When I sit back and ponder what can be, my mind goes quickly to the one big item I have wished for most of my life. No, it is not having abundant money. No, it is not about having the newest, nicest car, or even good looks or an endless supply of steaks. None of that. Nice items, but not my biggest, bestest hope.
That would be: world peace, goodwill toward all of mankind.
I often wonder how that would be. What would the world look like if we had total peace, no wars or armed conflict anywhere on the globe, and that as a sustainable condition. How would each of us live our lives knowing there was total peace everywhere? Would we be happy? Would we be struggling with something else that then becomes the most important hope or problem to manage?
When President John F. Kennedy set a goal to place a man on the moon by the end of the decade (1969), we didn’t know how to make that goal happen. But we did get busy finding out how to do it. We literally invented our way to the moon, back, and safely kept the astronauts alive and healthy. We learned how to do it so we repeated the task a few more times. The space program is now a mature feature of American science and engineering.
Peace could be our goal as well. We truly do not know how to achieve this goal, after all, we have worked toward it for hundreds of years. If anything, wars and military sciences have only expanded the carnage and capability of same many times over.
No, for me peace is achievable, a great goal. I hope it is for you as well.
The task ahead to make the goal happen, is to learn how to do it. It will take listening to all peoples and their leaders. We have the UN as a good starting point and operating platform. Not perfect, but it is there to be used. We have fine universities throughout the global community; each has talents and achievements to their credit that can be used in finding and maintaining world peace. We should build on their expertise and knowledge, work together and support the peace goal.
We have billions of people on the planet interested in and hoping for peace. With such support, surely we can urge our leaders to do what is necessary to achieve world peace.
We have the resources and wealth to make peace possible. With the will of the people, we should have no problem. Right?
Wrong! If it were that simple, peace would be our companion at this moment. We know it is not, therefore, we have work to do.
The first step is to agree that world peace is a worthy goal to work toward and make the national commitment to do so.
The second step is to develop a plan among nations to support the goal’s achievement. This will take concentration, commitment, money, understanding, and open eyes, ears, minds and hearts. The last two are the most valuable. They are also the most difficult to muster to aid our goal’s achievement.
We have people of good will and people of ill will. We have munificent leaders and autocrats or dictators. We have generous people and cultures, but also greedy people and nations. Whether it is power or riches pursued, there seems to be someone always wanting what someone else has. Thus crime, war and violence is a constant companion of modern life.
To change that, we must agree to disagree, focus on the things we do agree on, and build on that consensus to generate the will and the way toward peace. The benefits are enormous. Consensus builds understanding, commonality of purpose, and huge reductions in military costs while these resources can be used to support better living conditions for everyone.
We’ve had the ugliness of world wars. Can’t we spend the time, energy and money saved on those fruitless pursuits to achieve something that is much better and happier?
If we don’t do this, no one else can. If we don’t save our lives together, then there will eventually be no life. If we don’t save our own planet from mankind’s destruction, we will have no planet.
This isn’t for me. It isn’t even for you. But it is for our kids, our families and their successive generations. We were given life and opportunity. It is time for us to do the same for future generations.
September 2, 2019
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