Of course, it isn't enough just to quote great quotes, either. But one must start someplace. Figuring out where to start isn't always easy. For anyone who could use a helpful head start, we hope the following list gives you some ideas on how you can get involved in working toward peace.

    50 Ways to Promote Peace works like a personal peace-participation planner. These peace-promoting ideas and activities cover a flexible range of topics and commitment levels, from the practically effortless, to the simply practical, to the powerfully proactive.

    Check it out - who knows, you may already be promoting peace in ways you never really thought about before. You may already be a peace activist, doing things you "just do" . . . just because.

    A few words about the website links & info-sources referenced below: we don't necessarily endorse all the info on these sites, but hope that the information and resources they offer add value to your peace-promoting efforts.

Try these out:

1. Be a media guerrilla. Use e-mail, fax, photocopies, and newsletters to broadcast the message of peace. Spread empowering information.

2. Attend a peace rally. Check out United For Peace & Justice to find out about marches for peace around your country.

3. Host a peace speaker at an event in your community or at your workplace.

4. Get to know your neighbours. It's hard to reclaim peace without a sense of community.

5. Make friends with someone of another race, ethnicity, age, ability, or sexual orientation. Appreciating and embracing diversity helps to promote peace.

6. Take an adventure to neighbourhoods of your town or country that are ethnically focused to appreciate diverse cultures. Cross-cultural understanding is key to building peace.

7. Travel to learn. Get first-hand experience in how things happen in other places and bring home questions about how you do things at home.

8. Drive with patience and tolerance. Keep the peace on our streets and highways.

9. Listen more. Really listen, without giving unsolicited advice. The validation of being heard is often more important than solving the problem.

10. Learn to say I'm sorry. Learn to mean it. Learn when to say it and use it. These two simple words can prevent violence and save relationships.

11. Be helpful. Random acts of kindness can create more peaceful communities.

12. Spend time with a youngster. This can often remind us of the meaning of a peaceful world.

13. Practice the art of patience. Be careful not to rush to judgment or action.

14. Start peace conversations. Talking peace, and listening, are critical for a vibrant democracy.

15. Involve yourself in community parent workshops and family groups that help parents protect, nurture, and support their children.

16. Peace begins at home. Monitor, nurture, support, and involve your children and family in keeping peace.

17. Explore your prejudices. Find out what's behind them, how they started, & how they influence your thoughts and actions.

18. Write a peace song. Peace songs are great tools for organizing and inspiring people.

19. Use music, art, stories, and drama to explore themes of peace and non-violence.

20. Broadcast a peace message using a peace flag, poster, badge, t-shirt, or bumper sticker.

21. Sign up for a yoga class. After all, peace starts from within.

22. Find your own inner peace. Set aside a few minutes or more each day of quiet, peaceful time.

23. Join a study circle. Self-education is a fast track to empowerment toward peace.

24. Attend an educational series on non-violence. Look up peace & justice organizations in your country at United For Peace & Justice and call them for information on educational series.

25. Stay tuned to what's going on in the world through newsletters, periodicals, newspapers, radio, TV, and online.

26. Initiate world peace by taking action to protect children affected by war at www.warchild.org

27. Learn another language. Being able to communicate in a foreign language helps you participate in diverse cultures.

28. Help bring peace to the environment by reducing your carbon load emissions. Learn what you can do at our global warming campaign site at www.onesweetwhirled.org

29. Learn how to fight fairly. Fight to resolve differences, not to win.

30. Register to vote. One reason the political game's gone sour is that too few of us play. Voting is your hard-earned right and your official voice.

31. Become a volunteer on a peace project. Check out Peace Brigades International or Seeds of Peace.

32. Plant a tree! Trees strengthen neighbourhood communities by providing people with an opportunity to work together for the benefit of the local environment. Learn more about the importance of trees at www.TreesForCities.org

33. Sign-up as a member of a peace organization like Global Exchange or United For Peace & Justice.

34. Call a radio talk show. The good ones to call are often the local stations.

35. Write letters and articles in support of peace and non-violence to the editors of your local media. Published, they can change minds, and even unpublished they can impact the media.

36. Sign a peace pledge. A good place to start is www.peacepledge.org

37. Adopt a politician. Write a monthly letter to your government or MP on peace-related issues.

38. Take social action to support specific legislative peace initiatives.

39. Visualise a sunset. Sunsets are always peaceful - particularly the pink ones!

40. Support organizations and/or campaigns that fight for basic human rights for all people. Social justice promotes peace. For a start, visit Global Exchange or Amnesty International.

41. Run for elective office. Be a voice for non-violent conflict resolution, reasoned sanity, and balance.

42. Do something amazing by giving blood. Check on the internet to find out where your nearest donor session is.

43. Find inner peace in your own garden! Gardeners are among the most calm and relaxed people (while they're gardening) you'll find.

44. Write to your own government; write to a foreign government. Let them know you care about what they do and hold them to the same standards for peaceful conflict resolution.

45. Call your City Council and attend the next meeting. It's often through the strength of a group that changes are made and community is built.

46. Encourage peace projects for school classrooms. You can find some great ideas at www.CelebratingPeace.com and UNESCO.

47. Surround yourself with plants. Plants supply oxygen into the environment while soaking up carbon dioxide and pollutants. The more oxygen you get, the more peaceful you (and the environment) will be!

48. Teach young people about peace: www.peace child.org is a great place to start. Let your behaviour reflect the values you want them to espouse.

49. Support your community's efforts to create jobs and training opportunities for kids that help them become productive, contributing adults.

50. Dig deep. Oftentimes, reaching peaceful resolution means understanding what's at the root of a problem rather than what's most apparent on the surface.