This month as we do each year, we celebrated Remembrance Day on November 11th. It is appropriate on such days to remind all Rotarians that “Rotary is dedicated to six areas of focus to build international relationships, improve lives, and create a better world to support our peace efforts and end polio forever.”
This is of particular importance to District 5550 with our World Peace Partners initiative and their Peace Days celebration in September of each year in Winnipeg.
This Rotary year, R I President Ian Riseley is co-sponsoring with two Rotary’s Action Groups: the Rotary Action Group For Peace and ESRAG – the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group, a Presidential Peacebuilding Conference from February 8 to 11th in Vancouver, Canada. The theme is “Environmental Sustainability and Peace”.
There is nothing easy about maintaining peace and security. As a reminder of its many challenges, I would invite you to view the introductory commentary and original song (begins at the 5 min 30 sec mark) by the Canadian troubadour Jon Brooks, who visited our community of Dryden, on Thursday evening November 9th. Brooks was hosted by two Rotarians John Borst and James Kroecher while he was in town.
The song is a tribute to Romeo Dallaire who attempted to maintain the peace during the 100 days of genocide that occurred in Rwanda during 1994.