I am truly excited to be heading out to the 2005 United for Peace and Justice Convention from February 19-21and getting to meet some of the wonderful people that have been sharing their hearts, souls and ideas through their list serve for at least the previous month.

Musicians & Fine Artists for World Peace (MFAWP) is looking forward to our participation.at the convention and we would be honored to list your group and any other of the member UPJ organizations as endorsing members of MFAWP too. Its free if you resonate with our mission statement & goals and we can then link to you on our webpage.

Our 1100+ member list includes the Dalai Lama, Dr. Patch Adams & Congressman Dennis Kucinich. See it at www.butterflyspirit.org/projects/mfawp_list.html. Our mission is at www.butterflyspirit.org/projects/musicians_and_artists.html.

The more than 50 nude couples that spelled out Make Love Not War in San Francisco during our Iraq War protest are on the cover of our new compilation Peace CD. I will bring copies to the convention for you to check out. Pictures at www.butterflyspirit.org/news/2003-04-19_Make_Love_Not_War.htm.

Below is a copy of the proposal I submitted today for the convention. I was a bit late getting it out because I am still recovering from the quadruple bypass surgery I had on Christmas Eve. I want to thank George W. for my very urgent desire to join you in Saint Louis. I am certain it helped.inspire my rapid recovery.

May Peace Prevail on Earth & in Space!

Alan Moore Musicians & Fine Artists for World Peace - Founder & director Butterfly Gardeners Association - Founder & director International Association of Educators for World Peace - Western States Program Director Vallejo Performing Arts & Conference Center - Events director PO Box 1511, Vallejo, Ca 94590 415-424-7238 bflyspirit7@aol.com

Intro

The statistics on the rising incidence of violence in our schools cities and across international borders needs no repeating here. It is common knowledge to everyone who reads a newspaper, watches television, looks over their shoulder as they get into their parked car after shopping or is concerned about sending their children to school everyday.

We are living in an age of increasing complex problems and ideologies and face an array of increasingly conflicting solutions. Public education involving both children and adults is critical to solving these problems, be they environmental, social or political. Violence in schools, communities, within families, and between nations can only be solved if we come together over a vision that can touch our hearts as well as our minds.

Musicians & Fine Artists for World Peace (MFAWP) began as the Butterfly Gardeners Association (BGA), an organization dedicated to raising awareness to global environmental issues. By teaching that butterflies are environmental indicators and that threats to human populations will first show their impact on those of butterflies, we were able to reach a wider audience than most environmental groups could reach. We promoted the installation of butterfly gardens, children's environmental education, and reading and nonviolence programs. Being that butterflies can touch our hearts and have intrinsic inspirational and spiritual qualities, our effect on children, as well as adults and seniors, was nothing less than miraculous.

Being interested in world peace as well as the environment, we began to get invitations to do butterfly releases at such national events as the World Peace Festival with Pete Seeger in Amenia, New York, the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration on the Washington Mall and the Hague Appeal for Peace, the latter of which the City of Berkeley unanimously endorsed me as its ambassador. We also organized a nude peace protest against the Iraq War when over one hundred people spelled out the message Make Love Not War on Baker Beach on April 19, 2003 in San Francisco one month to the day after the war began. It made the front page local and CNN.

Some other highlights included planting the largest butterfly garden in the state of Pennsylvania, being invited by the United Nations to release butterflies at their Earth Summit +5 in New York City; being honored by the Pennsylvania Legislature with a citation for our work in raising global consciousness, promoting environmental stewardship and world peace, involving over 10,000 children in the San Francisco Bay Area to raise butterflies as an Earth Day project in 1999; being invited to present the World Peace Candle to Kofi Annan at the United Nations and helping to get President Bill Clinton to proclaim January 1 an International Day of Peace.

Since the BGA & MFAWP (which has grown to some 1100 performers worldwide) gets positive responses from the media as well as from police at demonstrations, we would like to offer some of our successes to a wider audience within the peace movement. I believe that the transformative power of music and art, combined with programs for children at schools, can help widen the appeal of the peace movement and bring it into full bloom. We need to mature the movement for peace and justice from a primarily reactive antiwar force protesting existing conflicts into a proactive, pro-peace force promoting a popular and broad based culture for world peace and conflict resolution.

Many people have been dreaming of peace concerts and tours, not only across the United States, but around the world as a means of promoting positive global social change. We have been networking with such people for almost twelve years now and believe that the only thing holding us back is the lack of far-sighted commitment and cooperation between the individuals and organizations who share the dream. Its now time to synergize the movement with a shared vision we can all resonate with. I think the butterfly is emerging as one of those visions. This idea is showing up in many books, articles and news stories. Such tittles as A New Symbol for Renaissance of the Earth, Butterflies: More than a Symbolic Part of our Lives, Butterflies Symbolize Peace for Berkeley Earth Day and Butterfly Invited to UN Earth Summit are all indexed on my website at www.butterflyspirit.org/news/index.html and see

It is our hope to work with a national organization such as United for Peace and Justice in order to take this effort to the next level by offering our experience and resources for the good of all. Perhaps you might want to use the butterfly as your new peace symbol or incorporate it into it. We use it as our logo so check it out at www. butterflyspirit.org. Its a symbol even Republicans can love.

Proposal

We would like to host and/or help set up the West coast branch of UPJ to organize a series peace concerts and festivals and tours across the country that would attractive a broad spectrum of citizens, including those in the midwest and south. Musicians & Fine Artists for World Peace (MFAWP) could offer assistance in doing this.

We think these events could focus on raising consciousness to not only peace, but election reforms such as campaign financing, clean elections, instant runoff voting and the abolition or reform of the Electoral College. They could also focus on supporting Congressman Kucinich's proposal for a cabinet level Department of Peace, raising the issue of corporate responsibility, helping indigenous causes, ending the cycle of violence and abuse that is rooted in our male dominator culture, supporting a Space preservation Treaty Conference banning all space weapons, and acknowledging that artists and musicians are important ingredients to transforming and improving our lives by helping to fund art and music programs in schools that promote peace and nonviolence.

We could also organize festivals, butterfly releases and other programs at schools and/or at public events such as Earth Day where the children release the butterflies they raise in their classrooms. Parents and the community at large would be invited to attend and participate in various ways. In our Art for the Sky Project, the children become the color-coordinated tiles of a huge mosaic that can be seen from the sky and are photographed from an airplane.

Linking the peace movement with projects for children is vital to getting good community and media involvement and adds a real positive spin to everything we do. I would be proud to officially work with UPJ in implementing these goals in any way you see fit.

If this proposal fails to meet with your approval as something you would take part in and/or is voted down at the convention, I would like to get your group's endorsement for our continuing work in these areas.

Support

As we already have an office in the San Francisco Bay Area and can offer my services for at least a year full-time as a volunteer, all we are seeking is a a minimum of paying the office ($200/month), phone bills (approx. $110 month), and other costs such as printing flyers and brochures and a gas allowance for attending events.

We could use some staff help in setting up West Coast fundraisers, helping with publicity and outreach and connecting us with other UPJ members in the West.

We can offer up names for our musicians and performers on the East coast and other parts for the country.

As I am already involved with the Department of Peace Campaign and have recently joined the Progressive Democrats of America with the goal ofserving as their regional publicity coordinator. I believe the stage is now set for some amazing things to happen.

I would also like to see if I may be able to join or some way participate in your steering committee and work for our common cause. I am open to all and any options that you may have to offer. I used to be the publicity coordinator for Common Cause of Pennsylvania and helped set up the state chapter of not only Common Cause, but of the Sierra Club as well. I can offer up a resume if you wish.

Peace, Alan