"Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood." ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

We did this yesterday, January 18, 2003, right here in Van Buren County. That is, we assembled in a somewhat random yet intrinsically purposeful manner, exchanged interesting ideas, shared useful information, and got something of value done, thus scribing a new verse to the poem of community.

The "we" included members of the Van Buren County Greens, volunteers with the Ozark Liberty Alliance, and several "interested others" who had heard about the event and decided to come just to see what it was all about.

The plan had been to remove litter from a one-mile stretch of U.S. 65.  previously adopted by the Greens, but the weather was beyond bracing. It was downright freezing-cold. Thus  we chose a more modest objective and dedicated our efforts to cleaning up litter in the park.

All in all, from the time I arrived (which was about 9:20am) until the last of us packed it in (right around 1pm), a total of 17 people (including myself) came, stayed a while, and went on their merry way. And I note here that there was reportedly one person who arrived punctually at 9am and, due to my tardy arrival, missed the connection, for which I sincerely apologize and look hopefully toward "the next time" -- but I digress...

Some of us pitched into the clean-up effort.

Some joined us for lunch.

And some just visited for a few minutes, shared a little about themselves, asked a question or two, and left.

But the important thing really is that we all did whatever we did in those moments of time as a united show of support for a common ideal: That we are meant to live productive lives in peace with each other, and that each of us has, in some unique way, a role to play in making this ideal real in the world.

Equally important is to note that  "we" represented a microcosm of diverse socio-political "ethnicities" which, in some instances, if carried to their fundamental tenets might be oppositional of each other's point of view.

Yet we came together in harmony. Shared a communal "bring a dish" meal. Shivered and froze together. Worked side-by-side with each other and exchanged stories about what we want the world to be, forevermore.

Peaceful. About this, we were all in perfect accord.

FYI: This event was sponsored by the Van Buren County Greens with communications networking support from the Ozark Liberty Alliance.