I'd like to share with you some words written by Sherri Byrand, a columnist with the Sheboygan Press. Somehow she got wind of the dreaming I've been doing and thought it was worthy of a column.

A Plea for Peace, Honor and Harmony
by Sherri Byrand, Sheboygan Press, Sunday, June 4, 2005

Larry Sands MacDonald has big hopes for the little triangle of a park at the intersection of Broughton Drive, Michigan Avenue and Third Street by the lakeshore in Sheboygan. He wants it to become a wellspring for world peace and inspire others to pursue harmony, hope and peace. After having earned a resolution from the Common Council to place a Peace Pole at the park, which would hold the message "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in 16 languages, MacDonald is working on final plans to present to the Sheboygan Public Works Committee on June 23.

Ultimately, he would like to have the park named The Sheboygan County Chordettes Park, after the famous singing group from Sheboygan. He also hopes to have the site honor four men who died in a plane crash last February; Scott and Vance Roberts (the two sons of his friend Tec Roberts of Plymouth), as well as Mike Borzcik of Fond du Lac and pilot Paul Riddle of Elkhart Lake.

He's still working on the text of the sign for the park but is proposing, "In memory of the singing success of Sheboygan's Chordettes quartet and the tragedy of the four deaths in the Plymouth Foam Products airplane crash on Feb. 4, 2005. May the harmony of the Chordettes spread to the rest of the world. May each of us, despite our grief, carry hope in our hearts. The road to world peace starts here."

MacDonald, who also goes by the nickname "Mr. Sandman" - the title of the Chordettes' hit that stood at No. 1 for 20 weeks back in 1954 - is hoping to take advantage of the park's unique shape and have not just one Peace Pole, but three, one at each of its angles.

Each pole will be 8 feet tall and have eight sides. Having three different poles would allow "May Peace Prevail on Earth" to be presented in the six official languages of the United Nations (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian) and others such as Albanian, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Italian, Lithuanian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish and Swedish.

MacDonald says that besides providing an opportunity for more languages to be represented, placing a Peace Pole at each of the triangle's vertices will allow all passersby to benefit from its message "no matter what direction they are heading in." He continues, "Here at this park, you can take the high road, the low road, the 'foam' road, but each one will lead to peace."

I asked him what he meant by the "foam" road. He said that while he was grieving the sudden deaths from the Plymouth Foam plane crash and trying to find a way to make meaning out of that tragedy, he was struck by a line in a Sunday bulletin from the First Congregational United Church of Christ. It talked about Christ walking "on the foaming deep ...for those in peril..."

MacDonald equated "a foam road" to one that presents heartbreak or hazards, and he has since realized that even if we must walk such a course, each of us must hold hope in our hearts and move toward peace of mind.

He thus sees the park as a living metaphor for our need and ability to find peace for us and make it a reality for the world. He said, "Peace starts with each of us and what we carry in our hearts. The road map is the Golden Rule, which is found in all religions."

I discovered the Chordettes' song 'Lay Down Your Arms." It reveals the pain of the one left behind by a soldier's commitment to duty, it implores the soldier, "Come to the station, Jump from the train, March at the double down lover's lane. Then in the glen where the roses en-twine, Lay down your arms (Lay down your arms). Lay down your arms and surrender to mine.

I can't help but wonder what the Chordettes' harmonies would have brought to the hymn, "Let There be Peace on Earth and Let it Begin with Me."

MacDonald said "We want to back our leaders, but we want to sell them on leading us where we want to go, which is toward world peace for everyone."

"It's time that we all join up to become the United People of the World, to recognize that there really is only one side - our side is the human side. We need to unite together against our common enemies, none of which are human. Our enemies are war, hatred, poverty, illness, dishonesty, ignorance, prejudice, selfishness, bigotry, drug abuse, loneliness, littering, bad ideas, etcetera," said MacDonald.

While working on this park project, he's already flying his new flag for the United People of the World. Its five stripes of red, white, blue, gold and black can be seen on the hill behind the triangle park, "flying" as he puts it, "beneath and in support of (his) American flag."

More information on MacDonald's efforts can be found at www.our-side.com.

What Ms. Byrand didn't tell you is that the little park we're dreaming of is where Sheboygan's Fourth of July Parade ends and the road to world peace begins.