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PEACE ON THE PLANET: VIRGINIA TECH
 Hi Everyone,
On April 16, the world was shocked and saddened by the senseless shootings that took the lives of 32 innocent people at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, or Virginia Tech as we’ve come to know it. In the days that followed, the shooter’s face and words were plastered across our TV screens and newspapers, accompanied by banner headlines declaring this the “deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.”
As you sit in front of your television learning more and more details about this tragic event, it’s easy to think the situation is out of your control and there’s nothing you can do. However, there are plenty of things you can do, as you’ll discover in this issue.
Right now, people are flocking to churches, temples, and other places of worship for comfort and solace. How about making your business a front for a church—a place where people can feel comfort and peace about the ordeal—as bestselling author and lecturer Marianne Williamson suggests in this month’s Corporate Corner? Or donating funds to aid Virginia Tech in its healing process, as the Be Nice News article suggests? In this month’s Be Nice Story, David Wagner shows how each of us can make a difference just by showing up as nicer people in the world. Mike Taylor’s audio message offers great advice for lifting ourselves from the “black hole of despair” to the “domain of opportunity,” and the Do Something article shows how to put that positive attitude into action. As Mahatma Gandhi said, we must be the change we wish to see in the world. We have the power to create a peaceful, healed, and nicer world by creating that environment within each of our hearts.
Thanks for helping me live my fantasy of spreading this BE NICE message and giving nice people a voice.
XOXO, Winn
BE NICE News
Students Supporting Students
 Sierra Community College in northern California held a car wash. Cosmetology students at the Ohio Academy Paul Mitchell Partner Schools raised $550. A group of Virginia Tech veterinary students held their popular annual dog wash, raising several thousand dollars. All of these groups and countless more across the country are raising money for the Hokie Memorial Fund, a special fund established by Virginia Tech to aid in the healing process. The fund will be used to cover expenses including but not limited to:
• Assistance to victims and their families
• Grief counseling
• Memorials
• Communication expenses
• Comfort expenses
To donate to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, visit www.vt.edu/tragedy/memorial_fund.php and choose Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund from the dropdown menu.
 Or you can make checks payable to Virginia Tech Foundation Inc., designate your gift for the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund on the memo line, and send them to:
Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund
University Development (0336)
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061
For more information, call (800) 533-1144.
Rachel’s Challenge
On April 20, 1999, America learned of the tragic shootings at Columbine High School. Craig Scott was in the school library and witnessed his fellow students shot before his eyes. His sister Rachel was the first person to die in the shootings. Today, Craig and his father Darrell Scott travel across the country speaking to teens about fostering “an atmosphere of kindness and compassion” to stop school violence.
 Just days after the Virginia Tech shootings, Craig and Darrell appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, urging people to avoid focusing on the negative. Craig says his big concern is “the attention and focus that’s put on the shooter.” Instead, he urges people to focus on the positive. “Where you choose to focus immediately is very important,” he says. “We’ve focused on my sister, Rachel, who’s so compassionate and kind. And from that, that’s the opposite of that anger and hatred.”
Darrell and Craig formed Rachel’s Challenge, an organization dedicated to stopping school violence. “We lead challenges from dealing with prejudice to reaching out to that lone kid in the cafeteria and reporting when there is something out of the ordinary,” Darrell says. “And we’ve seen incredible lives touched and changed.”
When kids are alone and angry, Craig says it’s important to combat negativity with love. “I hope that with the families in Virginia Tech that they. . . have 33 wonderful stories of beautiful people and beautiful memories and stories to hold onto.”
For more information about Rachel’s Challenge, visit www.rachelschallenge.com.
A BE NICE Story
Do you have a BE NICE story to share? Send it to editor@BeNiceOrElse.com. If it appears in the newsletter, you’ll receive a BE NICE T-shirt and CD!
This letter came from our good friend David Wagner, author of My Life as a Daymaker. His message reminds us that the way we show up in the world really does make a difference.
Dear Winn,
Dr. David Hawkins, author of Power vs. Force and The Eye of the I, says people can be calibrated for their energy levels and that higher-energy people counterbalance lower-energy people. He writes:
- One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of optimism and a willingness to be nonjudgmental of others will counterbalance the negativity of 90,000 individuals who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.
- One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of pure love and reverence for all of life will counterbalance the negativity of 750,000 individuals who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.
- One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of illumination, bliss, and infinite peace will counterbalance the negativity of 10 million people who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.
- One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of grace, pure spirit beyond the body, in a world of nonduality or complete oneness, will counterbalance the negativity of 70 million people who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.
Still wondering about your purpose? At what vibration will you arrive tomorrow? Aim deep!
Love,
David
Monthly Audio Message
 In his mid 20s, Mike Taylor was an English bloke on the move—a fit and healthy senior designer, elite rower, skier, and hiker. On an around-the-world trip at the age of 26, Mike had his first symptom of multiple sclerosis, though he didn’t know it at the time. Over the next several years his symptoms increased until he was confined to a wheelchair at age 33.
Mike has faced considerable challenges but never let his MS stop him. In the midst of his deteriorating physical condition, he purchased his first home and started his own design company.
 The year he got his first wheelchair, Mike swam the English Channel. Since then he has swum from Mallorca to Menorca (25 miles) and Catalina to Santa Monica (38 miles) three times. He cofounded the international charity Turning the Tides, organized fundraising events that reached millions of people, and helped fund myelin replacement research at Yale University. On his last Catalina adventure, Mike met his wife Helen. They live in Los Angeles where Mike launched his dynamic speaking career.
 As the world struggles to recover from the tragic events at Virginia Tech, Mike’s message is both timely and comforting. Listen in as he shows how to switch your focus from the “black hole of despair” to the “domain of opportunity.” You’ll be inspired and uplifted by Mike’s simple reminder to focus on what you have and can do instead of what you don’t have and can’t do.
If you enjoyed this month’s audio message, you’ll love our MASTERS Audio Club. CLICK HERE for more information.
People Profile
 Internationally acclaimed author and lecturer Marianne Williamson has published eight books, including four New York Times #1 bestsellers. In 1989, she founded Project Angel Food, a meals-on-wheels program that serves over 1,000 homebound people in the Los Angeles area each day. Ms. Williamson also cofounded the Global Renaissance Alliance (now called the Peace Alliance Foundation), a nonpartisan grassroots effort supporting legislation to establish a U.S. Department of Peace.
The day after the Virginia Tech shootings, the Peace Alliance e-mailed its readership the following suggestions for making a difference and preventing this type of violence from ever occurring again:
“We know that as a nation we have concrete tools to resolve conflict before it escalates into violence,” they wrote, “We can help our government leaders understand the need for institutions that address the root causes of violence so that we never suffer another Virginia Tech. Consider calling your members of Congress today and reminding them that we can take a fresh approach to dealing with violence. Share with them your deep concern about the shootings at Virginia Tech, and remind them that violence is a global and national public health and safety crisis that is preventable. Help them see, as you do, that we currently have the programs and practices needed to resolve conflict before it escalates into violence.”
To learn more about the Peace Alliance, visit www.peacealliancefound.org
You can reach your Congressional representative through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. You may also find your representative’s direct contact information at www.congress.org.
Corporate Corner
The Secret
Marianne Williamson used to say that every business is a front for a church, but I don’t think she was referring to a place of worship or a religion. Whether your business is a pizza parlor, an accounting firm, a hospital, or a beauty salon, make it a place where both customers and employees feel accepted, loved, cared for, and safe.
 One way to make your business a front for a church is to bring in uplifting programs, speakers, books, and films. For example, Winn purchased 20 copies of the movie The Secret and has shown it to many people in his companies. (The powerful film shot to the top of the New York Times, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Borders best-seller lists. It focuses on the law of attraction, a theory that says our feelings and thoughts attract real events into our lives.) How can you make your business a front for a church?
Do Something!
To think that your thoughts, behaviors, and choices to support and entertain a violent mindset do not contribute to violent acts clear across the country or across the planet is small thinking. Here are two powerful steps you can take to make this world a more positive place.
Boycott violent, negative TV shows and movies. We as a society cannot line up and pay money to see violent movies and then expect that violence will not show up in our daily lives. What if we all boycott negative TV shows and movies that give people a platform to put other people down? These shows seem to pop up more and more, and they give mean people a voice. Avoid turning on the television and being content to watch whatever appears. Take a stand. Be clear about your BE NICE purpose and intentions and make sure that your choices are in line with your values and intentions. Choose programs that inspire you, lighten your mood, educate you, and make you laugh without degrading others or giving mean, nasty people a platform.
Remember the victims. In our BE NICE revolution, let’s focus our attention on the 32 brilliant lives that were lost instead of focusing on the shooter. Peter Read, whose 19-year-old daughter Mary Karen was one of the victims, said, “We want the world to know and celebrate our children’s lives, and we believe that’s the central element that brings hope in the midst of great tragedy.” Let’s heed his call and remember the 32 people whose lives were taken that day:
Ross Alameddine
Christopher Bishop
Brian Bluhm
Ryan Clark
Austin Cloyd
Jocelyne Couture-Nowak
Daniel Cueva
Kevin Granata
Matthew Gwaltney
Caitlin Hammaren
Jeremy Herbstritt
Rachael Hill
Emily Hilscher
Jarrett Lane
Matthew La Porte
Henry Lee |
Liviu Librescu
G. V. Loganathan
Partahi Lumbantoruan
Lauren McCain
Daniel O’Neil
Juan Ortiz
Minal Panchal
Erin Peterson
Michael Pohle Jr.
Julia Pryde
Mary Read
Reema Samaha
Waleed Shaalan
Leslie Sherman
Maxine Turner
Nicole White |
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Quotes of the Month
“I was once asked why I don’t participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I’ll be there.”
— Mother Teresa
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