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Peace prevails at the UN in stories, song, dance and prayer

7 May 2002, NEW YORK - Some people did not come to the United Nations (UN) this week to talk about peace. They came to create it. For an afternoon, members of the Pathways to Peace, the World Peace Prayer Society and the United Religions Initiative at the UN, transformed the Boss conference room at the UN into a sanctuary and celebrated peace.

"We try to create peace through treaties and laws, but, it is always there, 24 hours a day, inside of each of us," saidd Scott Chesney, who has travelled the world twice in recent years, despite a stroke that left him paralysed as a teenager.

A Vision in Motion, an organization of presenters who have overcome major adversities to inspire and positively influence the lives of others, provided a series of speakers who demonstrated ways in which they find peace.

Robert Pollard described the pure beauty of light and colour, seen in technology as well as nature. Govinda Rose Meyer creates peace through song, with lyrics such as, "So you're willing to die for peace. So you're willing to kill for peace. But are you willing to live in peace?" Paul Wichansky's personal story is inspirational: he has overcome the challenges of cerebral palsy to become a Ph.D. candidate in Physics at Rutgers University.

Talk turned to song, dance and prayer as participants waved flags and called for peace in every region, chanting the name of every country. Bernice Cosey Pulley, Representative of the World YWCA to the UN, just happened to drop into the Boss Room, but soon found herself singing and swaying with the flag of Grenada.

Also enjoying the ceremony was Taryn Baker, 13, from Wagner Middle School in New York. "It has a good message that everyone should hear, 'Let Peace Prevail on Earth,'" she said. Taryn is ready to take that message back to her school, as is her schoolmate Lionel Coulibaly, 14, "This event made me want to be friendly to my peers, even though I already am."