(See previous months,click here)
"One could be cynical and say all of this was
inevitable, that the greater power and wealth a
country has concentrated all in one place inevitably
leads to greater corruption because that becomes its
heart and soul, the target for controlling the rest
of the body, for it is the government which makes
the rules which determine who gets rich and who does
not, who keeps their wealth and who must give some
of it up for the common good of others. But when the
government has to live in a community of nations, it
is bound to be expected to live under the same laws
it expects other nations to live by, and the US has
ceased even doing that, not only in our commitments
we have voluntarily made and are now obligated to
obey in how we are supposed to treat other nations,
but in our very commitments internationally to
follow our own laws on human rights, election
fairness, the treatment of our prisoners, and the
necessity of our President, military, and internal
police forces to adhere to
our own rules for their behavior.
.... how we came to
this crisis, the real crisis which our media ignores
in favor the the crisis' de jour which are given to
us daily to keep us occupied, distracted, and
fearful of tackling the real problem. That being
that our political system has evolved through
corruption beyond the publics ability to greatly
influence it at all in any significant way both to
its own and to our own peril.
"You and I must make
a pact,
we must bring
salvation back
and when you call
me, I'll be there
When I was a little
boy, my grandfather said to me,
he said, "help your
friends and neighbors to live in harmony.
When a man walks in
darkness and he stumbles right from wrong,
you should be his
brother and help him along."
Take the time to
look around, brothers on the ground.
Please don't look
the other way.
Listen to what, what
I, what I have to say.
When I was a little
boy, my grandfather said to me,
he said, "help your
friends and neighbors to live in harmony.""
"I'll Be There": Berry Gordon Jr/Bob West/Hal Davis/Willie Hutch)
My "thinking spot" beach as I would later refer to it was my oasis. My routine became to ride by bike along the beaches, sit in a spot leaning back on the concrete slabs and watch the sun go down over the water in front of me every day. When no one was around, just me and the sun and the sea, I could pour out all my hopes, doubts, fears, joys and sorrows before me. No impending war, no fall out or blowbacks to come, no past or future history at all, just me and a big yellow ball going down over the water. I could smile or cry or both at the same time, and just for awhile enjoy a private slice of timelessness outside of what was before or what was to come.
There with my quiet contemplations, any number of things seemed simple. Nothing seemed too complex that a little thought and effort could not make clear. All futures I had hoped for were wiped out, yet I still was. The future was becoming increasingly improbable, yet the world still was. It was a long time, it seemed, before I would again acknowledge hope, however seemingly misplaced or unlikely.
Rivers of life flowing behind the scenes: Faucets, Eternities, and Probabilities Undefined
gone with the
wind, without influence, without force, without
respect. Were we to let it die, to enfeeble its
vigor, to cripple its powers, we would condemn our
future. For in the development of this organization
rests the only true alternative to war--and war
appeals no longer as a rational alternative.
Unconditional war can no longer lead to
unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to
settle disputes. It can no longer concern the great
powers alone. For a nuclear disaster, spread by wind
and water and fear, could well engulf the great and
the small, the rich and the poor, the committed and
the uncommitted alike. Mankind must put an end to
war--or war will put an end to mankind. ... Today,
every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the
day when this planet may no longer be habitable.
Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear
sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of
threads, capable of being cut at any moment by
accident or miscalculation or by madness. The
weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish
us. ... And men may no longer pretend that the quest
for disarmament is a sign of weakness--for in a
spiraling arms race, a nation's security may well be
shrinking even as its arms increase. ... Such a plan
would not bring a world free from conflict and
greed-- but it would bring a world free from the
terrors of mass destruction. It would not usher in
the era of the super state--but it would usher in an
era in which no state could annihilate or be
annihilated by another. ... For peace is not solely
a matter of military or technical problems--it is
primarily a problem of politics and people. And
unless man can match his strides in weaponry and
technology with equal strides in social and
political development, our great strength, like that
of the dinosaur, will become incapable of proper
control--and like the dinosaur vanish from the
earth. .... The events and decisions of the next ten
months may well decide the fate of man for the next
ten thousand years. There will be no avoiding those
events. There will be no appeal from these
decisions. And we in this hall shall be remembered
either as part of the generation that turned this
planet into a flaming funeral pyre or the generation
that met its vow "to save succeeding generations
from the scourge of war." In the endeavor to meet
that vow, I pledge you every effort this Nation
possesses. I pledge you that we will neither
commit nor provoke aggression, that we shall
neither flee nor invoke the threat of force, that
we shall never negotiate out of fear, we shall
never fear to negotiate. Terror is not a new
weapon. Throughout history it has been used by
those who could not prevail, either by persuasion
or example. But inevitably they fail, either
because men are not afraid to die for a life worth
living, or because the terrorists themselves came
to realize that free men cannot be frightened by
threats, and that aggression would meet its own
response.... We cannot expect that all nations
will adopt like systems--for conformity is the
jailor of freedom, and the enemy of growth.
Nor can we expect to reach our goal by contrivance,
by fiat or even by the wishes of all. But
however close we sometimes seem to that dark and
final abyss, let no man of peace and freedom
despair. For he does not stand alone. If we all
can persevere, if we can in every land and office
look beyond our own shores and ambitions, then
surely the age will dawn in which the strong are
just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.
Ladies and gentlemen of this Assembly, the
decision is ours. Never have the nations of the
world had so much to lose, or so much to gain.
Together we shall save our planet, or together we
shall perish in its flames."