Originally published on the CGS blog on March 3, 2010.
On February 20, 2010 Linda Grover, 76, who devoted more than 10 years to establishing January 1 as a worldwide day of peace, died Feb. 20 of uterine and ovarian cancer at the Washington Home and Community Hospices.
Last October, Citizens for Global Solutions joined Linda in her crusade to celebrate Global Family Day worldwide. Global Family Day is a practical tool for peace and sharing that the US Congress and the UN General Assembly have both adopted. Linda understood that what binds us together as true citizens for global solutions is our strong belief that we are all, everywhere in the world, connected as members of the Global Family.
In this vein, this past January 1st, 2010, we recognized and celebrated Globalfamily Day, One Day of Peace and Sharing for all faiths, cultures, races, nationalities and economic classes. During the 48 hours of January 1st, 2010, we broke bread together, rang bells, and pledged to find non-violent solutions to all our problems in the year ahead. Holidays are society’s most powerful tool to inspire and unify individual groups and we will use Global Family day to remember that we are all part of the global family and to remind our leaders that we need global solutions for the world’s most pressing challenges.
“We live by the rhythms of our holidays,” Linda told The Washington Post in 2002. “The quality of our holidays, or the meaning of our holidays, defines our individual cultures. And having no holiday that everyone shares means we’re all out of step.”
“Peace is like Carnegie Hall,” she said. “If you want to get there, you’ve got to practice.” And practice she did.
We are all honored that we had the opportunity to work on this incredible project with Linda and look forward to continung her legacy into the future.
