Global Summit

I’ve heard from some that calling on our national leaders to cooperate on creating new, global institutions to guide human activity is unpatriotic. This to me is nonsense. I think such a call is in total keeping with the ideals upon which this country was founded. You need to go no further than Thomas Jefferson's Memorial. Read his words of advice. I think you'll find, as I did, the idea that we must the have the wisdom and courage to know when it is time to reorganize ourselves. I think if he were here today, he would not only think the time has come, but also that it is long overdue.

We wanted to “shock and awe” the world with our military in Iraq. It is time to shock and awe the world with our intelligence. Using our capacity as citizens to let our leaders and the world know we support a global summit, where the long term health of the human race is the topic, ought to do the trick.

The USA was established to address our personal and our collective (what came to be our national) goals. The UN was established to address our long term human goals. The former is a work in progress. The later has been a disaster. The wars, human suffering and the environmental destruction that have taken place since the founding of the UN are part of our past. The fact that we and our children are being taught to mentally accommodate a world where our long term human goals are slipping out of reach, is part of our present.

Today when we talk about any type of world government, we dwell on the negatives. “We would have to give up some of our national sovereignty.” “We might have to change our lifestyles.””Our enemies will get an unfair advantage” “The details would be overwhelming.” “It will never happen in my lifetime so…” The list goes on and on. But so does the list of the positives. The potential personal, national, global, short and long term benefits of reorganizing ourselves on the macro level need to be included in our discussions, if we are going to intelligently evaluate our options.

Nationally and religiously justified killing, i.e. war, has become today’s version of the bubonic plague. We must eliminate it or it will eliminate us.

Taking care of ourselves and our families is a personal affair. So is taking care of everyone else.

In Friday’s blog I mentioned the fact that the Haitians had no warning. They had no warning to get outside. I’m sure the best of of our current warning technology is not perfect, but the earth sound be totally wired with best we have available. Our technology will improve once the goal is clearly established; give us all enough time to get our children to a playground.

Today we are all aware of the human suffering taking place in Haiti. They had no warning, no time to prepare. While we are busy organizing our response, the citizens of Haiti are suffering and waiting. Imagine living in a community, where every time a house caught fire an organizing meeting was required to figure out how your neighbors could help. Just as the men, women and children of New Orleans had to suffer and wait; the men, women and children of Haiti will suffer and wait until the rest of us create yet another ad hoc response to a natural disaster. We can do better. Why not consider participating in a globally cooperative effort to create strategically placed Disaster Relief Centers, where the individuals in charge have no need to waste time organizing a response?

A major element of our current foreign policy is to convince and help other nations to adopt democracy to govern their internal affairs. We should be asking ourselves; “If our faith in the democratic form of government is so great that we are willing to sacrifice our young men and women to defend it and help other nations to adopt it, then why are we not talking about cooperating with the rest of the world to create a global democratic system?”

What if our foreign policy is totally successful? In the end we will have democratic nations competing as sovereign entities, still willing to act unilaterally when their national interests are at stake.

Our founding fathers established the United States of America to address the problems created by sovereign entities acting unilaterally. In 1787, the competing entities were states. The individuals who came together in Philadelphia in 1787 did not do away with statehood. Instead, they used their collective intelligence to create their idea of a long term solution, our Constitution. When they had their final draft, each state was given the opportunity to voluntarily accept or reject their suggestions. Eventually, after adding the Bill of Rights, the citizens of each state decided - their long term goals could best be achieved by relinquishing some of their rights to act unilaterally. They voted to adopt the U.S. Constitution.

In 1945 there was another attempt to create a new document to address the problems of sovereign entities acting unilaterally. The UN Charter was supposed to be our new “Global Constitution”. Unfortunately, the citizens of the nations of the world were not ready to relinquish any sovereignty, and the chaos created by sovereign nations acting unilaterally continues.

We need to try again. What do we have to lose? After our new constitution is created, no nation will be required to relinquish any sovereignty unless their citizens decide - their long term goals could best be achieved by relinquishing some of their rights to act unilaterally. Today, the citizens of the world may follow in the footsteps of our own ancestors and vote to “Adopt”, but we'll never know unless we give ourselves the opportunity.

Whether we like it or not, we are all members of what has become the global community of humankind where the nation-state can no longer guarantee our safety and happiness. Our ancestors did not discover our once sovereign states, they created them. When the state form of government became outdated they did not discover the United States of America, they created it. These creations of our ancestors were never intended to be a final step. They were intended to be used as temporary stepping stones in the ongoing evolution of our ability to organize ourselves.

The intelligence, wealth and resources are available to establish the next step in the evolution of our concept of government, but like the state and the nation it’s not here to be discovered, it must be created. Calling for the creation of the next step is not being un-patriotic; on the contrary, it is the logical continuation of the ideas upon which our country was founded.

Ultimately, the collective evolution of human intelligence is a personal affair.

If you are using the internet to follow what I am trying to share would you please let me know. In addition, I would truly appreciate your input, whether positive or negative. rmccormick@globalsummit.org

If humans are going to be long term inhabitants on the Earth’s surface, we are going to need an intelligent alternative to weaponry to settle our disputes, we will need a totally sustainable relationship with our environment and we will need to ensure that every one of our children has access to life’s basic necessities. But these simple goals have yet to be established and adopted by any official national or international organization. Human activity, for the most part, is being conducted on an ad hoc basis. We are reacting to events, always adapting to the chaos caused by 6.5 billion humans pursuing nothing higher than personal, or at best, national goals. The arguments used by past generations to justify their goal setting have become outdated by the ever-increasing dependency humans now have on one another. Officially establishing and adopting our collective long term goals for all future generations is the logical first step if we are going to move beyond wanting, wishing and hoping for our children to live in a better world.

“Some of us might agree on our long term goals, but you’ll never get the entire world to agree.”
How do we know this to be true? No international meeting has ever been held where we ask our national representatives to use the best of our current thinking to step beyond national borders and establish our common, long term goals for our children and grandchildren. We may find that the rest of the world is ready, perhaps eager, to participate, but we’ll never know if we don’t ask.

“Sounds great, but we can’t even take care of the problems within our borders much less beyond them.”
The problems within are borders can no longer be addressed with national solutions. Our national economy is now tied to a global network that is transferring currency, resources and labor over the borders created by our ancestors. Pollution, disease, terrorism and a host of other problems we face, are all problems without passports. The competition for the resources we need to maintain our lifestyles is no longer a national affair. Trying to address our national problems, while ignoring our new global interdependence, is like trying to run a ship by focusing on one stateroom. It can’t be done.

“The power of the special interest groups currently benefiting from business as usual is so great, nothing can be done.”
The special interests of any existing generation, no matter how powerful, cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the ongoing evolution of human intelligence. There is no question that adopting transnational, intergenerational goals will lead to a change in our business as usual approach and some will, at first, be adversely affected. We need to let those so affected know that our deliberations will include their personal needs.

“I’m currently doing the best I can, volunteering my time and donating my money…”
Everyone I know is doing the best they can and are pretty maxed-out in the time they have to volunteer and the funds they have to donate. We don’t have to do more. We need to work smarter.

“Humans are fatally flawed and therefore…”
We are not fatally flawed. The logic being used to justify chasing peace with a weapon has a fatal flaw. The logic being used to justify our current relationship with the environment has a fatal flaw. The logic being used to justify our current reaction to the human suffering we now see every day has a fatal flaw. No, we are not fatally flawed and the logic used to justify our behavior didn’t start out fatally flawed either. It became that way over time. Six and half billion humans individually wanting and competing for the same things, without a long term set of globally established and adopted rules of competition, is a fatally flawed strategy.

“Others are taking care of these issues, why are you talking to me?”
Others are working on peace, environmental and social justice issues. One way or another we are paying the salaries of these workers. If they are government workers, we pay taxes to support them. If they are employed by one of the thousands of organizations working outside of government, we donate our money to support them. These dedicated individuals are doing their best to take care of these issues, but they just can’t keep up with the consequences of unguided human activity. We need a new set of goals and rules that will allow those dedicated to addressing our problems, to finally address them effectively. When enough of us agree that it is time to establish and adopt a new set of goals and rules to guide human activity, it will happen.

“No nation is willing to give up the required amount of national sovereignty to allow for global cooperation on our long term future.”
Not true, today there is one. The Citizens of Germany have amended their Constitution to relinquish national sovereignty when it is for the long term interest of the entire human race. The Citizens of Germany have stood alone for too long.

“I’m only one individual, what can I possibly do?”
Human intelligence is stored in 6.5 billion locations throughout the planet. What you can do is use the part you control, to ask for a new set of globally established and adopted long term goals to guide human behavior. We are not asking you to send money or volunteer your time. We are asking you to take five minutes, go to www.globalsummit.org, sign the petition, and let the world know: you believe the human mind is capable of a higher level of effectiveness when it comes to solving the problems currently confronting the human race.

Today, the foreign correspondent assigned to cover the planet Earth, for the Universe Times and Dispatch (UT&D) sent the following article to his editors. “Dear readers, although this article is extremely difficult to write, and will most likely bring a fascinating assignment to an end, I am compelled by my occupational responsibilities to report the truth as I see it. The remarkable story of the human race and its unparalleled ascent to domination of one of the universe’s life supporting planets (LSP) is about to come to an end. Unlike the final stages of other LSPs, covered by UT&D, the Earth’s inability to support life will not be caused by a cosmic collision or the explosion of a nearby star. Sadly, the fatal wound in this case was self-inflicted. Our scholars may debate for eons what went wrong. Was it a fatal flaw that no amount of effort could have overcome? Or was it the arrogance that comes with such a rapid ascent to domination that did them in? I don’t think we’ll ever know, but either way it is excruciatingly painful to watch humans, a truly remarkable life form bring about their own demise. In order to spare our readers the agony of reading about the inevitable suffering that comes before the end, the news director for UT&D has reassigned me to cover Gantus, another LSP with an emerging species. I can only hope I find the assignment as fascinating as covering the story of Earth, but without the tragic ending.” Anend Fornow, reporting for the Universe Times and Dispatch

If our Founding Fathers could somehow magically reappear today, they would be baffled by our continual attempts to use, what they would refer to as our “national militias”, to impose their ideals on the world’s other sovereign nations. They would not understand our refusal to even attempt to use the blueprint they created to address outdated sovereign, state governments. Thomas Jefferson would refer us to the words he wrote to a friend, and can be found etched in stone at his memorial, about the need to continually update our concepts of government to keep pace with our ever-changing circumstances. He would tell us that he and the other Founding Fathers, never intended for our Constitution to be the final step in the ongoing evolution of our ability to organize human activity. Our Founding Fathers are not going to magically reappear, but we can pay them the respect they deserve by standing on their shoulders and effectively address the problems associated with today’s outdated sovereign, national governments. They knew that when all else fails, draw a new border. Their creation was regional, ours must be global. The difference is a matter of geography and complexity, neither of which should be used to forever negate our following their example or accepting their advice.

Yesterday was a sad day for the human race. The President of the United States, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, officially adopted the “kill all evildoers” approach. Now we are assured that both sides of the “terror war” will continue using the same strategy. Both sides still have God on their side. Both sides remain morally justified. Both sides will continue to measure their success by counting dead humans. The human quest for global peace has become a deadly game without rules and without an end of the game strategy. Sadly, another US President has decided he can win the game and hand our children the prize of peace by using more soldiers and better weaponry. Not what one might expect from a Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

It is our ability to imagine, not our ability to think, that truly separates us from all other life forms on Earth. If we continue to accept our leaders' ideas about what they imagine we can accomplish, then human activity will continue on its current course. Our leaders’ current imaginings about our potential are limited to what they feel can be accomplished using existing tools. They are determined to address the global problems confronting our generation with the tools created by past generations. They just need more soldiers willing to die, better weaponry, more resources, more funding, more studies, additional treaties, and a greater effort on our part. We are being told that with all of the above and more time, we might eventually begin to effectively address the adverse consequences of current human activity – such nonsense. Our leaders are using human experience as the guide to set our goals. The time has come for us to go beyond our current leaders’ ability to imagine and set new goals based on our potential, not our experience.

We are all hearing a great deal from our leaders, experts, professional commentators and those representing our “think tanks” about how we can effectively address the problems confronting our generation. The problem as I see it: the individuals mentioned above continually fail to include in their discussions the potential benefits of a globally cooperative effort to establish and adopt our human, beyond borders, long term goals for all future generations. Just imagine what it would feel like to be a member of the human race the day after our national leaders issued the following joint statement: “As we are the current leaders of the world’s various nations, and in recognition of our national and global responsibilities, we do here by establish and adopt the following long term goals for the human race: We will create an intelligent alternative to weaponry to settle our current disputes and the unforeseen disputes of the world’s future citizens. We will create and share globally the technologies necessary to establish an ongoing, inter- generationally, sustainable relationship with the environment. We will effectively address, and eventually eliminate, the social injustices of poverty, hunger, illiteracy and all deaths from diseases with known cures.” The time has come for the concerned citizens of every nation to insist our leaders get on the same page by establishing and adopting our common, long term goals for those that follow us. Please sign the petition.

Hatred and weaponry are both proliferating. In spite of the efforts of the most powerful military the world has ever known, the efforts of the United Nations, all the “Peace Treaties” in existence, and all the efforts of the individuals praying, meditating or wishing for peace – global peace is nowhere in sight. Our world has become a tinderbox where a single spark can ignite the final battle. Only those individuals with an organizational or personal interest in maintaining the status quo still believe our current relationship with the environment is acceptable. In spite of the best efforts of all our environmental organizations, human activity is still not sustainable and headed in the wrong direction. A non-sustainable relationship with our environment is suicidal, eventually. With each passing generation, we continue to add more heat to our, temperature sensitive, global eco-system. The continual accumulations of each generation’s heat contribution will eventually ignite an environmental catastrophe beyond our or our grandchildren’s capacity to react. The fact that the actual event may not take place in our lifetimes provides no solace for those of us with concerns that extend beyond our personal deaths. Our modern communications systems have made us all eyewitnesses. The facts have become brutally clear. Humans all over the planet are suffering. In spite of the efforts of the millions of organizations working on social justice issues, the victims of poverty, hunger, illiteracy and all deaths from diseases with known cures see no end to their suffering. Inter-generational suffering breeds hatred. Hatred is met with hatred and the justified killing circle is complete. Today, portable nuclear weapons are part of our reality. The time is coming when any individual or organization, armed with enough hatred, fueled by their suffering, will be able to ignite the “bomb to end all bombs”. Now is not the time for despair or apathy. The problems mentioned above can be solved. They just can’t be solved using the documents, organizations or institutions created by our ancestors. Human activity has gone global with corresponding problems. Global problems require global solutions. Global solutions require global cooperation. Global cooperation requires a unity of purpose. The choice is ours – we can agree to globally unite our efforts or globally ignite our world. Please join the growing list of individuals calling for a globally cooperative, unified effort to address the problems confronting our generation by signing the petition.

Our leaders and thousands of other well intentioned individuals are focusing on providing our children with a world without nuclear weapons. At the same time we are working on improving our capacity to use drones to bomb our enemies. Globally we are focused on the size of the bomb. Small bombs are permissible, big bombs are not. Our children need us to engage in a conversation about the need for an intelligent alternative to all bombs and for us to stop thinking the best our generation has to offer is an attempt to eliminate the big ones.

My hope is that those of you reading this will be inspired by the power available to you. I believe each of us has a responsibility to address the human condition of our world by making our intentions known, without limitations. If you believe all living things are worthy of living in a peaceful, sustainable, and equitable world, I invite you to join me in making the following intention:

I strongly believe in the power of intentions. Furthermore, I believe that our intentions guide our actions. I invite you to take your intention a step further with one simple, powerful act. Go to www.globalsummit.org. Add your name to the petition asking President Obama to declare a cease fire while we prepare for and hold a global summit, dedicated to the long-term health of all living things.

Yesterday, on the eve of announcing our video contest, I had a dream. I dreamt of a large empty circle that eventually became filled with adults, each carrying their respective national flag. Every existing nation was represented. After a short time they all began hitting one another with their flagpoles. The flags were brittle and broke into thousands of pieces. After a while the battered and bloodied individuals crawled out of the circle leaving behind their shattered flags and poles. Then children, one from every nation, began to enter the circle. Using the pieces of flags left behind they began to create their own flags. When they were finished every child was holding a flag pole with a mosaic-like flag attached. The flags they created were identical.

This morning I recounted the dream to another GlobalSummit.org member, and she wondered how this dream encompassed all three of our goals. My response: “Our goals can only be achieved by a world united in its purpose, where the old divisions created by our ancestors are overcome by the new, global needs of our children.”

If you google “Peace Organizations” you will be provided with a list of nearly 9,000,000 organizations. Imagine the influence they could have if they each added to their long-term goals: the creation of an intelligent alternative to weaponry to settle current and all future national and religious disputes. Our national leaders are focusing on creating or obtaining more sophisticated weapons and security systems, while ignoring the long-term potential of using more sophisticated thinking to pursue global peace.

What if we measured our intelligence, not by comparing ourselves individually against other members of our generation or comparing ourselves with the last couple generations, but by placing ourselves somewhere on the line between primitive human thinking and our potential? The starting point and our progress to date, has been well documented. Our potential, on the other hand, is an area of study we have yet to fully explore. We have certainly come a long way, but assuming we are at the end of the journey, is a mental mistake that has halted the evolution of the single, most important survival tool we have at our disposal - our intelligence.

Just for sake of argument, assume that our potential includes the capacity to develop an intelligent alternative to end the savagery of humans killing humans for logically justified reasons. Primitive humans had their reasons. Today our logic includes national or religious justifications for killing one another. By only comparing ourselves with our past, we have come to accept a view of our intellectual capacity that is really no different than the view primitive humans held - we will always have reasons, and therefore always will find ways, to kill one another. With the addition of our potential, as a yardstick to measure our intellectual progress, our collective task changes. Instead of using our collective intelligence to create more sophisticated weaponry and security systems, our task now entails finding more intellectually sophisticated methods to settle our disputes.

Regarding our historical relationship with the environment, we are guided by the same goal used by all past generations - use our intelligence to alter the environment according to our current needs. From controlling fire to the development of nuclear energy, our quest has been the same: use whatever the environment has to offer to make ourselves comfortable. Measuring ourselves, by only looking back, leads one to conclude: we are making progress. We are certainly more comfortable than our cave dwelling ancestors. But primitive humans never had to deal with the question of long term sustainability. By adding, to our pursuit of individual comfort, the potential to develop a long term, sustainable relationship with the environment, we have a new yardstick to measure our progress.

There is one other important area where the addition of our intellectual potential changes the way we see ourselves. Looking backwards, we see progress in our ability to take care of one another. The goal of primitive humans was take care of their own. From families, to tribes, to cities, to states, to nations, the number of those we consider our own - has constantly grown. The United Nations Charter (UNC) was our first attempt to include all humans when we spoke about taking care of our own. The world was not ready and today our national borders still define those whose well-being we consider our responsibility. The UNC pointed in the direction of our potential - every one of us being responsible for the well-being of every human. Once again, with the addition of our potential, we have a new yardstick to measure our progress.

Using the past to measure our progress can be helpful, but it is the timeless effort to reach for our potential where we will find the magic in being human.

Over the last couple of generations, while we have been pursuing our personal goals and listening to our leaders debate how we are going to achieve our national goals, human activity has gone global. No matter what subject you pick, the economy, pollution, global warming, weapon proliferation, hunger, poverty, illiteracy and a host of others, they are all problems without passports. Despite our best intentions, our continual inability to effectively address any of them is gradually eroding our personal and national sense of human dignity.

For a good part of my life, I was a handyman with a lot of tools. Any experienced handyman can tell you, trying to fix a problem using the wrong tool only makes the problem worse. We can’t fix any of the global problems we face today using the tools created by our ancestors to fix national problems. The international tools we are using today were designed by well-intentioned, national mechanics. The set of global tools, we so urgently need, is not here. Global problems require global solutions. Global solutions require global cooperation. The economic hardships we are facing extend beyond our national borders. Global communications systems have made the pain felt by humans living with armed conflict, hunger and poverty, felt by everyone. The pollution we are creating anywhere travels everywhere.

Now is not the time to despair. Now is the time to use our imaginations and intellects to bring an end to the era of national competition for power and resources and begin the era of enlightened national cooperation to create long term, global solutions. To this end, we (the organizers of Globalsummit.org) are taking the first steps in that direction by creating a global, citizens' campaign to promote the following idea: It is time for our leaders to cooperate, as equals on establishing a global cease-fire while we prepare for and hold a global summit, where the topic is the long term health of the entire human race.

The summit we envision will have one very fundamental difference when compared to past summits. At this summit, our respective national self interests will be secondary to the long term interests of the entire human race. Establishing and agreeing on our common long term interests, may not be as difficult as it may first appear. Why not ask the leaders of every nation if they are interested in cooperating with us, as equals, on creating;

Our generation may not have the time to see the accomplishment of our goals for all the world’s children. But we certainly have the time and the intelligence to put the goals on the table.

Why not ask the other nations of the world if they are interested in joining us in a global effort to establish and adopt our common long term goals for all our children? When I ask this question, the first response is usually something about never being able to get the world to agree on anything. Then I ask: "Do you think the world could agree on the goal of eventually creating an intelligent alternative to weaponry to settle our disputes?" The response: "Well yes, I guess we could all decide to agree on that one." Then I ask: "Do you think the world could agree on the goal of eventually establishing a totally sustainable, long term relationship with our environment?" Once again the response: "I guess we could all decide to agree on that one." Then I ask: "Do you think the world could agree on the goal of eventually eliminating poverty, hunger, illiteracy and all deaths from diseases with known cures?" For the third time: "I guess we could all decide to agree on that one too." Then I point out, here we are, two average humans with no credentials, and inside of two minutes we were able to agree on three long term goals for the human race. Today, no national leader has to answer this question: "Are you willing to cooperate on establishing and adopting our beyond borders long term goals for all future generations?" They don't have to answer, because no one is asking them to. It is time for us, the citizens of the United States, to insist our leaders find out if the leaders of other nations are willing to cooperate on globally establishing our long term goals for future generations and making these goals the foundation of our respective national policies, by asking them the question....Why not ask?

Can you think of any possible negative consequences of the US using its influence to encourage the other nations of the world to join us at a global summit, where the goal will be to establish and adopt our collective, beyond borders, long term goals for all future generations? Can you ...?

There are several current justifications for the continual need to spend our tax dollars on the development of more sophisticated weaponry and security systems to protect ourselves and guarantee the security of our children. They have all been around for several generations.

The justification heard most often: Humans are permanently flawed and will always find ways to kill one other when their self interests are threatened. What if we are not permanently flawed? What if human intelligence is like every other living thing and is constantly evolving? We are continually adapting to the remarkable advancements in human technology and creating new documents that reflect the continual evolution of our thoughts regarding individual human rights. One only needs to go back a few generations to find a time when there were no computers, no automobiles, no planes, no nuclear energy or bombs, and the US Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were yet to be written. Today, they all influence the way we pursue our self and national interests. They do so because of our mental capacity to adapt and update our behavior to keep pace with the advancements in our technology and the continual upgrading of the documents we use to guide human activity. In other words, we are continually evolving.

In light of our individual and collective capacity to modify our behavior depending on new developments, how is it we can declare ourselves permanently flawed when it comes to killing one another? This argument is self perpetuating, an evolutionary dead end and allows us to bury any serious attempt to develop an intelligent alternative to human fratricide in the mental graveyard of idealism.

The second most often used argument for our continual reliance on the military solution is: our enemies will never put their weapons down. Ask yourself: If you lived anywhere else in the world, knowing the power of the US military and our penchant for using it, would you want your leaders to dissolve your military? As long as we can justify killing to protect our self interests, our enemies will have all the justification they need to kill to protect their interests. We have become the bully in the playground, handing weapons to our friends and demanding our enemies put theirs down. Not only are they not putting their weapons down, they're grabbing anything available and using it to kill "their enemies"�. There is only one nation capable of initiating the idea of replacing the law of the jungle with the rule of law in the playground "� the biggest bully. What if we went to our friends and asked them to help us bring an end to justified killing by joining us in an effort to establish a global cease-fire while we develop an intelligent alternative to weaponry to settle our disputes. What if the leaders of all the European Nations, China, India, Japan, Canada, Russia and the African Nations agreed to join us in an effort to create an alternative, after which, any one still insisting on settling disputes by killing would be operating outside the new playground rules and be dealt with accordingly. Perhaps then our enemies will understand: if they want to play in the playground of human activity, they need to put down their weapons. There may always be a need for a policing authority, but that authority can no longer be the sole responsibility of one nation in today's globally interdependent world.

Another argument you constantly hear if you advocate for the creation of an intelligent alternative to nationally and religiously justified killing has nothing to do with our enemies. The argument goes something like this: forget it, the individual and corporate self interests involved in our military/industrial complex are so great, nothing will ever change. This same logic could be used to justify remaining silent in a car speeding towards a cliff because the car has momentum. Protecting the self interests of the members of any existing generation can not be a reason for placing the evolution of human intelligence on hold. Transitioning those individuals currently involved in the manufacture and use of the weaponry required today must be an integral part of any intelligent effort to create an alternative to justified killing.

The weakest of all the arguments for maintaining the status quo: We are the world's sole remaining military super power and it hardly serves our personal or national interests to step down. Currently we represent about 5% of the total human population. How can we expect to remain competitive as a nation when we are spending more on our military than the rest of the world combined? The tax dollars we are using to support the strongest military the world has ever known are unavailable: for educating our children, for replacing a crumbling infrastructure, for social programs and for insuring the uninsured. And last but not least, no amount of military spending can keep the growing ranks of our enemies from using a fully fueled jet plane or a portable nuclear weapon from fulfilling their desire to justifiably kill their enemies. For our generation the military solution is no longer a solution. It has become a heavy anchor, holding us back in our collective search for true, long term personal security.

What could we possibly have to lose by joining a globally cooperative effort to create an intelligent alternative to nationally or religiously justified killing? The idea itself is hardly new. All we need to do is stop ignoring and accept the advice of two of our most decorated military generals:

Once again our generation faced a crisis we created and, once again, we solved it by stealing from our children. This time the threat was economic and rather than bear the burden of our mistakes ourselves, we decided to use funds that will now no longer be available for the needs of our children. Our actions are always accompanied by our justifications, but eventually there will be a changing of the guard and when our children come to be the decision makers and realize what we have done, our explanations are likely to fall on deaf ears "� as they should. When it comes to maintaining our current lifestyles, we are willing to take from those without any voting or legal rights, our children. We don't own the world we are handing to our children, we are its caretakers and it is time we started taking the role seriously.

How we are going to take care of the world we hand our children, is the question begging for an answer. Acting individually, although noble, is not the answer. Acting collectively as citizens of our respective nations, will no longer suffice. Human activity has gone global and so have our problems. Global problems require global solutions. Global solutions require global cooperation. If our generation decides to cooperate on a global basis to create and adopt a new set of rules to guide human activity, maybe we won't have to ask our children for forgiveness. They might even thank us.

Several years ago I came across a story about a method for killing tigers. I'm sure the method is now illegal, but I often recall it when I'm thinking about our current set of circumstances. It goes something like this. The hunters would create a large funnel using thin white cloth about three or four feet high, just high enough to block the vision of a tiger on the move. The open end of the funnel would be two or three miles wide. At the closed end would be a single hunter sitting in a tree with a rifle. The hunt would begin with men on elephants about � of a mile apart making noise and moving into the wide end of the funnel. The tigers inside would move away from the noise and eventually die from a well placed bullet delivered by the hunter in the tree. At any time before they were killed, the tigers had the capacity to easily jump over the cloth sides, but tigers won't jump if they can't see where they're going to land.

I see us in a similar predicament. Today if I, or any one else, talks about jumping over the barrier of human experience to create a global solution to the threats we face today, every one wants to know what it will look like. In other words, they want to see where we are going to land. Unfortunately, we can't see what has yet to be created. A world that works for all humans is on the other side of the barrier of human experience, but no future generation will ever live in that world until an existing generation has the confidence and courage to jump without seeing exactly where we're going to land.

At one time, I thought American citizens did not know what was happening around the world. I thought they were unaware of the facts about human poverty, hunger, and illiteracy. I thought they must not know that 30,000 children were dying every day from preventable diseases. I didn't think they knew that our nation was the number one provider of the weaponry used by humans to kill other humans. I didn't think they knew that even though we represent only 4% of the human population we inhale 30% of the world's non renewable resources and exhale 30% of the world's pollution. I thought if they knew the facts, collectively we would decide to do something about it. So I began speaking out, sharing the facts. I found out I was wrong. They knew the facts. They just didn't know what to do and wanted me to tell them what could be done. My response at the time: "How the hell do I know? I'm just like you, an average citizen, but I've got enough common sense to know we must do something or eventually, we're all going down."

My answer wasn't good enough and everybody went home. I went back to work. For five years I did my own research. I read our documents, including the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution, the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Earth Charter and every other document I thought might provide some insight on a possible course of action. I studied the advice of several hundred of our best long term thinkers. The list included politicians, scientists, military, religious and spiritual leaders. I met with or contacted dozens of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on the problems confronting the human race. I talked to visionaries, philanthropists and "ordinary" people. I did all this because I thought we had to do something and somebody, somewhere had a suggestion that I and my fellow citizens could support.

After five years of looking, I found that parts of the answer to the question about what could be done existed everywhere. Our documents, the thoughts of our best thinkers, the efforts of the NGOs, philanthropists and visionaries all pointed in the same direction, but no one had put it together in one simple, easy to understand message that humans everywhere could understand and support. This is my version of that message: "It is time for the citizens of every nation, including the citizens of the world's sole remaining superpower, to ask our leaders to cooperate, as equals, in an international effort to establish a global cease-fire while we prepare for and hold a global summit where the topic is the long term health of the entire human race."

No matter how well intended our national leaders are about protecting what they see as our interests, they will not be the ones to suggest the aforementioned course of action. Their personal status is dependent on our continual pursuit of the goals created by our ancestors, even though those goals have become out-dated by the increasingly global aspects of human activity. The human race has approximately 300 national and religious leaders making the decisions about how the other 6.5 billion of us and all those that follow us will live out our lives. It is time for us to play a more active role in the decision making process and insist our leaders cooperate on a higher level than any prior generation ever imagined was possible.

When we look in our culturally friendly mirrors, we see a modern human. But the line between primitive and modern humans must be constantly redrawn. Today we are on the dark side of the line. Human activity has gone global, but the last serious attempt to modernize our institutions on a global basis, occurred more than sixty years ago when we tried to unite all nations with the United Nations Charter. The world was not ready, but an important first step was taken. Since then, our continual refusal to cooperate globally and take the next step in the ongoing evolution of human institutions, now threatens the future of the entire human family. We must have the personal courage and the collective intellectual confidence to see ourselves as we truly are; overcome our fear of one another, and work together to do what must be done to guarantee our own long term survival. It is time for our generation to redraw the line that future generations will recognize as the line that once separated primitive from modern humans, by updating our institutions to reflect our ever growing global interdependence.

Today is my 60th Birthday and my horoscope reads "Your belief in the potential of a situation could cause you to invest more time and energy into it than is wise. Recognize when a cause is a losing one and get out. Give your energy were it will do the most good." For most, the message should be quite clear. But, I didn't carry this idea this far to drop it now. The problem as I see it: there is some confusion about our goal. Today, in spite of the global nature of all human activity, we continue to address our problems with a national mindset while we continually deplete the finances and resources future generations will need to survive. There is one solution that is not being discussed as an alternative. It is not my cause. It is our message. It is not my responsibility. It is our responsibility as American citizens to use the power given to us in our Constitution and let the world know we are willing to cooperate, as equals, and we are willing to share the best that we have to offer, in order to create a world that works for all humans. This must be a grassroots movement that has to start at the bottom and work its way up. There is no other way. The individuals in power have too much personally invested in the way we currently conduct our affairs to initiate the idea. Our collective task is to make our fellow citizens aware that there is an alternative idea available. Bob

We are all suffering and not just on the personal and national level. We are also suffering at a much deeper level because we are being asked to accept the fact that human activity will always result in a great deal of human suffering. Our leaders tell us that the human suffering associated with war, poverty, hunger, illiteracy, environmental destruction and a host of other social diseases, will always be a part of human activity. We must ask them, why? Let's ask them why they don't try to cooperate, as equals, with the leaders of every other nation on establishing a global cease-fire while we prepare for and hold a global summit where the topic is: "How can we, by working together, effectively address the problems of human suffering and environmental destruction?" The alternative, to an intelligent effort to cooperate with one another on long term goals and workable solutions, is to teach our children to learn to accommodate, just as we have, an ever increasing amount of human suffering and environmental destruction, a path that leads nowhere. There is nothing to fear. If we don't agree with the goals and the recommended path of our summiteers, we can either abandon the effort or send it back for more work. The cost of such an effort is virtually nothing. If they are successful and present us with a plan we can all live with, will have taken the first step in eventually achieving our newly established common, long term goals for all the world's children.

It's time to stop wishing, hoping and praying for peace and begin a discussion about having our leaders cooperate, as equals, on creating an intelligent alternative to weaponry to settle our national and religious disputes. We will never be able to cooperate at the level necessary to effectively address the economic, social and environmental problems confronting the human race today, as long as we continue to "justifiably" kill one another. We are wasting our time on the evolution of our weaponry. The ongoing evolution of our intelligence is, and always has been, our greatest survival tool.