Lee Thorn -Jhai- Peace Train, getting 2 'Jhai'

Dear friends and board,

I hope this finds you and your families well.

There's a bit of Jhai news at the end of this.

Today my friend, Wayne, wrote me with good news and I remembered, for some reason, my lucky relationship with the song 'Peace Train' by Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens). Here's the song in its best variation I think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIMoekEv1p8

Many things come to mind as I hear this song, not least of which are the images in the youtube version attached. I also remember two other times I heard 'Peace Train' performed.

1. Back in 1975 or so Ron Kovic and Joan Baez asked vets from San Francisco to help them do an event at the White House. I think we called it 'Bonus March 2' or some similarly grandiose name. It was a terrible time for Vietnam Veterans Against the War and peace vets. Most of us had dropped out of VVAW - most whole chapters - because our national office had been taken over by Bob Avakian's splinter Maoist group and we did not want to be associated with them, since they said such (what we took to be) insane things.

One night a bunch of us were at Lydia and Jack McCloskey's place. We were talking strategy while imbibing various substances as was our wont in those days. Someone put on Cat Stevens 'Peace Train'. We had been talking about how we might acquire a train to pick up vets across the country to get to DC. It was a patently crazy idea (Avakian did not have claim to all crazy ideas), but when Cat Stevens started singing 'Peace Train' on the cassette we all started line dancing to it, singing at the top of our lungs. Now, being a dreamer and strategist, I was thinking of ways we could actually get a train and passing them on between verses of 'Peace Train', too. Thankfully we did none of them. We were nevertheless greatly inspired by Cat Stevens and particularly this song.

We in San Francisco did go to DC with Ron and Joan where Jack, if memory serves, got arrested for standing between VVAW-AI and our group while trying to calm everyone down. I got sick of the bickering and retreated to Rep. Ron Dellums office to work on setting up a Vietnam Veterans Caucus and support for the Vet Center legislation to help guys (those 'other guys' I falsely thought) with PTSD. From the perspective of over 24 years of sobriety, I want to report with some shame that that week was a quite drunken time. I even had the opportunity to sit down for three hours with Rep. Phil Burton, get educated on lobbying, and have a few (ok, quite a few) Jack Daniels.

2. Fast forward to 2006 in Oslo. As chair of Jhai Foundation I got invited by Cisco, one of our funders, to attend a conference in Stockholm and to take a train to Oslo to see the Nobel Peace Prize Concert featuring Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens). I remember almost every minute of this concert which is saying something because I cannot remember the vast majority of yesterday. The biggest song of the night was 'Peace Train'. I was in ecstasy. The entire audience was on its feet dancing as was Yunnus himself ... and his daughter.

3. Now, fast forward to the present. Tomorrow (Saturday) has to be better than today. I am sure there were many good things going on today, but I didn't notice them. And then my buddy Wayne sent me this piece to read which talked about 'unity',and, also, how unity was the only way forward, how seeing one another as part of a whole in which we are all a part, each one of us, was the most effective and conscious way forward. It set tomorrow, Saturday, as a great time to do this worldwide. I thought ... why not?

So I am doing my little bit here. I'm sharing 'Peace Train' with you and am praying we all get on it. As we do, the world's challenges will seem what they are - opportunities for all of us to find ways to cooperate with one another, doing our little parts, for ending poverty, for healing, for reconciling with our planet, and for peace. The alternative to this is way too grim: to let things continue as they are. It is time for us to wake up!

Oh ... and Jhai ...

1. has proven that satellite connectivity will work for us in Laos to do telemedicine together with sustainable middle school education projects using information and communication technology. We will check out 3G asap.
2. This same connection and the school computers will be used nights, weekends and holiday periods for livelihood and communication in a way that helps to sustain the whole project.
3. We also have begun circulating 'Jhai Networks', our breakthrough, low bandwidth capable communication suite. And, once we understand all we can from these project and our project in Viet Nam, we will give all the knowledge we obtain away.

Here comes that Peace Train. Let's get onboard!

It may go directly to or more probably, through 'jhai', which in Lao social language means that place where a family or community ... or all of us ... feel harmony among ourselves. We do not get attached to how long this will last ... or anything. Each time we feel 'jhai' our world gets bigger and closer and more compassionate.

It's fun!

yours, in Peace,

Lee Thorn
Chair, Jhai Foundation (for i.d. only)
www.jhai.org
lee@jhai.org
+1 415 420 2870

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