Action 2 Impact Podcast Season 2 EP. 3 The Peace Pole Project

We talk with Larry Strober about why Peace Poles still matter in a world full of conflict and how Rotary can turn a simple public marker into real peacebuilding momentum. We trace the movement back to Hiroshima in 1955, then follow its evolution into the Oregon Peace Trail, the Peace Game, and a bold moonshot for peace by 2030.
• the origin story of “May Peace Prevail On Earth” and why 1955 matters
• how Rotary Peace Poles spread worldwide and why the project is bigger than Rotary
• using QR codes to make Peace Poles interactive and teach Rotary’s Four-Way Test
• why Peace Poles work as personal reminders and community gathering points
• the Oregon Peace Trail plan and how peace projects can attract younger members
• the Peace Game framework and the seven peace actions that build peacebuilders
• the 2030 moonshot and the idea of peace zones anchored by Peace Poles
• how Rotary leadership structure can slow peace work and how peace builder clubs help
• why peace supports every other Rotary area of focus including polio eradication
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Transcript

Welcome And Meet The Peace Pole

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Welcome once again. I wanna see one. That's right. More than one product. What are they? How long have they been around? What could they do? Those are just some questions I put to my new friend Larry. Have some free answers, including a simple desire of peace by 23. I don't know, Larry. As I'm recording this, there are wars going on in at least three, five different countries. Larry thinks there's hope. Larry thinks so. I think so too. Join us, won't you? We're bringing peace to the world once more at a time. Welcome back to the show, everybody. Larry Strober is on my show today. And if you happen to know who Larry is, you're a very lucky person. But if you have no idea who Larry is, he's in charge of this little thing that's been floating around several episodes of our podcast. And that are the that is these rotary peace polls. Now, Larry is not only gonna tell us the foundation of some of these peace polls and where this idea came from and what they are doing to bring peace to the world, but as we were about to go on the show, he was like, Hey, I gotta tell you about the evolution of peace polls from a peace game to a peace trail to a moonshot of actual peace on the planet by 2030. So we have a lot to talk about. Let's get to it, Larry. It's so wonderful to have you on the show. Thank you for joining me.

SPEAKER_04 2:11

Yeah, and I won't use my Brooklyn accent.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

So Brooklyn. I mean, I got some fans of this podcast in Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_04 2:19

Yeah, I hope so. Brooklyn, Brooklyn's what, the fourth largest city in the country, something like that.

Hiroshima Origins And Rotary’s Peace Poles

SPEAKER_02 2:25

No, I mean, Brooklyn, that whole area around the boroughs. Everybody thinks of Manhattan, but there is some other boroughs in there that are just becoming magnificent. So shout out to Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_04 2:37

So peace and rotary started back with Paul Harris, yeah, 100 years ago. And it's been a sort of him. Yeah, he has these little pins. So we, you know, we've had peace polls in Rotary for maybe the last 25 years. The Rotary, the peace poll project, may peace prevail on earth, started back in 1955 in Hiroshima, Japan, uh after the bombing of Hiroshima.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

So it's not a new thing. Because I'm sorry to interrupt you, because there's a lot of people I think that had no idea these peace polls were around and thought they were this new catchy thing that's just started.

SPEAKER_04 3:16

But they really started it by Masumisa Goi in Japan with a proverb that this should never happen again in the world, the bombing of Hiroshima. But it didn't take off till about uh 1980s, 1990s, uh, where rotary started dedicating peace polls around the world. And it's hard to estimate exactly how many we have, but my guess is we have 20 to 25,000 rotary peace polls that basically say may peace prevail on earth in four or eight languages.

SPEAKER_03 3:55

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 3:56

Three years ago, we introduced a QR code because the Carter Center, a partner with Rotary, said that peace polls are out there, but they're uninteresting and unexcited, unexciting. So the QR code, when you scan the peace poll, gives you the four-way test, tells you who Rotary is, but it also explains the history of the peace poll movement.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

So which which what you're telling me, a lot of Rotarians didn't even know. Because I didn't know, and I apologize.

SPEAKER_04 4:30

Yeah, and a lot of people don't even know who Rotary is.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

So touche.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

So we've had a hundred and forty thousand hits on that QR code. Oh, I met this young lady named Stephanie Urchik in Melbourne three years ago, and we just hit it off in terms of peace polls basically present uh Rotary's Peace Project to the world. So Stephanie has been telling people about our QR code and our website since we met. And in Melbourne, Singapore, Calgary, and to in Taipei, we've had a photo op with six peace polls that we photographed around 25,000 Rotarians in that location. So the movement uh about every hour of the day I get an email or a phone call from some Rotarian somewhere saying, How do I go about? How do I, you know, present this? What type of dedication ceremony should we have? What languages should we have? Can we put an indigenous tribe on a peace poll, which most people do, by the way. So it's an exciting part of what I do. And Al Jubitz and the Jubitz Foundation help Rotarians pay for these peace polls. So, you know, I've been a Rotarian for 13 years. I'm not sure I'm actually a Rotarian because my first day in Rotary was on April Fool's Day.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Well, I'm I'm here to say I think I'm I'll I'll vouch for you. How does that sound? I'll vouch for you. So thank you.

SPEAKER_04 6:14

I have I have Gwen and Stephanie on my side.

What Peace Poles Actually Do

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Yeah, yeah, and that's a pretty good company, and she's very much a friend of the show. So I I think she'll I think I I I'll vouch for her. I think I think she's got you. So you gave us a lot, and I wanna I wanna break it apart before I go to some of these other uh evolutions as you called them of the peace poll. The whole idea that it's been in in around since 1955, again, I think a lot of people were quite surprised about. But I'm gonna be the the devil's advocate for a second. These are beautiful, these are beautiful peace polls. They're peace polls, right? They're you know, a chunk of wood and it's got all these different languages on it and a QR code, and we put them in. What why why would we do this? What is really the I I know we have this one gentleman back in in 55 that said this shall not continue, but as far as using any type of atomic weapons, but what is really our purpose in these polls?

SPEAKER_04 7:15

Does that make sense? I I wear a pen every day and it says create hope in the world. And that's that was a rotary theme a few years ago. Yeah, and and that's my theme. So I I wake up in the morning as a peace builder, I go to sleep at night as a peace builder, and the reminders around the world, these six-foot-tall peace structures, are a reminder that we can have a better world out there.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Is that what they're supposed to be? So if I'm walking by one and I'm just having a crappy day, if I see one of these poles, is it just supposed to, is it just that simple reminder to go, hey, I I can choose to come from a place of peace, or I can choose to come from a place of but it's an it's an individual reminder, but it's also like a community reminder.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

And I try very hard to get the school kids involved where we're dedicating a peace poll. I mean an interesting thing is Heidi in Australia, in Adelaide, every primary school in Australia has a peace poll. There are about 700 peace polls in Australia. We got a whole bunch in Hawaii. We're about to plant the first one on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, and that will talk a little bit about the Oregon Peace Trail, which will be we'll have mileposts with peace polls and QR codes. It's a 308-mile true m trail through Oregon that starts at the end of the Oregon Trail and ends at the Oregon Peace Flame in Ashland. That's just getting started. We will put that out there about second quarter of 2027.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

So you've been doing this, you've been doing peace polls for 10 years, but you said you've represented Rotary with Peace Polls for five years. So what is what is your what's your what does your business card say as far as your your leadership?

SPEAKER_04 9:19

Director Peace Poll Project.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Okay. So you're you're the main head honcho, because I only get I only get the top best people on my podcast.

SPEAKER_04 9:28

But I also have a I I have a world map. So if you tell me where your peace poll is, I put it on our world map. And I don't care if it's a rotary peace poll or you're a Rotarian, you could be a bunch of sixth graders that take a piece of wood and it says, May peace prevail on earth on it, I put it on my map.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

So interesting. So can I so if let's say I I have I have a dear brother-in-law who is a magnificent woodworker, so if I said, John, I would love you to make me a peace pole, he could put his artisanship into this pole, and then as long as it says this beautiful quote, it can then be a peace pole so they don't all look alike. Is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_04 10:15

Absolutely. We have a grain grain station in Minnesota, which is the world's largest peace pole.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

Um how big is that?

SPEAKER_04 10:24

I think it's six stories high.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 10:28

Yeah, so if you do your own peace poll, I will send you a QR code to put on it, and then we'll put it on the map.

Oregon Peace Trail Takes Shape

SPEAKER_02 10:35

So I have I then I have a question for you because you and we've had we've had, of course, the the Rotary Fellowship and for World Peace on the show, and and Dennis has been on the show, and we've had some great peaceful leaders here on the show. I know that the Rotary Foundation gets kind of lumped into Polio Plus, and lately Polio Plus is my words taking a lot of oxygen out of the room, especially speaking. We have had such issues with vaccinations. However, if you give to the Rotary Foundation, a huge part of that those foundation funds go towards your side of the map, which is peace. And do you feel sometimes you get forgotten? Do do we as Rotarians forget that one of Rotarian's founding principles is peace? The polio thing is relatively new, but the peace thing goes all the way back to Paul Harris?

SPEAKER_04 11:41

It's hard to define it. Uh and and there are no Rotary Peace programs at the top level. There are Rotary Peace Centers, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 11:54

And and Rotary Peace Fellows. And part of what we're trying to do with the peace game and the moonshot is integrate the Peace Corps and Peace Fellows and Peace Centers to focus on peace projects. So we have it rather sporadic, maybe I get calls from district governors who say, can you help me institute a peace program in my district? And that's and that that's not unusual. So part of the reason for the Oregon Peace Trail, we we had a group address my my Newburgh Rotary Club, the altruistic relief kitchen. Two people, one Rotary Peace Fellow who are feeding Ukrainians at an amazing cost of 20 cents per meal.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 12:48

So we wrote them a check to their 501c3. But I said to myself, what if we could take the 125 rotary clubs in Oregon and point them towards the altruistic relief kitchen? And that started, we were talking on the peace game and said, What about an Oregon Peace Trail? So Al Jupitz and I ran out to the end of the Oregon Trail and said, Do you think this is a good idea? They loved it. We went to the Oregon City Rotary Club, they loved it. We went to the Ashland Rotary Club, they loved it. So we started a weekly conversation with my Team 566, which is David Gershon, who did the first Earth run in 1986, that for 86 days provided peace on Earth. It was supported by Ronald Reagan Gorbachev, the leader of China and about 45 other heads of state. So David runs the Empowerment Institute right now, just nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. So he's part of my Team 566, as is Al Jubitz, the head of the Jubitz Family Foundation, and David Wick, who is the president of Pathways to Peace, a UN-supported NGO. So we have a pretty powerful team. The Oregonian paper just published an in-length article on the Oregon Peace Trail. We have over 5,000 people who responded. And it will be, we will have peace polls as the markers along the trail. You can walk the trail, you can bike the trail, about 150 miles of the trail, you can kayak, you can drive parts of the trail if you don't, if you're not a hiker. I was invited to walk the Camino in April, and that's not going to happen with me. But I'm but I'm hoping to be there for the peace poll dedication.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Okay, so um you gave us a lot there because you you moved right into the evolution of the peace poll project. So let's let's catch up our listeners. So our listeners know. So Larry started his whole thing off by saying since 1955, Rotary has been in charge of these peace polls. You can have a peace poll if you want it to be six stories high, if you want it to be six feet high and anywhere in between, and there's peace polls all around the world, but there has been an evolution in these peace polls.

SPEAKER_04 15:31

There's 250,000 peace polls out there. So rotary is a very small percentage of the peace polls in the world.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

Okay, so we're so this is so this is the peace poll project, even though you were in charge of it for rotary, is not just an exclusive rotary thing. It is a thing, it is a gift to the world. Is that a fair statement? Okay, it is so yes, but it is now evolving. So Larry, you just you just gave us a a quick synopsis of this first evolution, which was this peace trail. And the peace trail, remind us, starts us is in Oregon, ends at the Oregon Trail, and then goes to Ashland. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_04 16:12

Yes, Oregon City to Ashland. It's 300 three 308 miles.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

308 miles. And then, and so it's kind of like a my words, almost a pilgrimage of peace to walk this trail because or to kayak it or even drive it, it sounds like patterned off of the Camino de Santiago in Spain and Portugal, which is a spiritual pilgrimage. This is actually had some Rotarians that walked that.

SPEAKER_04 16:42

A whole lot. Yeah, so we have a whole lot of Rotarians, yes.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

So you're modeling off of that as the people go, they are reminded of peace in the world, peace in themselves, because as the song says, May peace begin with me on this beautiful trail. And that was kind of the first evolution. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_04 17:04

Yes, yes, okay. And it's also a way of getting younger people into rotary, and it's a way of promoting rotary clubs along the trail.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

So it's so it's just like peace, but we're gonna sink in a little membership and marketing while we're at it.

SPEAKER_04 17:21

Yeah, I mean, th 13 years ago, I had never heard of rotary, and uh the president of uh our chamber of commerce came up to me one day and said, What are you doing next Wednesday morning? And I came home, I told my wife I just made 30 friends in an hour.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Bam! There you go.

SPEAKER_04 17:40

Yeah, so I was president of the club two years later and assistant governor a year later, and now you are the peaceman. Um yeah, so let's talk about the peace game.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Okay, so hold on one second. I'm just gonna remind people that he also has this the hat on right now that we took some pictures, and of course, you'll see it when we put this up on YouTube of Team 566, and that's some of the amazing gentlemen that are joining you that prove that this is an international group, not just Rotarians. So those those gentlemen seemed amazing, but yes, let's talk about the next evolution, which was the peace game. I'm ready, go for it.

SPEAKER_04 18:24

So the Oregon Peace Trail came out of this meeting. So Mike Caruso, who founded the Peace Builder Club concept in Rotary, introduced me to the peace game. So I started taking the peace game. It's a nine-week, two-hour-a-week game introducing seven peace actions: empowerment, oneness, unity, cooperation, abundance, faith, and love. Oh, I actually did it.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Uh-huh. I on the first try, even, and it's recorded so everybody can hear it.

SPEAKER_04 18:59

So these seven peace actions create you as a peace builder.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:05

And they work perfectly with the four-way test. So it becomes like the 11-way test.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Why not?

SPEAKER_04 19:14

So it starts with building yourself. So as I took it the second time, I realized that I am the peace game. I mean, these seven piece actions is what I do every day.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

So you just look at them and go, there, there's no way I'm gonna do this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:32

No idea what to expect.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 19:34

So the peace game then introduces you to two other partners. And what happened is the partners I got introduced to were Al Jubitz, who I know very well, and David Wick, who I do not know. But we became this unified team to focus on peace. Even though we were doing it individually, we now became a peace-building unit. So with David Gorshan as an honorary 566 members, we have retired the number. So we are like to tell everybody.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

I gotta interrupt you by saying, what does the number 566 mean?

SPEAKER_04 20:15

That was our assigned number of people playing the peace game. You know, you start with So is your team name already? So we're like Hank Aaron and Stan Musley. Our numbers retired.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

So we started playing the peace game. What came up initially was the Oregon Peace Trail. And we worked so well as a team that we are now working on a rotary peace game, which will be introduced. It was introduced in Calgary, where we had 4,000 peace actions taken, but it will be introduced in April, and Rotarians can play the peace game, and we'll send them information on how to do that.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

I know you're having a little cough there. I'm sorry, bud. Yeah, I'm just getting over the flu, but um oh well, thank you for squeezing us in, I tell you.

SPEAKER_04 21:13

Oh so yeah, so the rotary peace game came out of this, and we're working with uh Patrick Eaks, who's a zone director in the Southwest, Marty Hellman, Stephanie, Larry Lunsford, who will be Rotary president in a year and a half, Peter Kyle, John Yuko. So to make this a peace building project within Rotary. And so the peace game can actually include all Rotarians. So what we would like to do is have rotary clubs, not at the top, not at Rotary and International, but at each club introduced peace actions on a weekly or monthly or bi-month, whatever makes sense for the club, to play the peace game. So again, the Empowerment Institute back in Woodstock, New York, has come up with this peace on earth moonshot.

Moonshot Peace Zones By 2030

SPEAKER_02 22:24

And Rotary is just a set, just a set, because we got because I know that's that that's evolution number three, Larry. Gotta make sure everybody's there. We gotta catch up. So we have we have the trail, we have the game, we have rotary and non-rotary people heavily involved, and then last but not least, from these simple polls has created this moonshot. Now tell everybody about the moonshot project. What exactly is that?

SPEAKER_04 22:58

Again, it's creating hope in the world that by the end of 2030 we can create a tipping point. If you go on Wikipedia and you search on David Gershon, it'll tell you that he is the one man on the planet able to create transformational social change. So the moonshot is to create a half of one percent of the global population to focus on transformational change and peace.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

So what was that? What was that number of population again?

SPEAKER_04 23:37

A half of one percent. That's 40 million people.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Okay, so worldwide, because it it and for people to put this in perspective, you have just like the city of Los Angeles, that's more than 8 million people. So when you say that many millions of people, I'm sure there's some people driving in their car going, oh my god, that's so many. But it's really not when you're dealing with billions of people worldwide to just focus on peace that will hit a tipping point.

SPEAKER_04 24:09

Is that so that and that's well uh and the interest in working with Rotary is there's 1.4 million people to start.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

Yeah. I mean, we're already like, you know, putting you already on A and B and C already in line there.

SPEAKER_04 24:24

So we're talking about 10,000 cities, and each of these cities would be a peace zone, and the peace zone would be anchored by peace polls so again, it go everything works back to the peace poll as being the visible symbol of everything we're doing. So with rotaries, 1.4 million people. Yesterday I spoke to the Peace Corps veterans. There's 500,000 Peace Corps veterans out there. So as we start gathering momentum around the world, we can create this tipping point. And rotary is going to be a big part of this. Slowly but surely, we're introducing different zones and talking to district governor, governors, governor elects, governor nominees about instituting the peace game and the peace moonshot and peace polls into the future of your rotary management position.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

Well, and and and in this show several times, I have asked people how come you have all these board positions at your, you know, most clubs have a president, a vice president, a president-elect, a treasurer, a secretary, all that kind of stuff. But very rarely on a club and or even district level is there a district level peace position. And it's something that I've thought like, why not? Why don't we have a designated person on a district board or even a zone board or any of those other boards that works for peace? I've always found it.

SPEAKER_04 26:07

We'll do that in district 5100.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 26:11

We started the concept of peace builder clubs in there. We have 63 clubs. Currently, about half are peace builder clubs.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 26:20

But on March 5th, we're going to invite all 63 clubs to send a peace builder to a peace builder Zoom call, and we're going to try and unite all 63 clubs to be part of the projects I just mentioned.

Can Symbols Really Stop Conflict

SPEAKER_02 26:36

So, Larry, I I guess somebody always has to play the devil's advocate here. And even though I'm listening to all this and going, I love the peace poll, I love the idea of it. Peace and real change does have a diplomacy factor to it. I mean, right now, to get to, you know, we have a lot of hot zones around the world, and just putting a pole in the ground necessarily is not going to stop a war in Ukraine, let's say. Or does it?

SPEAKER_04 27:11

But I mean, like what creating peace communities around the world, around the peace poll, are what's going to do it. Creating a different mind mindset. And actually, because of the way the world is right now, all of these movements are more important than they've ever been.

SPEAKER_02 27:31

So do you think that so and I and I've had peace fellows on the show, and I've had, you know, people that have worked in this prospect of peace before? And I'll ask, I asked them the same question I'm going to ask you. Because if you look at the news, if it bleeds, it leads. And you could get really depressed really fast with what's going on in blank country or what's happening down the street or what's happening. Is peace actually can we do it? Or are you just gonna be kind of a Don Quixote and you're just gonna sit there and you know, plant these peace bowls and in your own mind just say, Well we'll make it happen. Do you see a peaceful future?

SPEAKER_04 28:19

The moonshot is audacious, okay, but it's achievable.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

Do you think it's achievable?

SPEAKER_04 28:26

It's achievable by uniting all of these forces around the world that have not been united. One of the challenges to Rotary is they change leadership every year.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

Well, that's a whole other show, Larry, and we could have that one. I'd have that one with you.

SPEAKER_04 28:43

So so, in terms of working on the Peace Trail, the Peace Game, and the Moonshot, we are actively working with Larry Lunsford, okay, Patrick Ekes, people who will be in management positions going forward.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

So you want Rotary to spend more time on peace.

SPEAKER_04 29:04

Rotary needs to spend more time on peace. One of the good things about polio right now is I just saw a statistic yesterday. There have been no instances of the wild polio virus so far this year, and we're two months into the year. That's that's good news.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

That is good news because it was kind of depressing towards the end of last year.

SPEAKER_04 29:27

Yes, and we've been doing polio since the 1980s. We can do peace moving forward, but we need to get all of the spokes, all of the dots connected, and there are lots of dots.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

Yeah. Is there is there a way that because we have these seven areas of focus? And I've talked to people on the environmental spectrum of things saying if we can get the environment together, we're gonna have clean water. If we can get the environment together, prenatal care and women and different things like that is really gonna be helped. If we can get that, is it kind of the same with peace? If we could just get peace and peace resolution, the umbrella.

SPEAKER_04 30:14

All of the other focuses are under. If you have a peaceful world, the other things are easier to accomplish.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

So are we kind of so so it when you say it like that, it's almost like we spitball a little bit with these seven areas of focus. If we just had one area of focus, well, peace peace, then the others would go.

SPEAKER_04 30:33

Allows you to do economic development in areas of the world that need it and helping get rid of disease. I mean, the reason we have polio going is because of wars in Pakistan and Afghanistan and other places around the world. So the world becomes a different place if it's at peace and allows you to accomplish the programs that Rotary wants to accomplish.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

Now, I want to change topic slightly, but it still has to do with peace. When you went back to that peace game, you you I think it was I think it was seven different things that are you're responsible for in the peace game. And a couple of them had to do with personal personal peace.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

And so how intertwined is a Rotarian and or a human being's personal peace and finding peace in the world?

SPEAKER_04 31:27

Well, the first aspect of the peace game is creating you as a different individual, both both for peace spiritually, community inspired. It changes you. And and I went in there kind of wondering why. Al Jubis, who's been doing peace for like 40 years, came out of this as a different human being. And the fact that the four of us work so well together as Team 566 has made a difference, even to David Gershon. So I look forward to our Friday meetings every week because every week we're accomplishing something new.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

Well, and and so when you say peace in yourself, does that mean and wellness in yourself? And then that goes out to these other gentlemen that in the 566. Does when you have peace in yourself, is it easy to find peace in the world? Do they the two of them just kind of work hand in hand?

SPEAKER_04 32:27

Yeah, and you create the ability to work within yourself, within community, and then with a larger global world. One of the interesting things on my birthday last August, my grandkids in Denver, Colorado, presented me with the Nobel Peace Prize.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:47

This is not quite the one that comes from Norway.

SPEAKER_02 32:51

Did they give you did they give you a million bucks when they gave it to you?

SPEAKER_04 32:54

They didn't know, but they call it the cash. They gave me this you can buy a replica of the Nobel Peace Prize. So I have it behind me here. And uh I look at that every morning. My uh Colorado Nobel Peace Prize.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

I love it. Yay, Colorado. So I I know.

SPEAKER_04 33:16

So my my goal, just to summarize a little bit here, sure, is to these four things we've talked about all interrelate to each other, and they're kind of all kind of based on peace polls and the rotary focus of peace, but it's created a different Larry Strober. Even though I've been focused on peace for the last 13 years with Rotary, over the last year I've become a different person in my ability to communicate what we're trying to accomplish on a global scale. And I love that I'm talking to people from all over the world every day. Love it, and we're making a difference. That's my second pin that I have that I wear. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Which is also a rotary theme back when so and and I actually love and you know, putting on my my marketing hat, especially when you listen to RI, they're like membership, membership, membership, and you're basically saying peace, peace, peace, and the membership will come. Because if you're saying peace by 2030, I have a goal that I would like two million Rotarians by that same date. And I kind of think the both of them could kind of intermingle pretty easily. If we have a more peaceful planet, we'll have a more Rotarian planet.

SPEAKER_04 34:38

I think we're creating a reason to become a Rotarian, a visible reason on projects that'll make a difference on the planet.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

So I've got and got a couple more questions for you, Larry, and I thank you so much for taking taking the time out to talk to me and talking to the world. And but most people come from a place where they want peace so much, usually because they've come from or they have seen a place of not peace. You know, some people come become some of our biggest advocates for peace because they've been in the military or they've, you know, had this happen to them or that happen to them, or lived in a country that was unfortunately war-torn or something like that. Where does your passion for peace come from?

SPEAKER_04 35:32

Looking at the world and the ridiculous situations that people put themselves in, there doesn't seem to be a regard for human life, for human dignity. On Saturday, we had a um peace game with 16 young women in Afghanistan who have no voice and cannot get educated. But we've had we've put together a peace game, and some of these people, these young women, have been very instrumental in promoting the peace game over the last year. So listening to people like that, listening to people in Africa and Rwanda and Ethiopia and places that have had civil wars. So, you know, my passion comes from I think I can make a difference. And when I start working with other people who can make a difference, we create a larger flow of peace. And it needs to happen. And it getting peace focused in rotary clubs is not an easy thing to do. Rotary clubs have a personality, everyone is different. A lot of them have been going for a hundred years. So when I come and I introduce something completely different, it takes a while to absorb and to change and and to s to actually feel that you the club can make a difference as part of a network of 46,000 clubs.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

And you're saying every single club can make a difference.

SPEAKER_04 37:18

Absolutely. Every person can make a difference. That's the heart of the peace game.

How To Get Involved

SPEAKER_02 37:23

There you go. Larry Strober, thank you so much for coming on the show today. I want so tell everybody if let's say I'm I'm Sue from I don't know, somewhere in the UK, let's just say, and I want to do a peace poll. How would I go about something as easy as putting together a peace poll?

SPEAKER_04 37:45

Just lststrober at gmail.com, two s, and I can send you all the information you need.

SPEAKER_02 37:54

Okay. Lsstrober at gmail.com. That's l s r.

SPEAKER_04 38:04

Did I do it wrong?

SPEAKER_02 38:06

You left out a True too, Larry.

SPEAKER_04 38:14

And that wouldn't get to me.

SPEAKER_02 38:15

So that wouldn't get to you. Let's try it again. L S S E R O B E R S Gmail.com. Larry Robert. Thank you so much for being on the show today. It was an honor. Uh 1955, people. We've been doing this since 1955. Let's do that tipping point by 2030, right?

SPEAKER_04 38:42

Right. Let's do it. Gwen, thank you. Thank you. This was fun.

SPEAKER_02 38:47

Thanks. You bet. It was fun. Thanks, Larry. Come on, tipping point, 2030. We can do this, you guys.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

Like I said at the beginning, I know it's kind of hard to talk about peace when there's not so much peaceful stuff going on right now. But you know what? It's okay, we can do it. We can do it. We can do it.

SPEAKER_02 39:12

So you know what else we can do? You can tell a friend about the podcast, okay? Have them subscribe. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. And hey, the podcast is on the road. So if you have a location that you'd like to see your podcast go to, an assembly, a learning center, a big fat, shoot me in the email. Rotarianpodsymail.com. That also goes for if you know someone to be a great guest on the show. RotarianPod XML.com. It's important to remember that this podcast is impossible. Just like the other guys say my viewers and listeners by a sponsor of the show or get a special show. Every little bit help somebody is funny. And you know, it's a labor of it but unfortunately, I can't tell that. You know, I can put this up on the web. Anyway, until next week. Take care of yourself and the world around you, and I'll hear you next time. Oh, and see you next time via YouTube on the Action to Impact Podcast. As always, thank you so much for listening. We'll talk to you soon.