FogHorn July 16 Meeting

DG Leah perched on a seat in front of the room instead of standing behind the podium and talked first about her theme of “peace” being close to her heart. She cited, as a major influence, her father Steven, a 61-year Rotarian living in Florida. Forty years ago, she said, he was working for then-President Nixon's director of public affairs and involved himself with “Human Kindness Day.” She described a brutal attack on her father, in which he was stabbed, and because of the injuries lost his right eye. When a reporter asked him how he felt about his attacker, he replied that he felt only sympathy for someone so desperate as to be driven to make such an attack. “Life isn't just about me,” she said her father told the reporter, and that incident, and her father's dedication to Rotary, inspired her to create and foster a message of shunning violence and creating peace.
She called her dad to tell him she had been chosen as district governor, and he pointed out the opportunity she now had to help people focus on one of Rotary's missions in particular: eradicating violence and building peace in the world. Therefore, she made "Peace" her theme when she planned activities for her year as district governor, and she asks Rotarians to focus on that theme of Peace too.
She outlined four goals for her year:
*She will ask each club to plan a Peace project of its choosing, either locally or a contribution on an international level;
*Support of the World Peace Concert on Nov. 14 at Herbst Theatre, with headliner and California singer/songwriter Brett Dennen;
*She will ask Rotarians to support and attend the Rotary Peace Conference from April 30 to May 1, 2016, which she said will be a little different from district conferences in that speakers will focus their talks primarily on Peace, and that it will be open to the general public;
*She will ask Rotarians to support Rotary Peace Center programs and scholarships in peace and conflict resolution. This program, she said, now boasts around 1,000 Peace Fellow graduates.
She said she wants to see District 5150 become something of a peace-building district. Given this year's Rotary International theme of “Be A Gift to the World,” she said, what gift does the world need more than the gift of Peace?
“Peace” means different things to different people, she said. It can mean feelings of safety and security. It could mean, as Nelson Mandela might say, owing children lives free of violence and fear. She mentioned her father and Sept. 11, and said we cannot realize security for our own people until we have it for all.

She said that the legacy of Rotary is not just polio eradication but helping develop a more peaceful world. In her year, she asks that Rotarians join in creating a legacy with peace-oriented projects going into the future. Think of ourselves as peace-builders, she said. “We have the power to change the world. Let's do it.”