The City of Palm Desert will gain a Peace Pole very soon and that is no April Fool’s joke. The City Council voted 5-0 on Thursday afternoon March 28, 2024 to place the Peace Pole at the Community Rose Garden. The garden is at the corner of San Pablo and Fred Waring Drive close to city hall. Near the pole will be a 3 x 6 inch tile with the engraved name “Robert Miller Army Veteran.”

A lot has transpired since mid-March when a city official told me that we should take our Peace Poole proposal to another city. Perseverance and openness to a new idea paid dividends to get this done. We want to thank the City Manager Jim Hileman and Amy Lawrence for their help in negotiating a winning proposal that meets all of our goals.

This will be the first Peace Pole in Palm Desert. AMVETS will pay less than $400 for the Peace Pole. AMVETS already paid $50 for the tile. The pole should be ready to be installed by the city later this month. A dedication ceremony will be held soon.

The Palm Desert Greens Democratic Club wrote a support letter and donated $100 for this project. The Peace Pole will say “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in four languages plus a braille plate. The languages are English, Spanish, Hebrew and Arabic. Arabic is the language of the Palestinians.

A Peace Pole that we dedicated is the central feature outside of the Cathedral City Library. There are two Peace Poles in Desert Hot Springs. There is one in Palm Springs and one in both Mecca and Thermal. We dedicated the Peace Pole at Congressional  Cemetery in Washington DC. There is now  a Peace Pole in Joshua Tree.

Europe is involved in the first land war since World War II. Thousands of people have been killed in Ukraine. Thousands of people have died in the war between Israel and Hamas. The Hamas attack in October killed the most Jews since the Holocaust. The Palestinians lose a child in the war in Gaza every eight minutes. The Virgin Mary at her monthly apparitions at Medjugorje has been telling her children to pray for peace.

There are over 200,000 Peace Poles around the world in over 180 countries.

Peace Poles are  a high priority in Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City. Cathedral City spent thousands of dollars to make their Peace Pole the central landmark outside of their public library.