Smile for Nuclear Disarmament is a Voices of Humanity (VoH) smartphone app soon to be available in the Apple Store under the name “smile4nd”. Voices of Humanity is an online forum designed to foster a heartfelt sense of human unity that respects diversity.
The smile4nd app enables users to post their smile for nuclear disarmament with a short message or, to give it some humor, to post their scowl against nuclear weapons. People (some people) do like posting their scowl! As members of the interfaith movement, TIO readers are particularly invited to download the app. It is enjoyable and easy to use, but more to the point, your participation will help to get the Voices of Humanity social medium off the ground. We will use this app to bring in people from around the world with the aim of having posts from a thousand cities by the end of 2019. Organize Locally Connect Globally. That is the motto on the VoH logo. Once we reach the 1000 city goal, the next step will be to organize local in-person nuclear disarmament groups at the city level.
The interfaith movement is well positioned to be a catalyst for a heartfelt human unity that respects diversity. There are many positive global movements that are looking for ways to cooperate. People are thinking hard about how to foster cooperation across these “silos”. There is the women’s movement, the labor movement, the social justice movement, the indigenous peoples movement, sustainability movement and climate action, the peace movement and nuclear disarmament, the social justice movement, the UN SDGs, and the list is only begun. While many in these movements see the Interfaith movement as an ally, we must realize there is little interest in trying to bring all these movements together under an interfaith banner. Our aim must be to bring everyone together under the banner of human unity – always with respect for diversity. Voices of Humanity can help us do exactly that.
Nuclear weapons are an intractable problem that feeds on itself. The existence of these horrific weapons tells the nuclear weapons states (NWS) that we live in an immoral us-vs-them world and they take the lesson that in such a world it would be folly to disarm. As a result, humanity is locked into a win-lose world that cannot cooperate to achieve our common goals. Along these same lines, the very horror of nuclear weapons can easily arouse fear and when fear is aroused, there is a tendency for people to duck into an unthinking fight-or-flight mode. Smile for Nuclear Disarmament does an end-run around these problems with a city level approach and a glad heart. The cities of the world do not have nuclear weapons so it is no surprise that Mayors for Peace (http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english) has signed up over seven thousand cities from around the world. And as for a glad heart, take a look at some of the photos in the smile4nd collection: https://voh.intermix.org/nuclear_disarm!
Voices of Humanity offers great promise as a communication tool designed to marginalize the hardliners and create the global consciousness we need if we are to succeed as a catalyst for a heartfelt human unity that respects diversity. A full write-up on VoH is available at the VoH United Religions Initiative Cooperation Circle home page. https://voh.intermix.org/vohcc
But we need to get Voices of Humanity off the ground. It is well known that a network is not worth participating in if it doesn’t already have a lot of participants. The smile4nd project, with solid backing from the interfaith movement, can provide the momentum to get us going. Once started, we can expand to include all the positive movements that are the natural interfaith allies. If you want to keep in touch, it is easy to connect at the VoH Smile for Nuclear Disarmament home page: https://voh.intermix.org/nuclear_disarm.
Smile4nd addresses two great prerequisites for a heartfelt human unity: a global consciousness and nuclear disarmament. Nuclear arms are both a sign and cause of distrust between the nations. Until we are clearly on a path toward a nuclear weapons free world, we will never be able to cooperate globally on the many issues that must be resolved and resolved soon. And as to the need for a global consciousness, it is simply not enough that individually a great majority of the human race feels that humanity is one. We need to know that everyone knows that we agree on this fundamental belief. And we do, but it would be a lot more obvious if we could only get rid of the nukes!
One last item, for those who are too disgusted with the online world to ever consider trying an app or an online forum like VoH: Yes, facebook, youtube, twitter and the like do give extremists a boost -- not on purpose, to be sure, but as a side effect of their profit-minded strategy to keep people glued to the screen. What we need is a nonprofit social medium that will support our national and religious identities within a framework that also supports human unity. The world is too big with too many strands to be brought together without using a well designed internet communication tool.
#nuclear_disarm #peace #vohcc #un_goals
