and creating a real social community of people who believe in peaceful alternatives at any cost.

We will target hot spots around the globe where we see problems brewing that will likely lead to violence. If possible we will gather appropriate experts whose backgrounds relate to the need and have them explore alternate non-violent potential solutions to these issues. We will then present these potential solutions to the parties involved as well as to the media. As we progress we hope to become progressively more involved with various governments and other organizations. The idea being, to be as loud and as visible as possible in the hope of putting pressure on governments not to allow their problems to boil over into violence. We want them to know that the world is not only watching but understands the issues and knows that there are alternatives. We want the value of individual human life to be the paramount concern, for every life to have an equal value.

Thought based on a pre-text of equality among all human beings, which is ( or should be ) a fundamental principle in the decision making of all democratic Governments at least, does not leave room for violence against innocent people in any form. That's the basic belief behind Names for Peace. Non democratic nations also need to realize that there are peaceful alternatives that do not endanger their respective governments.

I hope that makes things a little more clear. It is absolutely a work in progress :)

MK