On Monday November 18, Councilwoman Jane Bonner (back row, right) visited the Joseph A. Edgar Intermediate School in Rocky Point for the dedication of the Peace Pole, a handcrafted monument that symbolizes peace and the hopes of humanity: The message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” is written in multiple languages on the four sides of the pole. Pictured with Councilwoman Bonner are community members, Joseph A. Edgar Intermediate School academic leaders, school district officials, students and the Peace Pole committee.
Peace poles originated in Japan after World War II and can be found today in many prominent places, including the United Nations, the Pentagon, and the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. Peace poles are intended to serve as reminders to think, speak, and act in a spirit of peace and harmony in the community.
North Shore UMC Youth Group co-leaders and some group members with the Peace Pole after the dedication ceremony on Saturday, October 19. Church pastor Rev. Thomas Kim, standing behind, presided at the dedication. Courtesy Margery Sokolski
By Dylan Friedman
A group of passionate young community members are taking a stand for peace, literally.
With hands stained with paint and hearts filled with hope, youth from North Shore United Methodist Church in Wading River embarked on a project to erect a Peace Pole, an 11.5-foot symbol of unity and harmony, in front of an estimated 65 attendees.
The Peace Pole Project is a global movement that began in Japan in the 1970s and is now incorporated as May Peace Prevail on Earth International. More than 250,000 Peace Poles have been planted around the globe, including several in New York state.
While May Peace Prevail on Earth International often sells templated poles, project orchestrator and youth group leader Palesa Ramohlouane expressed pride in the fact that the church’s youth and congregation decided to make, design, and plant the pole themselves after months of theological groundwork.
“We had some choices about how we wanted to do the Peace Pole, whether we wanted to pay for one or build it,” Ramohlouane said. “I wanted them to have a sense of ownership instead of us just buying it. So they decided to make their own, and I think all of [the youth] reported they are grateful for the time we spent on the project and that those moments were also moments of peace,” she said.
Although the youth decided to create their own Peace Pole, they stayed true to the original design by ensuring the phrase “May peace prevail on Earth” appeared on the pole in six different languages, a consistent feature of Peace Poles worldwide. While the design, colors, art, and weatherproofing were done entirely by the youth, congregation members assisted with construction and planting, which, according to Ramohlouane, was an intended byproduct of the project.
“People noticing a Peace Pole brings people together,” Ramohlouane said. “It’s definitely about bringing the community together, spreading peace, and making sure that, even in its art form, it is interesting enough for people to spend a little time reflecting,” she said.
After months of hard work that started in the twilight of 2023, the pole was finally finished and placed near the church on Oct. 19. The church’s pastor, Rev. Thomas Kim, presided at the consecration, which featured members of the youth group and clergy representing Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish, and Christian faith communities, a testament to the church’s extensive community influence. A representative from each faith community delivered a peace message or scripture as a testament to this influence.
Furthermore, co-youth group leader Heather Caldara and youth group members Sanku Assamagan, Daniel Scielzi, and Riley Stark delivered inspiring remarks to reflect on the creation of the Peace Pole.
While the towering 11.5-foot Peace Pole initially stands out as a striking symbol of unity and hope, its ultimate goal is to seamlessly and quietly integrate into the fabric of the community. As time passes, the pole, made to stand out, hopes to blend in, a quiet reminder to pause, reflect, and find peace in the everyday. As Ramohlouane stated, the project’s purpose is to “be in our community,” inviting individuals to interpret its meaning and find personal resonance and peace within its powerful presence.
Congregants, community members and peace advocates gathered Sunday, Jan. 15, outside the Mount Sinai Congregational Church to erect a Peace Pole.
The ceremony was part of the international Peace Pole Project, a program that has spread to every country with the universal message of global peace.
Kevin Mann, president of the Rocky Point Rotary Club, attended the service. Though not a member of the Congregational Church, he traced the church’s long history championing various social causes throughout American history.
“Before the term ‘social activism’ was invented, this congregation was doing it,” he said. “This congregation’s history goes all the way back to being a part of the Underground Railroad. They also had the first free men of color as members,” adding, “They were always ahead of the curve and involved in every single social activism movement.”
Sunday’s peace ceremony carried symbolic significance as well, marking the 94th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Tom Lyon is a congregation member and co-founder of Building Bridges in Brookhaven. “Martin Luther King did get the Nobel Prize for Peace,” Lyon said. “That wasn’t just about the United States. That wasn’t just about segregation. He talked about universal love, unrequited love. … That’s kind of the concept: the universality of peace.”
He added that King “spoke out against the Vietnam War, which became very controversial. That was in 1967, exactly a year before he was killed.”
To Lyon, peace is often caricatured in popular culture as passive, even pacifistic. The example of MLK, he said, awakens one to the possibilities of peace, something he viewed as highly active and courageous.
“Martin Luther King was always talking about how being a person of peace takes much more courage, much more strength, than a person who just gives into their anger or acts out violently,” Lyon said. “To seek peaceful solutions often is more difficult, more challenging, but in the long run, that’s what we feel we’re called to do.”
Corridor of Peace
Above, Tom Lyon (left) and Kevin Mann pose with the newly planted Peace Pole outside Mount Sinai Congregational Church. Photo by Raymond Janis
The Peace Pole planted at the congregation is part of a major local effort tied to the Peace Pole Project, the proposed Corridor of Peace, coordinated by the Rotary.
“We are attempting to declare a Corridor of Peace, which is [routes] 25 and 25A and four school districts at the moment — Rocky Point, Miller Place, Shoreham-Wading River and Longwood — that will designate how they want to make their communities a more peaceful environment,” Mann said.
Through this initiative, Mann hopes community members can better understand the problems unique to their area and work toward positive change. “You have very common themes and issues — food insecurity, inequality, housing, opioid addiction — many things,” Mann said.
Through the project, he sees an opportunity “to continue to increase the quality of life for people in the corridor.”
Lyon added to this sentiment and vision. He said members of the corridor could find unity through shared values and a mutual desire for peace. “Hopefully, people in the communities of peace will be reminded that’s the connection with the Peace Pole Project,” he said. “You see one in front of a couple of stores or another in the neighborhood where you are walking. It’s just a reminder.”
Conflict abroad
Mann and Lyon defined the Peace Pole Project as apolitical, a program committed to the mantra, “May peace prevail on Earth.” However, both acknowledged the ongoing human conflicts around the globe, namely the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Lyon said the Peace Pole Project reminds Americans of the need to promote peace, especially when the United States is not at war. “It’s sometimes easy to be a little complacent when things are going good for us as Americans,” he said. However, the project is “a universal thing,” and the cause for universal peace applies equally to Americans as it does to Ukrainians and Russians.
Outlining the Rotary’s response to Russian belligerence, Mann said the club has sponsored training for trauma nurses and has even brought a 9-year-old Ukrainian girl to Long Island for heart surgery.
“There’s no political stand involved, but there are people in need,” he said. “We’ve been very, very active in the Ukrainian concept … and bringing focus to the Ukraine issue.”
‘The military is a business that drives economies, unfortunately.’ — Kevin Mann
Finding peace
Despite the war and violence dominating the headlines and news cycles, Mann maintains that humans are naturally peaceful. Drawing from the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, he said peace usually endures for long periods of human history, with brief interruptions of war.
“For long periods of history, peace has prevailed,” Mann said. “For short periods of history, war has broken out.”
Finding a silver lining in those interruptions of war, Mann added that technological advancements had accelerated during wartime. “One of the byproducts of war breaking out, as bad as it has been, is that it has led to technological and medical advancements that have helped humanity.”
Defining some of the problems inherent to these times, Mann said high-speed communication and mass media culture now spread news and images of war quickly and widely. At the same time, war remains a lucrative international business.
“The military is a business that drives economies, unfortunately,” he said. “Peace hasn’t gotten that kind of focus internationally.”
As warmongers in the press continue to drive nations into battle, and as arms dealers continue to profit from the blood spilled on the fields of human strife, Mann maintains that there is still room for hope.
“Polio is almost being totally eliminated, and malaria is well on its way to being controlled,” he said. “Over the last hundred years, people have worked to make those things happen,” adding, “They’ve happened despite diverting resources to other causes, so I think there’s great room for optimism.”
Members of Building Bridges in Brookhaven join Port Jefferson officials in dedicating the new peace pole in Rocketship Park. Photos by Kyle Barr
An 11-foot wood pole installed inside the fence of Rocketship Park in Port Jefferson is looking for residents to stop and think about how peace may prevail around the globe.
Members of Building Bridges in Brookhaven join Port Jefferson officials in dedicating the new peace pole in Rocketship Park. Photos by Kyle Barr
The civic group Building Bridges in Brookhaven gathered together with Port Jeff village officials Nov. 19 to dedicate the new pole. On it reads “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in 10 different languages, including sign language and Braille. Art depicts small handprints and flowers, courtesy of Setauket resident and artist Maryanne Hart, also of the North Shore Peace Group.
Community activist group Building Bridges in Brookhaven got themselves behind the project and after buying a 16-foot length of cedar from Riverhead Lumber they cut it down to 11 feet, where now 3 feet is in the ground.
Reverend Gregory Leonard of the Bethel AME Church spoke to those congregated to unveil the pole. The pole features a solar-powered light at the top, and the reverend led those there to dedicate the pole in singing “This Little Light of Mine.”
“The elements of peace are many, but I think it’s important to think of how we treat one another, how we are humble toward one another,” he said. “Of all the things, communication is so important — being able to talk to one another.”
Mayor Margot Garant said she had met with civic leaders Tom Lyon, Myrna Gordon and the director of operations for the Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce Barbara Ransome. Once she was told it was a peace pole, the mayor said she didn’t ask any other questions but “when and where.”
“We really wanted to make a message about providing peace,” Gordon said.
Lyon said the idea for the polls came to the group from The Peace Pole Project in Wassaic upstate, who are working to put up peace poles all over the globe.
“This should be visible — out where kids are going to see it, children are going to grow up talking about the peace pole and talking about the park,” Lyon said.
The pole is one of more than 250,000 in more than 200 countries. Each one is inscribed with the words “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in hundreds of languages. The project began in 1955 with Japanese peace activist Masakisa Goi, and Ransome said they’re looking to spread his message into today.
Building Bridges was formed almost four years ago and host the MLK Community Festival yearly at the Setauket Presbyterian Church.
Lyon said this could be just the start of what could end as a project covering the whole of Long Island. He said his group, working alongside local Rotary organizations and Pax Christi could set a goal by the end of 2020 to plant 100 peace poles across the Island, whether in churches or in playgrounds such as Port Jeff’s Rocketship Park.