A Prayer for the 21st Century

May the road be free for the journey,

May it lead where it promised it would,

May the stars that gave ancient bearings

Be seen and still be understood.

May every aircraft land safely

May every traveller be found,

May sailors in crossing the seas

Not hear the cries of the drowned.

May gardens be wild, like jungles,

May nature never be tamed.

May dangers create of us heroes,

May fears always have names.

May the mountains stand to remind us

Of what it means to be young,

May we be outlived by our daughters,

May we be outlived by our sons.

May the bombs rust away in the bunkers,

And the doomsday clock be rewound,

May the solitary scientists, working,

Remember the holes in the ground.

May the knife remain in the holder,
May the bullet stay in the gun,

May those who live in the shadows

Be seen by those who live in the sun.

-John Marsden

In his poem, John Marsden shares his hopes and dreams for the future. What does Marsden believe is worth fighting for?

Ted Talks

What can you do to change the world? Check out Ted Talks to learn from others as they share ideas about how you can take action and make a difference.

Women 2 Drive

Women in Saudi Arabia are fighting for their rights to allow them to drive in the country.

So it’s finally about to happen! Women are gathering up in Saudi Arabia to take the driver’s seat and drive their own cars, for the first time in Saudi!!

When I heard about this, I thought ‘what took them too long?!’..Driving is one of the activities that should not be thought of as a right to be earned!! If you are a person who does not have a disability that prevents them from driving..Then it’s something that should come naturally, without having to work for it so hard!

We have searched for laws that prohibit women in Saudi Arabia from exercising their right to drive their own vehicle but have not found anything that points to such [a prohibition] in Saudi traffic laws. Therefore, what we will do cannot be considered a violation of the law. We therefore have decided that beginning on Friday the 15th of Rajab, 1432, which corresponds to the 17th of June, 2011:

• Every women in possession of an international driver’s license or one from another country will begin driving her car herself whether to reach her place of work, drop her children off at school, or attend to her daily needs.
• We will take photographs and videotapes of ourselves driving our cars and post them to our Facebook page in order to support our cause: I will drive starting June 17
• We will adhere to the dress code (hijab) while driving.
• We will obey the traffic laws and will not challenge the authorities if we are stopped for questioning.
• If we are pulled over we will firmly demand to be informed of which laws have been violated. Until now there is not one traffic law that prohibits a woman from driving her own vehicle herself.
• We do not have destructive goals and will not congregate or protest, nor will we raise slogans. We have no leaders or foreign conspirators. We are patriots and we love this country and will not accept that which encroaches on its security and safety. All that is involved [in this matter] is that we will begin to exercise our legitimate right.
• We will not stop exercising this right until you find us a solution. We have spoken out on too many occasions and no one has listened to us. The time for solutions has come. We want women’s driving schools. We want Saudi drivers’ licenses [for women] like all other countries in the world. We want to live a complete form of citizenship without the humiliation and degradation that we are [currently] subjected to everyday because of our dependence on a driver.
• We will launch volunteer campaigns to offer free driving lessons for women beginning on the date that this announcement is issued and we wish for everyone to support us.

Join their FB Page, and support their campaign.