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Show Page 10 The Ogden Valley news Volume XIV Issue XIII April 1, 2007 Terror, Love, and the State of the World Note: John Robbins is the author of many bestsellers, including Diet For A New America and The Food Revolution. Robbins is the son of Baskin-Robbins ice cream founder. If we are serious about stopping terrorism, then our goal must be to reduce the level of fear, injustice, and poverty in the world. Approximately 3,000 people perished in the September 11 attacks. Our nation still reels from such despicable brutality. But those who died from the attacks on that tragic day were not alone. On September 11, 35,000 children worldwide died of hunger. A similar number of children died on September 12, and again on the 13, and on every single day since. In today’s world, made transparent by television and other telecommunications, any country that attains prosperity unshared by its fellow nations can expect to attract resentment and hatred. In a time when a handful of desperate and suicidal people can devastate the most militarily powerful nation in the history of humankind, any effort dedicated to defeating terrorism must also be dedicated to the goal of bringing justice and prosperity to the poor and dispossessed. To advance human security and control terrorism, we must not find only the brutality of the September 11 attacks to be totally intolerable, we must also find intolerable that one billion people worldwide struggle to survive on $1 a day, that more than one billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and that 3 billion people have inadequate access to sanitation. We have not hesitated to build an international coalition and to spend hundred of billions of dollars to defeat those who launched the attacks of September 11. What if we were equally as dedicated to building an international coalition to eradicate hunger, to provide clean water, to curb infectious disease, to provide adequate jobs, to combat illiteracy, and to end homelessness? This goal is too costly, many say. But this is not true. The cost of our 2006 U.S. defense budget was $442 billion. What could we accomplish if we spent even a small fraction of that on programs to alleviate human suffering? In 1998, the United Nations Development Program estimated that it would cost an additional $9 billion (above current expenditures) to provide clean water and sanitation for everyone on Earth. It would cost an additional $12 billion, they said, to cover reproductive health services for all woman worldwide. Another $13 billion would be enough, not only to give every person on Earth enough food to eat, but also basic health care. An additional $6 billion could provide basic education for all. These are large numbers, but combined they add up to $40 billion. Might the United States remember in all of this that we have a deep and paramount interdependence with the well-being of all the world’s peoples? Will the day come when the United States fulfills our true national purpose and achieves lasting national security? If this is truly our goal, and if we devote our actions and resources to its accomplishment, the support for the bin Ladens of the world will begin to diminish. We’ll know we’ve begun to create a world where terrorism can’t find a foothold when we commit ourselves and our resources to the building of a peaceful world with as much dedication as we’ve committed ourselves to war. We’ll know we’ve begun to defeat terrorism when we see the connection between the $5 trillion the U.S. has spent on nuclear weapons since World War II and the homeless children shivering in the cold, the battered women who have no shelter, and the families broken by grinding poverty; when we see the connection between the $1 billion a day we’ve spent every day for decades on the military and the hungry people who have no hope, the children dying from preventable diseases, and the families who sell their daughters into sexual slavery because they see no other way to survive. We’ll know we’ve begun to create true national security when we define the greatness of our civilization not by our military capabilities, but by our ability to bring out the best in ourselves and others, and by the quality of life we leave our children. We’ll know we’re on the right track when we begin producing and eating food that is healthy for our bodies and healthy for the Earth, and we no longer find acceptable the existence of human hunger anywhere on the planet. We’ll know we’re building security when we give up our dependency on oil, and develop and economy based instead on hydrogen, wind power, solar power, and other nonpolluting, safe, and renewable sources of energy. We’ll know we’ve begun to create a safer world when we design our public policies and personal lifestyle not just for individual advantage, but for the greater good of the whole global community. Then our religious and spiritual lives will make us more human, more humble, and more able to live with respect for all human beings. We’ll know we’re upholding the human spirit when the power we seek is the ability to nurture and befriend, and when the success we pursue is one in which all beings share because it is found on reverence for life. In times of fear, most people step back and wait to see what others are going to do and what’s going to happen. Some people, though, see the situation as an opportunity to step forward and take a stand. The more of us who in our hearts and lives take a stand for the creation of a thriving, just, and sustainable way of life for all, the less likely it is that the bin Ladens of the world will accomplish their purposes, and the greater the chance that it will be love and not fear that will prevail. It is the planting, nurturing, and harvesting of fruits worthy of all that is good and beautiful in us that we must now, as never before, dedicate our lives. Now, as never before, the world needs our wisdom, our cooperation, and our understanding that all humanity is connected. For more information, lease visit <Healthyat100.org> Information used courtesy of “Timeline” (May/June 2002). CITIZENSHIP IN AMERICA By Drew Peterson We the people pledge allegiance, for one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Allegiance is what a good citizen is all about; it is loyalty to America. Allegiance is being faithful and trustworthy to our country. Allegiance has integrity and honor. Good citizens don’t just pledge allegiance, they are allegiant! On September 11, 2001 the World Trade Centers were destroyed by evil men and the help of two planes. America pulled together that day. Many heroes lost their lives, but more people saw a need for a united nation. They didn’t just see a need, they did what needed to be done; they helped and served. This service affected every state in the nation. Even the western states pulled together and served others. This is how the citizens of America are. What can we do to become better citizens? We can be informed voters. This is one way to show allegiance, but there is so much more to it. The men and women who are and who have put their lives on the line for our freedom truly show ultimate alle- giance to America. “Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for a friend.” Love is the greatest way to show allegiance to our country. Love is all around us. Love for the red, white, and blue as we display the flag on patriotic holidays; love for our freedom as we serve in the military and support the troops; love for our neighbor shown in acts of kindness. On that September day, the people truly saw a need for love. It ruled over malice and anger toward the terrorists; it pulled us together as a nation. Abraham Lincoln once said, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” Let us all not only pledge allegiance, but be allegiant to our country by loving and serving one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. See page 5 for more information about Drew Peterson. |