Greetings!
This is Esther adding to a newly recovered post from yesterday. Just a little add-on to what we blogged yesterday.

Yesterday was our last day with Dot Maver, our guest speaker. She opened her presentation with a little Black Eyed Peas asking us "Where is the Love?"

Dot built on Tuesday's call to engage in creating a culture of peace. She took that invitation one step further by presenting us with real life examples of successful organizations, businesses, and foundations that have reformed the bottom line. Instead of profit being the all important deciding factor, Dot showed us how people's minds are shifting to worry about the planet and the people in addition to making a profit. Then, she asked us to cultivate our own structures that create peace in the real world.

Jack Davis, a POWER Summitter, reminded us that instead of trying to change peoples minds to make them believe that sustainability is a good thing, we can show them by making it a profitable thing. He suggested using techniques like government subsidies and also said that he hopes there will come a time when we won't need things like subsidies to encourage businesses to operate sustainably; it will just be the way things are done.

Kathleen Otto, another Summitter, talked about her group's idea of an educational system that includes peace and social justice instruction from the beginning.

As you can see, the week so far has been super full of great ideas, both from the presenters and from the participants. So much energy and hope!

Just a note, those of us who protested Guantanamo Bay and war in general on the Lake street bridge yesterday had a great time. Some hopped into orange jumpsuits and we all carried signs. The energy was exciting and it felt good to take what we had been talking about all week and put it into action.

Peace,
Esther