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Show TheSalt Lake Tril e OPINION Sunda October28, 2001 BEST AVAILABLE Copy WeCan Transform America’s Enemies With a Helping Hand BY RAY WILMOT ‘Thedestruction ofthe World Trade Center buildings was not an attack on “democracy” “freedom,” as the president claimed. In myview,it was an attack on capitalism, on the bloated affluence in which we all share. We Americans are a mere 5 percent of the world’ population, yet we consume 7; percent of the world’s resourc- es, While mourning the loss of 6,000 innocentvictims, we need to be clear that similar attacks will surelytake place in the future. And no military action undertaken byour government will preventi Whatare to do as a people? How are we to change the course of this economic that seemsto havea life ofits own. Nothing will happen overnight, of course. Butit is time to state the problem clearly and begin a dialogue on whether we really need to upgrade our computers every two years with the latest high-speed Pentium chip, or put global po- sitioning devices in our automobiles, or surf through 150 channels on our TVs, or builda second homein the mountains for two weeks of skiing every winter. return home transformed — less self-centered and materialistic, more idealistic. With this in mind, I propose a voluntary service p. ; All able-bodied 18-year-olds would be called to a two-year period of service to mankind. Some would serve in a Third World country, doing jobs that I have modest proposal I would like to present. Call it the contribute to a better life for the promise of free education credits when they return. (Apparently Sens. John McCain and Evan Bayhare proposing a similar expansion of Ameri- corps to benefit U.S. communities. I think the much greater need is overseas). There would be many benefits of such a program. Participants in the four programs listed abovecanattest to these the Peace Corps, the Mormon those who havelittle. They would build housesor irrigate cropsor provide health care or care for AIDS patients or set up church's missionary program, small businesses. Others would Right now, many seem rudder- serve in poor areas of America or in the military or in church missions. Existing Peace Corps, Americorps and church programscould be expanded to less andfeeluseless. Otherdrift “People’s Globalization,” if you will. I would take a page from Habitat for Humanity, and the GI Bill. The massive .change that must take place in America will only happen overtime. Our hope is in our young. Whenyoungpeople spend time in another part of the world, helping others, they often handle a million volunteers. We taxpayers would support themwith a small stipend and benefits. First, our young people would know that they are truly needed in this society. aimlessly or engage in self- destructive behavior. Second, they would return with reinvigorated spirits, bringing ide- alism to our own society, perhaps choosinga future occupation thattruly contributes to a more equitable America or world. Third, they will become hostile world, less in need: of the businesspeople, politicians expensive armament. There is no way to trans- and leaders of the future, and their timeofservice will infuse all their activities. They will, in fact, be more informed citizens. form overnight the practices of 300 million people. But if we can admit that there is a growing resentment toward ~ Finally, the program will .n- ica among the poverty- volve many older: adults, of masses of the Third World; course, and we-could-hope that that this resentment. is: the idealism of our youth will justified, perhaps we'can B spread out to the ‘rest of our to change. The World. society, Center disaster has Perhaps many ‘more of us Americans at their m will ask what we-can do for our erous and courageous. brothers andsisters aroundthe the time to commitourselt world. a worldin whicheveryo! Thecost of such a program enough to eat, shelter fromtthe would ofcourse be enormous.It elements and decentjob Let would probably be necessary to the dialoguebe; cut back on our vast military expenditures. We'have to hope that a world with wealth more evenly divided would be a-less Ray Wilmot lives in“ ke City. ways tofix the problem. Asin- dividuals, we tend to say, “There’s nothing one person can do.” But others are acting in ourname, andif weare silent theywill assumewe sharetheir point of view. Ina free and open society, other voices need to be heard, other viewpoints dis- cussed. I would like to state briefly the main problems with our economic system, as I see them, and then propose a modest solution. First of all, as it has been documented again and again, therich are getting richer and the poor -are getting poorer. This is true in spite of “globalization.” The disparity between rich and poor in America is growing. And the gap between rich and poor nations is also widening. Second, bigger is in most cases not better. The mergermaniaofthe recent past has not resulted in a better quality of life.In fact,it has often not even resulted in greaterefficiency.It has meant bigger profits for corporate America. But while ourstockportfolios have gotten fatter, family farms have gone bankrupt, main streets have been boarded up, and franchises and chains haveproliferated, driving out locally owned business Third, our politicians have in many cases chosen the priorities of big business over the interests of the people. This is not likely to change any time soon, given the control or our elections by corporations. Fourth, our children.arereceiving an inadequate. education. We seem to be preparing? our students to be consumers. rather than citizens. We have. lost sight of the higher goals of education, to. improve ee — the world, to serve others, to participate in a democracy, In- stead, we seem to regard school as a preparation to make and spend money. Fifth, we have allowed the automobile to dominate our culture. The building of more roads, the sprawl of housing developments into farms and wilderness areas, and the neglect of masstransit have resulted from our ever-growing dependenceonthe automobile. Gather at The Gateway... nd Opening November Ist at SPM. Pal Cam While visiting The Gat ay's fine shops, Every American, from about restaurants and entertainment venues, be age 17, considers it absolutely necessary to own a sophisticated 2500-pound machine to get from place to place. And sure to check out these events underlying it all is our dependence on cheapoil. If thereis anypositive aspect to this list of deficiencies in our wayof life, it is that we are all compli Almostall of us use too muchoil, eat too much junk food, buy too much stuff, and worktoo manyhours. We have grown accustomedto ourst dard ofliving, andforgetthatit depends on the exploitation of the rest of the world, on people with substandard housing, malnourished children, dirty water and horrible working conditions, if there is work at all. Think of the places where indigenous crops have been abandoned to grow coffee beans for America, Think of the destruction of the rain forests to produce beef for our hamburgers. Think of sweatshops in Asia where children work long hours to produce our clothing. Think of the mines in South America, Africa, and Asia, where laborers toil to produce the copper, magnesium, gold and other precious metals for our computers and cell phones, For every one angry fundamentalist ready to commit sui- cide to makea statement, there are a million impoverished children suffering in Third World countries. Our answer to their need so far seemsto be, send them Coke, KFC and the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Will killing one zealot prevent the others from understanding the truth? Not likely. It is time for us to question |
