Spreading Peace

Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, before I had any idea what a "blog" was, I made my first foray into the "tubes" of the internet when I created a site called Puplinks. I had *no* clue how to design a web page, so I took advantage of the easy "drag and drop" page creation offered by Geocities. Once the site gained in popularity, the limitations of Geocities' free hosting became a hindrance--if a site gets too much traffic, under the free hosting plan, it is made unavailable for a period of time. I actually talked about the site on local television once, which, naturally increased interest, and BAM, new visitors were greeted with this ugly "this site has exceeded its allotted bandwidth" message.

Well, that was the motivation I needed to buckle down and actually learn some web design software, and I moved Puplinks to its new home. After September 11, 2001, everywhere I looked, people were flying the American flag on their web pages. To me, that just didn't feel like the right response to a human tragedy of such proportions. So I asked Demetrius to create a graphic that I could use instead--one that expressed things like hope, peace, and unity of the human family rather than nationalism. That's when he created this graphic for me...

Since the only web site I had at the time was the web site about dogs, that's where the candle went. Eventually, I decided it should have its own page, and I created Links of Hope and Peace. Since, as I mentioned earlier, I wasn't blogging at the time, the page was all about the links, baby. Nothin' but links.

And actually, I'd forgotten that the page was even there until just recently, when a few people e-mailed me to let me know that they had used the candle graphic on their own sites. (I had asked people to do that, so that I could link to them.) So today, for the first time in a while, I opened that web page so that I could add the new links. I felt a bit of a pang of guilt for not doing more with the page. And now that so many news stories remind us what a vitally important issue peace is right now, I feel like the page is in need of some updating. If you know of any good links that would be good to add, please let me know.
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One of the people using the candle is using it for a vigil for Barbaro.

Here at Howard-Empowered People today, this candle burns as a symbol of the dedication many of us have to working for peace. It also burns for Tanner--I checked puddle's blog and it seems like he's having a rough time again. That family could use some love and light right now.

And for anyone in your life who needs a little light and hope right now.

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