Toward a more lasting peace

Roosevelt councilman has made global amity his calling

By: Cara Latham
ROOSEVELT — Bob Silverstein has many heroes. Actually he has about 650 heroes, and the list is growing.
   From Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. to those who might be lesser known like Congressman Dennis Kucinich, he has drawn portraits of them all and placed them online at BetterWorld.net, a site that he maintains, to spread awareness.
   All of them have one thing in common — they all have or are working toward making the world a more peaceful place, and they are all an inspiration to Mr. Silverstein, 47, who has that very same goal.
   Mr. Silverstein — actually, Borough Councilman Bob Silverstein — has been heavily involved in achieving peace. He has written over 40 books for children and adults, maintained hundreds of peace-related Web sites, and is the co-chairman of The International Day of Peace NGO Committee at the United Nations. He is also the co-director of the Peace Day Network, which connects over 2,000 organizations in 200 countries to support global peace.
   But Mr. Silverstein, of Pine Drive, who is married and has two children of his own, is entirely humble about his efforts.
   "I try to keep a low profile locally," he said.
   Working toward peace is his passion, and he will always wish for a better world, he said, which is an inspiration behind all of his efforts.
   "For some reason in 1995, I just decided I was going to dedicate myself to trying to make the world a better place and use whatever talents or skills to try to do that," he said.
   Mr. Silverstein became involved in writing books about 10 years ago, when he started co-authoring children’s science books with his parents. He has also written peace-related books, a lot of which are available online for free at PeaceKids.net so that kids can access and download them.
   "Some of them are about a better world, and some of them are about specific issues ending hunger and ending poverty," he said. "I wanted to write things more about changing the world, helping to create a peaceful, just and sustainable world."
   In 1995, when the Internet hit mainstream popularity, he began teaching himself how to build Web pages to share his ideas with others. He began designing pages for peace groups, which did not yet have Web pages available, and that’s how he met a lot of the different peace groups he has been working with for the past 10 years.
   "I just got a book and learned how to do it," he said about learning Web design. "It’s grown a lot since I started 10 years ago. I know enough to do what I’m able to do."
   His Web page design led him to a job as the managing director of a peace organization in New York, where he became involved giving out grants.
   Early into his efforts in developing Web pages, he was invited to the United Nations and began focusing his efforts on the Peace Day Network.
   The Peace Day Network connects organizations around the world to support a global cease-fire and worldwide day of peace and nonviolence on Peace Day, which is Sept. 21. More than 3,500 Peace Day events took place in 2006, he said. The first Peace Day was observed in 1981.
   "Nobody ever heard about it, and I decided to help use the Internet to get the word out," he said. "Basically, the idea there is to try to give young people and adults just the blueprints to be able to organize local better world clubs, just help to create better communities," he said. "When there’s thousands of them all around the world doing this, it becomes more of an organized movement."
   In addition, the UN has created a "better world" calendar with days that are devoted to specific subjects under the umbrella of peace, he said.
   And Mr. Silverstein is also associated with Pathways to Peace, based in the San Francisco Bay area, and he represents the group at the United Nations.
   He gets to attend the United Nations and has an identification badge, he said. In addition, the UN does briefings where they have organizations that are called NGO — nongovernmental organizations — in attendance, in order to help spread their efforts.
   Mr. Silverstein also gets to sit in on meetings at the UN, and is able to help the group share ideas and make suggestions to the UN.
   "It’s really made me see that people are similar all around the world," Mr. Silverstein said. "People really do want a better world for everybody. People forget that, and they get stuck in their own little box, and the UN really is a neat place to open that box and see that people are the same inside, with the same hope and dreams."
   While he admits spreading peace is not easy and the UN still has to deal with a lot of problems, "it’s a wonderful vehicle for a possibility of what we can do together," he said.
   And Mr. Silverstein also brings his philosophy to his work as a councilman for the borough.
   "As a council person, I try to do what I can to help people to get along, to help people function," he said, adding that when conflicts in the community arise, one has to just urge people to try to get along. "Serving on the council is part of the whole big picture — being a part of your community and giving yourself to the community is one of the keys to a better world."
   Recently Mr. Silverstein, with the help of a fellow resident, helped to recently activate a chapter of the Princeton Coalition for Peace Action in Roosevelt.
   And all of his work has landed him recognition by The Peace Company, which sells peace-themed products on its Web site. The company was deliberately created as a for-profit entity, as the company believes "a true culture of peace needs to be grounded in a visible and viable economic sector where the manufacture and sale of goods and services support peace, peacebuilding, and nonviolent conflict resolution at every level of society," its Web site stated.
   The company recently designated Mr. Silverstein as one if its Peace Millennium Award Winners.
   "The Peace Millennium Award receives donations of boxes of ‘The Peace Book: 108 Simple Ways to Create a More Peaceful World,’ so that it might in turn gift those boxes, with special certificates of appreciation, as a Peace Millennium Award to nonprofit organizations and courageous individuals all over the world who are the leading the way for peace in their communities, often against great odds," the company’s Web site also states.
   Mr. Silverstein said, "The Peace Company has really been doing a wonderful job of trying to show that peace can be profitable" in that it can transform the world. "There’s so many people doing amazing things out there, and I’m just one little person, and I was really honored" to be recognized, he said.
   As part of the award, the company will send him a copy of the peace book, which is a product the company sells to people to give to their friends to help raise awareness about peace.
   "I’m really proud of it," he said. "It definitely is encouraging that my efforts are being recognized. It gives me the strength and the hope to keep trying to spread the message that we can work together to create a better world. That’s my life mission, and it’s nice to have a little milestone along the way where people recognize that."
   And Mr. Silverstein has been working on creating the portraits of the heroes, who have inspired him, for the past two years. The Web site, BetterWorld.net, also features quotations from each of his heroes — who hail from various fields including those in the health industry, those trying to end poverty and hunger, those who promote democracy, and those who have been leaders — and links for more information on them. In addition, children can download the pictures, print them out, and color them.
   "Every day I do one, and it’s been fun for me just to find out more about the people and be able to share that, to highlight their lives," he said. "Every act of compassion makes a difference. These people’s lives have really been an inspiration to me. So, I’m most proud of being able to share, in my humble way, with (others) the portraits to highlight their lives."