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QVO RADIO
PEACE
BEATLES
24/7
Hearts And Hands Volunteers Donations Needed
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Volunteers Help
Needed
7 Tepees Youth Program
In The San Francisco Mission District
415.552.1550 We Need Your Help…..
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This
beautiful poster was created by artist Rick Moreno jr. for the Hearts
and Hands Elders and can be yours today for $19.95 (postage
& handling included) Click on the image of the poster at the left to
enlarge. Support the cause by purchasing a poster today Help the Hearts and Hands Foundation stop the violence
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Our
Purpose and Goal
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 Our
youth and families today experience undesirable and intolerable levels of
violence in our communities. Something must be done to build safe and
strong communities. We must change the status quo of minimal violence
prevention/intervention resources. We must address the negative trend of
commercial media violence for profit, which infests and poisons our
hearts or barrios and neighborhoods.
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 We,
the Hearts and Hands Elders, have come together to advocate, mobilize,
and promote a statewide peace movement in California. We understand that
peace begins one person at a time. Our strategy is to help initiate a
statewide Truce through Literacy campaign with events hosted by various
community grassroots leaders and agencies throughout the state. Together
with authors, educators, local political representatives, and social and
humanitarian agencies and foundations we will bring together families and
youth to promote peace and tolerance.
 A
selected group of Latino consumer sponsors and media sponsors will be asked
to support our efforts by actively participating in these family and
community events
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 The
Hearts and Hands Elders are committed to spreading the philosophy that
the "California Truce begins with me." The power of the
majority is to recognize our common vision. Our common vision is to see
Californians safe and secure, from barrio to barrio, school to home, and
embracing the greater sense of community with the message of Truce through
Literacy.
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 We
are particularly concerned that the mass media, through its manipulation
and repetition of negative images, have painted a dismal picture of our
cities, our schools and our families. These mass media images
portray destructive relationships among individuals and groups or gangs
and depict people who incite fear. This, in turn, leads to a
distorted self-perception of insecurity and social isolation among
Latinos.
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We,
the Hearts and Hands Elders see a different California, one longing for
peace and capable of true justice and tolerance. We encourage all
concerned humanitarians to submit letters of endorsement on behalf of our
efforts, to write letters to the editors and to fully participate in this
movement by volunteering in or hosting a local community event. Join
with us to publicize the message of peace by any means available such as
email, ads, bulletins, word of mouth advertisement, and letters to local
representatives.
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 The
Hearts and Hands Elders are actively working to reimagine and regain a
common vision of safe and secure neighborhoods and cities. We intend
to counter negative mass media messages regarding Latino youth and
Chicano/Mexicano families with positive messages of hope, inspiration,
and change. Our Committee of Founding Elders is seeking regional Elders
and grassroots activists to step forward and share their success stories
of building stronger communities through community service and volunteer
efforts. We can then applaud and publicize these inspirational
achievements so that other communities can achieve similar results
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 The
days of entitlements as well as state or federal funding for community
action seem to be long gone. Many public libraries are facing reduced
hours. Poor Latino communities do not have local bookstores or newsstands
in their barrios which provide quality literature and promote positive
images for our Chicano youth. The local liquor stores or grocery stores
continue to provide an abundance of "violence embedded text and
graphics" in the titles they provide. How will our "at risk"
children and youth learn about peace when the media, commercials,
products, toys, electronic games, cartoons or magazines are intentionally
embedded with the culture of violence?
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 We are taking a
new approach of families, communities, local businesses and merchants,
churches and other spiritual centers, unions and schools, working
together to provide safe venues for literacy in our communities.
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The solution does not lie with
one group or agency. It does not depend solely on the "at
risk" youth doing it alone. Would we expect an ill child to
heal him/her self? Our youth need proper, respectful, and meaningful
relationships with adults, mentors, and teachers. They need elders
to govern and guide. The visions, values and traditions must be clearly
set forth, modeled and shared by the Elders. Cross generational
co-operation for inculcating personal responsibility linked to a deep and
abiding social responsibility is a major first step. Literacy and
storytelling are the vehicles to spread the vision. We must find the
resources to bring quality literacy to our kids especially in low-income
barrios.
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 A
community must have shared agreements on the essential needs of
life. These agreements do not imply we all act, look or believe the
same. It does mean we have much in common. Shared agreements
around common needs and values are important for genuine
community-building.
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Somewhere
along the way, "at risk" youth and families were reported to be
the norm not the aberration. However, many books, songs, articles and
websites are available to serve as evidence that peace is our common
value and that violence is the minority viewpoint.
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 We,
the Hearts and Hands Elders, support the notion that the wise should
mentor the novice and the strong should support the weak. Our common
passion is to work together to form a more orderly, just and
compassionate society where people of diverse communities focus upon
their own roles as promoters and creators of peace.
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 The
solutions to complex problems are varied and range from simple to
intricate. It is for this reason the Elders represent a broad spectrum of
people and fields of expertise. If one Elder can not address the issue or
problem, then the "at risk" youth and family may be redirected
to another Elder, source or resource. The primary mission is to use the
tools of Literacy and Storytelling to rekindle a sense of personal peace
that can then lead to a statewide truce. To know one's history, customs,
values and traditions is to know one's culture today, where it has been
and where it's going. Tradition and rites of passage through Literacy and
Story telling are paths that will lead to responsible, wholesome, and
responsive adults.
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 The
Hearts and Hands Elders will not pass negative judgments against "at
risk" youth and families. It is our intent to lead by example, guide
from experience, and collaborate through human connections to begin the
healing process. We already have the medicine for all the ills plaguing
our youth, families and community. We need to know how to tap into
and activate the natural healing powers we possess within ourselves and
in our relationships that have held our communities together in the past
and can do so in the future. We represent distinct areas/regions of
California and various fields of study. We are here to advise, caution,
direct and/or redirect others to safer paths of existence by seeking a
personal path of tolerance and respect toward others.
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The
California Hearts and Hands Elders ask you to imagine what can occur when
many are gathered in the name of Peace. Consider the fact that the
Holocaust finally ended through a world-wide effort. Consider how
Indigenous and African American slavery was eventually abolished. The Civil
Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and La Causa, the
struggle for justice inspired by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, have
positively changed this country.
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 The Hearts and
Hands Elders ask you to embrace our dream of a united state of peace for
California, where residents and visitors can travel freely without fear,
reprisal, scorn, or violence based upon the color of their skin, shirts,
caps, belts, or shoelaces.
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Our
common vision and dream is to strengthen communities in violent times by
advocating for a statewide Peace and Community Truce. Literacy and
Storytelling through a statewide multi-media campaign is only the start.
Once we successfully declare and achieve a "California Truce,"
the long arduous road towards rebuilding communities can safely begin.
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