re: GKC International Airport, Atlanta Georgia

Human freedom involves our capacity to pause, choose, and
to vote the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight.
---Rollo May

There is currently much talk of renaming Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. We, the undersigned, believe that if Hartsfield is to be renamed that it should represent historical individuals of considerable international contribution, recognition, and accomplishment. We support the petition to rename it GKC International Airport (the GKC representing Nobel Peace Prize recipients Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jimmy Carter). We remind those in the State of Georgia, and all people around the Earth that Atlanta is a respected international city and a prime location for worldwide companies looking to move a business operation to the United States. We want to be known mostly for representing PEACE. Our superior intercontinental airport (with direct flights to major world capitals) serves as a high selling point for interested global companies. More than 1,600 foreign-based companies have established operations in metro Atlanta. There are also ~10,000 foreign students here in Georgia representing over 120 countries of the Earth. In addition, there are actual consular offices in Atlanta representing over 50 countries! As millions arrive and depart Atlanta over the coming decades, then (more than anything else) we want them to internalize PEACE so that our global family gets healthier!

Considering the fact that Atlanta is growing into its monikers: The city of the future!, and The city too busy to hate!, we courageously believe that a GREAT new name for the airport should be GKC International Airport (the GKC honoring Gandhi, King, and Carter). We want to represent PEACE! These 3 courageous citizens of Earth have given to ALL of us what is MOST important, and that is a better understanding of the word PEACE! Each of them are GREAT examples to follow, and the future millions-of-visitors that will be passing through Atlantas airport will certainly be inspired! We support the courageous city and state officials who can enact & implement this worthy & peaceful name-change. We, the undersigned, proclaim:
Three cheers for Gandhi, King and Carter!
VOTE: GKC International Airport

Following are a couple of quotes that inspire us...

---Mahatma Gandhi (1869 1948): Where there is love there is life and peace. Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. The spirit of political and international liberty is universal and, it may even be said, instinctive...The attainment of freedom and peace, whether for an individual, a nation or the world, must be in exact proportion to the attainment of non-violence by each... Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary. Freedom is like birth. No charter of freedom will be worth looking at which does not ensure the same measure of freedom for the minorities as for the majority... Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being True nonviolence should mean a complete freedom from ill will and anger and hate and an overflowing love for all... Courageous nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of humankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man. Any action that is dictated by fear or by coercion of any kind ceases to be moral... Freedom of the individual is at the root of all progress. Complete independence does not mean arrogant isolation or a superior disdain for all... If it is our privilege to be independent, it is equally our duty to be inter-dependent! The good person is a friend of all living things You must be the change that you want to see in the world.

---Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968): Our lives begin to end on the day we become silent about things that matter Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere Courage faces fear and thereby masters it! Cowardice represses fear and is thereby mastered by it. Courageous people never lose the zest for living even though their life situation is zestless. Cowardly people, overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, lose the will to live. We must constantly build dykes of courage to hold back the flood of fear I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, although temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stands at times of challenge and controversy!

---Jimmy Carter (1924-2034) -Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 12/02: Great American power and responsibility are not unprecedented, and have been used with restraint and great benefit in the past. We have not assumed that super strength guarantees super wisdom, and we have consistently reached out to the international community to ensure that our own power and influence are tempered by the best common judgment Most Nobel laureates have carried out their work in safety, but there are others who have acted with great personal courage. None has provided more vivid reminders of the dangers of peacemaking than two of my friends, Anwar Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin, who gave their lives for the cause of peace in the Middle East The Nobel Prize also profoundly magnified the inspiring global influence of Martin Luther King, Jr., the greatest leader that my native state has ever produced! On the steps of our memorial to Abraham Lincoln, Dr. King said: I have a dream that on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. The courageous bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices!

---Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): The world is upheld by the courage and veracity of good people: they make the earth wholesome. They who lived with them found life glad and nutritious. Life is sweet and tolerable only in our belief of such a society!

--- Margaret Mead (1901-1978): Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

In closing, please join with us in signing this petition to further establish the courageous cause of PEACE, and in the renaming Atlantas airport after these 3 historical individuals of considerable international contribution, recognition, and accomplishment Nobel Peace Prize recipients Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jimmy Carter.
GKC International Airport, Atlanta Georgia