Peace Pole

Past Rotary International President Jennifer Jones, with the assistance of Samir Zogbi, inbound exchange student from Argentina, unveiled the new Rotary Peace Pole on October 14, 2025.  The peace pole is located in the Horticultural Society's Peace Garden.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
by Diane O'Shea

In our community, we live, learn, and work on the homelands of the Haudenosaunee (HOH-din-oh-SHOH-nee) and the Anishinaabeg (uh-NISH-ih-NAH-bay) First Nations peoples. We honour their continued presence and deep traditional knowledge. We recognize especially the stewardship of the land by the First Peoples.

Our ancestors made special promises or treaties to share this land and to be good neighbours. May we all live with respect for the land in peace and friendship.

Remarks by Andrew Middleton

The words of John Lennon are synonymous with peace.

Imagine there's no heaven; it's easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky, imagine all the people living life in peace, you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope one day you'll join us and the world will be as one.

I once used these words in an essay I wrote for an international relations class. The professor took out his red pen, circled the quote, and wrote, "This utopia will never exist." I then asked him, "Does that mean we shouldn't try?"

Rotary, other service clubs, and many charities work towards achieving peace in various ways in different places. However, peace is not always related to conflict. I recall a female politician in Sierra Leone stating that true peace is not the absence of war; true peace lies in the hearts and minds of men and women. The Sierra Leonean civil war was incredibly brutal, and hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives and limbs during the conflict. Even though there was a ceasefire, hatred existed in the hearts and minds of those people; a similar situation exists in Gaza today.

We all strive for true peace in our lives; from time to time, we achieve it, but it can be very elusive. For example, Jennifer, who will open the pole soon, might say that she will never be truly at peace until polio is eradicated.

We all continually struggle to find true peace in our lives, in our relationships with family, friends, colleagues, or members of our community. Unfortunately, when we can't find true peace due to a situation that bothers us, causing worry and barriers to moving forward, we are the ones who will lose out.

This pole is a symbol of peace, but without people coming here to look at the pole and reflect, it will remain just a piece of wood. So, come here, encourage others, take a seat, think and reflect, and as Lennon wrote All we are saying is give peace a chance.