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Peace By Building Bridges

November 22, 2011 by

[HTML1]Dr. Ada Aharoni is the Founder of The International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace (IFLAC), a voluntary Association that strives for peace by building bridges of understanding and peace through culture, literature and communication.  Ada is also a writer, Sociologist and has published twenty-six books to date that have won international prizes.  Her two latest books are, You and I Can Change the World and Women Create a World Beyond War and Violence.  Ada joins Speak Up! to talk more about IFLAC and its mission.  Also, make sure to read Ada’s inspirational poems below!

“A Bridge of Peace”

“They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid.” (The Holy Bible, Micha, 4,4)

“He who walks with peace, walk with him.”  (The Koran, Sura 48)

My Arab sister, let us build a wonder bridge
from your fig tree and vine to mine
above the boiling pain of the Intefada battle
Salima, my Arab sister, when will we laugh again
like two women, instead of weeping on our sons’ stones?

You and me, Salima, my friend, on this wonder bridge
from your culture to mine, from my culture to yours
in the fragrance of blossoming jasmine, holding hands
whispering secrets about our loves, our children, our plans,
and our deepest, deepest yearning for a bright free sky
crowned by twinkling peace stars.

I do not want to be your oppressor, you do not want to be my oppressor,
or your jailer, or my jailer, we do not want to make each other afraid
under our vines and under our fig trees blossoming on a silver horizon
above the bleeding of our children by stones, bullets and missiles.

So, my Arab sister, let us build a sturdy bridge
of tolerant jasmine understanding, where each shall sit with her baby
under her vine and under her fig tree
AND NONE SHALL MAKE THEM AFRAID!

“Peace Is a Woman and a Mother”

How do you know
peace is a woman?
I know, for
I met her yesterday
on my winding way
to the world’s fare.

She had such a sorrowful face
just like a golden flower faded
before her prime.
I asked her why
she was so sad?
She told me her baby
was killed in Auschwitz,
her daughter in Hiroshima
and her sons in Vietnam,
Israel, Palestine, Lebanon,
Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur and Chechnya.

All the rest of her children, she said,
are on the nuclear
black-list of the dead,
all the rest, unless
the whole world understands –
that peace is a woman.

A thousand candles then lit
in her starry eyes, and I saw –
Peace is indeed a pregnant woman,
Peace is a mother.

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About Pat Lynch, Editor-in-Chief

Pat Lynch_250x250Pat Lynch

In 1969 at the age of 25, Ms. Lynch, having already served as the Press Secretary for a U.S. Senator and Congressman, founded her first advertising agency in Atlanta, Georgia, becoming the first woman to begin an advertising agency single-handedly in the South.  By 1977, she had been listed twice in The World’s Who’s Who of Women, in the International Who’s Who and Strathmore’s Who’s Who. She and her agency gained a reputation for introducing media, particularly radio and television, to industries, which had never considered using them to deliver their advertising messages.  One such industry was real estate (both residential and commercial).  Her clients have included Turner Outdoor, Coco Cola, Miller Lite, Citizens Trust Company, LPGA, Pulte Builders, K&B, Ryland Homes, and a longer list of regional and national builders and developers, real estate investment trusts and banks, as well as local, regional and national political candidates, issues and referendums.

In 1996 in the Bay Area of California, Pat Lynch began Women’s Online Media and Education Network. In 1998, other doors being slammed shut, she began WomensRadio.com, to “give women a greater voice!” WomensRadio® became the first site to stream for women and is possibly one of the longest continually streaming sites on the Web. The audience was, and is, filled with “women leaders,” women 40-65+, most of whom can be identified as “Cultural Creatives,” as defined by researcher Dr. Paul Ray.  In 2005, the company introduced a new audio production tool for the Web, AudioAcrobat®, that is now the state-of-the-art Web-based media tool for on-demand audio and video streaming and podcasting.  This service provides audio and/or video streaming in emails, documents, social media and websites.  Today, it is the tool of choice for thousands of users in some 150 countries and powers WomensRadio®.

Pat Lynch contributes her time and experience to many not-for-profits. When the City of Atlanta had experienced a season of multiple killings of young people, a time when the economy was also in a slump, the city was looking for a number of ways to create community and give kids at risk a brighter outlook. She volunteered her time and helped to create the largest party for young people that has ever been conducted. With only three months to pull together all the details, “It’s Time,” was an all-day event hosting some 10,000 kids in Piedmont Park, the largest park in the city. All the transportation to the event, all the food, all the cooks and servers, all the entertainment, all the prizes, everything – was provided for free! Mayor Andrew Young and Gerri Elder, Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, created a special plaque of appreciation which was presented to Ms. Lynch for her work in creating and conducting this event.  Eight years later, she and her team created a major media event, The Rock 'n Roller Derby that brought the first rock 'n roll bands to the largest park in Atlanta, for the benefit of the City.

She has also worked tirelessly for other not-for-profits, largely in  publicity and/or fund-raising for such organizations as Cerebral Palsy Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy, American Heart Association.

While residing in California, she served on the boards of the Fresno, CA Court School PTA as President, Fresno Habitat for Humanity and the Fresno Ballet where she helped to raise funds to produce the first new Nutcracker in over 20 years. In the Bay Area, she served as the Media Chair for the California Women’s Agenda, was a member of the Women’s Leadership Alliance of the Bay Area, the National Council of Women's Organizations, and was on the Board of Directors of the Afghan Coalition and Afghan Women’s Association International.

Since then, she has served on the Board of Boardroom Bound (www.boardroom-bound.biz) and the National Women’s Political Caucus (www.nwpc.org) where she served as National Board Vice President of Communications.  In 2015, she helped Co-found Basin and Range Organics, the new Nevada-based, USDA Certifying Agency and served as Secretary of that Board.  While located in Reno, she served for two years as Secretary for the Reno/Sparks NAACP, volunteered on the Mayor’s Operation Downtown and was part of The Women’s March, OFA and other progressive organizations including the launch of Indivisible Reno.

Ms. Lynch attended Stuart Hall in Staunton, VA, and is an Alumni of The University of Tennessee, School of Journalism. While attending, she participated in many organizations on campus, including election to AWS (Associated Women Students), the school paper and Alpha Xi Delta Sorority.  She is in the process of publishing her first novel, “Merger,” and is working on its sequel. Currently, she is creating a new virtual conference, “CreativesConnectLive,” to launch in the Spring of 2021.

She is a frequent speaker on the value of “speaking up” and creating new communication bridges to the future. She can be reached at womensradio@gmail.com