A Letter from District Governor Tansukh Dorawala, February 2012
February is world understanding month. Both Savi and I recall how we felt at the RI Assembly in San Diego last year and I am sure DGE Bill and Sue Bassett must have felt the same this year. More than 530 District Governors and RI leaders from all over the world come together for a week for one purpose only: "How can Rotary bring peace on our planet?"
Incoming RI president Sakuji Tanaka declared his theme for the year as "Peace through Service." That is so needed at a time when there are so many people living in conflict. Peace is not the absence of war but it is the absence of fear. True peace comes from the absence of aggressive thinking and behavior. Conflicts will always be there but we strive to resolve those conflicts in a peaceful way. Rotary Foundation with its six areas of focus is poised to bring peace throughout the world by offering programs to help our brothers and sisters who lack in basic resources such as clean water and safe sanitation, nutritional food, proper healthcare and education, economic opportunities, etc. People who lack in such basic necessities of life cannot be at peace. And they live in constant fear of some other groups usurping their meager resources to feed their own greed. This maybe Utopian but the words of John Lennon's song "Imagine" remind us of his dream for a peaceful world.
Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try
No hell below us, above us only sky
Imagine all the people, living for today...
Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too
Imagine all the people, living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can
Imagine all the people, sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one
Yours in peace through service,
Tansukh Dorawala