The Concert for Peace

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"This is the last peace concert show we'll have to do," MC Chris Buhalis told the standing-room-only crowd, "because the Democrats are in control now, and they would never vote for a war." The audience groaned.

Storyteller LaRon Williams, decked out in vibrant, living colors, pulled folks from the audience to help act out a folktale. The story was one I'd heard before, about a peasant weary of his creaking floors and leaking roof. He seeks counsel with the local wise woman (played by a young girl), who tells him to bring his pig, cow, and chicken into the house. When the man is at wits' end with the critters, she instructs him to remove them, one by one. Now he has gratitude for his imperfect lodging.

LaRon is dedicated to redefining peace as more than simply an absence of war. Peace, he said, is a set of social skills that need to be practiced all the time, so we can create a peaceful society and planet.

Laz Slomovits and his wife, Helen, joined Lori Fithian and Sepideh Vahidi to perform a Gypsy-sounding prayer/chant, calling for "truth we can all believe, dreams and hopes that remain alive, and the Earth renew herself." Joe Reilly urged us all to sing with him and "create some peace, everybody, right here and now, and send it out into the world." We all sang with him, "Eliminate the silence. No war. No violence."