Everybody wants to leave behind a world that is better than when they arrived. I am not able to do that. Things are getting worse and I see nothing likely to change.
During WWII the Big Three transformed their economies to produce aircraft carriers, landing craft, tanks, artillery and everything else to bring Allied victory.
Today we need to abolish poverty, reverse global warming, reduce the world’s nuclear arsenals and downsize military budgets. This is not happening. There is no transformation anywhere. Notice in the presidential campaign that there is no discussion about the crises just mentioned.
When I was a teenager and young adult, I looked to the One Percent as the guardians in our society. They were smart people who were looking out for everybody.
Now I see them as people addicted to power and wealth as others are addicted to heroin. Nothing else matters. I remember the South before the Civil War. There was no a single public school in any state that joined the Confederacy. The society offered little upward social mobility even for white people.
The One Percent today are doing a top notch job distracting people from their enormous wealth in a country where three men have same wealth as 160 million. Forever Trumpers and many others think that the black people, immigrants and homosexuals are picking their pockets.
The One Percent have convinced the country that global warming is not serious.
In 2006 there was a comedy movie Idiocracy where a gentleman in a hibernation experiment woke up in 2525 to find he was the only smart person on Earth. The entire population had dumbed down. In 2024, there are some smart people but most are dumbed down. What I advocate here is not Apollo 11 complexity. Kids in junior high can understand what I am saying.
Americans are suffering a heat wave. The temperature in Pakistan recently hit 127 degree Fahrenheit. There are homeless people in every society. With global warming, there are more frequent floods, droughts and natural disasters. There are people who want to get treatment for addictions but cannot pay for it.
The relief agencies put out notices that they need donations for the famine in Sudan.
I propose that each industrialized nation set up an agency will seek to relieve suffering everywhere for its own citizens and everybody else. Make sure that everyone has a home, food, electricity, running water, the Internet and medical care. Abolish poverty everywhere. Religious and humanitarian agencies would still exist as a supplemental source rather than a primary one.
This is the Second Marshall Plan. This time it is for the whole world.
Train the world’s armed forces for disaster relief. Give incentives for soldiers to learn the language and culture in different countries.
Store food, blankets, medicine and water in warehouses around the world which will be ready to move when a disaster strikes.
In the US, tornado and flood victims would receive shelter and some money to replace their destroyed possessions.
In the developed and underdeveloped countries, supermarkets throw away about a third of the harvested food. In the US, one family in 6 is food insecure. I ask the supermarkets to establish bins for the relief agencies to pick up discarded food. The federal or state governments can reimburse the agencies for labor and vehicle depreciation.
In summer, 2008, our nation rescued Wall Street. I want to rescue everybody everywhere. Look after the poorest like we look after the rich.
In Kansas City, Missouri, Redemptorist Church, at West 33rd and Broadway, had a prayer service in 1945. A lady passing by remarked to a priest, ‘’Listen to those fools praying for peace. We have never had it so good.’’ The One Percent have made the same observation today but are smart enough to keep quiet.
We can achieve peace by abolishing poverty everywhere and reversing global warming.
Ed