Can this be true? Is it a dream? A reality? Or does that depend on us?
And also visit www.Goal2018.org – the campaign site!
Antonio Soave, a producer and director who heads Capistrano Productions, helped us put together a filming session to record PSAs from Danny DeVito, Jason Alexander, Annie Cusack, and Elliot Gould.
Doug Deluca from the Kimmel show helped us do this at Kimmel Studios in Hollywood, and Barry Meier was the DP. If you want to see some pics of the filming, click here.
Arianna Huffington and Craig Newmark spoke powerfully at an event that Leah Jones from Edelman helped organize on behalf of the OneVoice Movement, hosted by the guys at Think Tank 3.
Craig always cracks me up with his signature wit. He is funny, self-efacing, down to earth and extremely bright. He provided an interesting analogy to how Craigslist thrives because the overwhelming amount of people are decent human beings, and there are far and few bad apples, which the system monitors to do away with.
Craig also quoted his favorite newscaster, Jon Stewart from the Daily Show on Comedy Central, that the reason we hear so much from violent extremists who are so active is "because moderates have shit to do in real life."
Arianna’s Huffington Post is an example of how new media can play a positive role by highlighting the voices of moderation. She explained how OneVoice has to stay on course no matter what challenges or setbacks or skepticism because it has to eventually achieve the critical mass to get to the tipping point that will get moderates to seize back the agenda. We just have no other option.
Bloggers from Arabisto.com to Jewtopia were present, all in all about 30+ people…
Gary Sharma from Srinagar in Kashmir joined us at a blogger meeting bc
he is stimulated by the OV approach. He explains he and his family
cannot go back to their hometown – and neither can anyone else – since
it literally became a military no man’s land after extremists took
over. A cautionary tale for Israelis and Palestinians.
The guy below is a 6 foot tall basketball player. These are some of the OneVoice Mandates that Israeli citizens have filled out over the last couple months…
The Huffington Post published an article I wrote about the imperative of mobilizing to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all, before it’s too late and before Ahmadinejad turns it into a truly intractable conflict.
Here are the type of people I really like and admire: doers with a heart and a purpose, without inflated egos, with a can-do attitude and the resourcefulness and creativity to get things done and not allow anyone to stop them. Imagine all of this and you get Laura Ziskin.
Laura produced the 3 Spider-man movies (with Avi Arad), as well as last year’s Oscars, among other things.
But as of yesterday she is now to be best known as a new member of the OneVoice Movement’s Trustee Advisory Board.
Adee and I were impressed at her level of commitment and resourcefulness yesterday. My favorite part was when she brainstormed that Larry King should cover the OneVoice Summit, and she just picked up the phone and cold-called to pitch the story to the producer, who she did not know. She did not even mention who she was or throw her weight around. And when the producer somewhat roughly indicated he was on deadline and didn’t have time, she matter-of-factly took a pen and agreed to just drop him an email. Please understand she is a very powerful producer, but she is successful because she is Laura, the doer, and instead of wearing her accomplishments on her sleeves, she just continues to get things done.
She continued to brainstorm on several other BIG ways in which she was committing to help advance our efforts for October 18th.
And by that night she had cranked out six poignant emails following up on everything she promised – and more!
Adee Telem and I stopped by Danny DeVito’s home earlier today. The only sad thing about that visit is that Rhea Perlman, his better half, is in London performing in Boeing-Boeing (to rave reviews) so we missed her. But separate from that, Danny is always adorably amusing, funny and down-to-earth, so it is always fun to catch up with him.
I met Danny and Rhea through my dear friend and Board member Joel Fields, who himself learned about OneVoice (back in 2001 or so called the PeaceWorks Network) when Mohammad Darawshe and I spoke at the home of Susan Baradaran – who I met through Sepi Djavaheri – who I met through Gabriela Velasquez, who learned about this idea from a flash presentation that Rohan Nirody, back then a 19-year old college intern at my company PeaceWorks helped me create. This is a reminder of the Power of One – starting with 19-year old Rohan, every one of the above people was a critical catalyst to help us spread the word about the movement and eventually reach major influencers, and the same string of relationships has repeated and repeated with dignitaries, techies, luminaries, religious leaders and ordinary citizens to reach what is now OV…
Danny and Rhea have been extraordinary friends to OneVoice from the inception, through the thick and thin, and helped us found the Entertainment Council that now includes supporters like Jason Alexander, Natalie Portman, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Annie Cusack, among many others who take the time and courage to advance a mission they recognize is so important even if it seems far away from home.
Danny agreed to record a PSA for the October 18th mobilization.
And he is working on some other stuff that, if it pans out, will be quite big…stay tuned.
Adee and I met with Elliott Gould at Peet’s Tea on South Beverly Drive. Benny Levy, the sculptor and artist, introduced us to him. Elliott is quite a fun and interesting guy, and he was clearly in sync with the OneVoice message. He agreed to record a PSA for the OneVoice Summit.
I have to confess I am a very big fan of his since, as a little kid in Mexico, I recall enjoying the movie Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. Can’t believe I remember that. Must have been a little nerd.
Just heard from Meg Garlinghouse that Yahoo has given the green light to assertively promote and webcast the 5 locations of the OneVoice Summit on October 18th.