Los Angeles / Tehran "World Cities" Online Dialog Startup

Los Angeles / Tehran "World Cities" Online Dialog Startup:
First Working Committee Meeting

Date/time: Sunday December 6th, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, dinner will be served

Price: Free, donation requested, RSVP required.  The first 25 to RSVP will be invited.

Where: Levantine Center * 5998 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035-2657 * Tel: 310.657.5511 * Fax: 310.657.5522 * Media Inquiries only: 310.402.8866 * email: info@levantinecenter.org

Our immediate goal is to get the new LA / Tehran dialog going online.  Longer range we will be aiming at 1) activating the LA / Tehran Sister Cities link and 2) global nuclear disarmament.  Our overarching theme is "Peace and Friendship between the Cities of the World" -- starting with LA and Tehran.  While recognizing that political discourse is inevitable within the dialog, the Working Committee will take no political stance beyond supporting global nuclear disarmament.  Our Peace & Friendship theme will be our heartfelt guide.

Though we begin with Los Angeles and Tehran, the intent is to rapidly expand to include all the 3100+ Mayors for Peace cities.  We will use Facebook and Twitter to recruit at least one participant from each of the Mayors for Peace Cities and together, using a voting-on-messages feature of the dialog software, elect a message from the Cities of the World to the 2010 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Conference to be held in New York beginning May 3, 2010.

Our chief order of business at the meeting will be to create a steering committee and sub-committees.  Persons attending will probably mostly be Iranian from the LA area, but the meeting is open to all.  You must RSVP to attend, and we are limiting the number to 25.  Please only attend if you expect to be active in one of the committees.  Sub-committees will include: Outreach to LA and Tehran, LA / Tehran Sister Cities, Nuclear Disarmament.  Ideas for additional sub-committees are welcome.

Background: Until recently, the World Cities Dialog was an LA Area Nuclear Disarmament Dialog.  In its new incarnation, the dialog promotes people to people peace and friendship between the cities of the world.  Nuclear disarmament continues as an important theme of the dialog, and where it can, the dialog will support and strengthen existing Sister Cities relationships. The "World Cities" dialog is sponsored by the Unity-and-Diversity World Council and co-sponsored by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Ethics. Additional co-sponsors are welcome.  Here is a link to the dialog login page.

For more information, contact Roger Eaton, rogerweaton@gmail.com. To RSVP contact the Levantine Center at the phone number given above.  RSVP by phone only to the Levantine Center, please.