General Assembly

This weekend I found myself honored to be one of the few to work inside of the UN. My job when I first arrived at 5 in the morning was to securely check in background actors and make sure they were who they said they were and had clearance into the UN. As the line formed half way down the block, I repeated yelled for every one to take out their photo ID and SAG cards for identification.

Going down my detailed list checking each actor off one at a time, a middle-aged man who had crazy written all over him started yelling at me because I wouldnt let him pass. "I am sorry sir, if you don't have a picture ID I can not give you a security badge." Twitching with anger, the man started passing and getting up into my face. I found myself hastily fighting back with this undeserving man. The line of people who did have their ID's was becoming impatient so I called casting and made them come and deal with the crazy.

It was then that I realized that going inside the UN was a big deal. You just can’t walk in and if you have no reason to be there, you may never be granted access inside its doors. Guerrilla the Steven Sodenburg film about the life and career of Che Guevera was the second film to ever shoot inside of the UN (Interpreter was the first).

Hours later I walked amid those same background actors, now dressed in period clothing, in the middle of the General Assembly room. This room where many of the decisions of the world are made for better or for worse and each word said greatly affects the world.

I stood at the center of the world and I took a breath for peace. I hope that every person there that day did the same. Because that room has taken many lives and resolved to save others. It is a place that almost doesn’t seem real, one that the faces of the suffering will never see.