Santee Now Has an International Peace Pole!

Over 200,000 Peace Poles grace this earth. Hiroshima, Nepal, Haiti,  and now Santee is part of that network of peace.

On the ten-year anniversary of the community searing , the city was full of with collected individuals focusing on cultivating peace. You could almost feel it in the air, a comforting electricity.

One focused epicenter of this peace was at the , where the congregation came together on Saturday to planted in front of the premises, clearly visible at the corner of Buena Vista and Cottonwood avenues. Summit describes itself as a progressive congregation that welcomes people of many beliefs.

The pole is adorned with the simple message "May peace prevail on Earth," written in 12 different languages, plus Braille (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Kumeyaay, Spanish, Tibetan, and Turkish).

“This is the culmination of several months of inter-generational activities dedicated to seeking, studying, and practicing peace,” says Deena Tuttle, member of the Peace Pole Task Force. “In the midst of so much conflict and turmoil around the world, what can we do – both personally and as a community of caring individuals? Building a Peace Pole is a way of declaring our collective commitment to peace and the conviction that we are all one in the world.”

The ceremony included talks by a local Muslim leader and a female Rabbi, discussing the similarities between the two religion's ideas of peace, and even the similar semantics of peace that cross cultures. A drum circle played a tune as the congregation headed outside and dedicated the totem of peace.

See a video of the dedication and a video of a slideshow describing peace poles in the media box.