I forgot to include the attachment a few minutes ago.
I hope that the peaceniks will contact Al Gore, Greta Thunberg and famous environmentalists, who have left the bloated Pentagon budget off the table.
Sincerely,
Ed
One attachment
ENCYCLICAL – WAR ABOLITION
August 14, 2019
This is a plea for war abolition in a papal encyclical with an
environmental emphasis. You do not have to be a Catholic or
know much about the church to offer commentaries. I want
to write a draft that any peace group, political party, or
environmental entity can use a basic statement with their own
add-ons.
The encyclicals were public letters that that Popes addressed
only to Catholics. John XXIII started addressing them to
everybody and that has been the practice ever since.
A colleague at the Houston Independent School District
remarked that if you do not ask, you do not receive. In this
draft, I am asking for the sun, the moon, the stars and half
the planet.
The recent Popes (John Paul II, Benedict and Francis) have
made strong statements against violence. Before the 2003
war with Iraq started, John Paul II declared it to be illegal and
immoral. Attorneys versed in international law agreed.
Pope Francis seems like someone who will read the proposal
and, with his own modifications, sign it.
War Abolition – Necessary for Human Survival
Pope Francis
No more war! Never again war! If you wish to be
brothers, drop your weapons.
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Pope Paul VI
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as
something that is not what it seems to the majority of people.
Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is
conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of
the masses.
Major General Smedley Butler, USMC
Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in
Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That
is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country
who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag
the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist
dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the
bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to
tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists
for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It
works the same in any country.
Of course people don’t want war. Why should a poor slob on a farm
want to risk his life in a war when the best thing he can get out of it
is to come back to his farm in one piece?
Hermann Goering, interrogations with the US Army at Nuremberg.
Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to
mankind.
The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a
military solution.
John F. Kennedy
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When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to
go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War
settles nothing.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
The difficult we do today. The impossible takes a little longer.
Father James Collins, CSB
Under current circumstances, there will be no life on earth in
- By that time, nuclear war, climate change, poverty or
environmental contamination will kill us all. Nikita Khrushchev
observed that in a nuclear war, the survivors will envy the
dead. Those living in the 2040-2050 period will feel the envy
that Mr. Khrushchev was talking about. A nuclear war
among the major powers is not necessary. One between
India and Pakistan will induce nuclear winter.
Humans can start the path to lasting peace by:
1) starting a world-wide anti-poverty program,
2) taxing international arms sales,
3) beginning a moratorium on weapons research,
4) reducing the bloated US military budget by 90%,
5) training our armed forces for disaster relief,
6) establishing a cabinet level War Abolition Department,
7) reducing nuclear weapons to zero , and,
8) negotiating for all the world’s nuclear weapons to go off
hair trigger alert.
Prime Minister Lloyd George remarked at the Versailles
Conference that making peace was harder than making war.
This is a complex task. However, there is no room for
fatalistic excuses. Operation Overlord (D-Day) was the most
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complex task ever followed by Apollo 11 with its two million
moving parts.
There is a fatalistic assumption that war has always been with
us and always will be, an integral element in the human
condition. These individuals fuse impulsive homicide as seen
in barrooms, family disputes and road rage with war. Weapon
development and planning requires years by sober well paid
people. Military contractors and Pentagon officers are not
rageaholics.
The D-Day landing took place after much planning and
coordination. It was not happen because Winston Churchill
gave a rousing speech in London on June 5, 1944.
Poverty Abolition
There will be no lasting peace as long as people are poor.
Abolishing poverty is the most effective anti-terrorist policy
that any nation can have. Terrorists will have a small
recruiting pool when all citizens are gainfully employed.
Foreign aid programs have been around for a long time. It is
time to learn from successes and failures. The organization
Global Marshall Plan has some good ideas.
I propose concentrating on two small counties each in Africa,
Asia and Latin America. Some countries with low corruption
are the best places to start. The failed and near-failed states
will be the most difficult to resolve.
The book Why Nations Fail makes a compelling case that an
honest competent government is the key to prosperity. The
authors pointed to East and West Germany, Nogales, Arizona,
USA, and Nogales Sonora Mexico and North and South Korea.
The resources and cultures were about the same on both
5
sides of the borders. One side had an honest competent
government and the other didn’t.
One key is to have honest competent government employees
who are well paid. People who are not paid much will not do
much. If they are well paid, they are more bribe-resistant.
Everyone should have access to clean water, sanitary toilets,
education and basic health care. Foreign aid programs should
consider these as top priority items.
When people can make a decent living at home, they will not
crash the gates to become illegal immigrants to the US and
the European Union. After a while, countries will seek
foreigners to do the tough jobs.
International Arms Sales Tax
By international treaties, impose a 50% sales tax on all arms
sales to other countries. The proceeds would go to the
poverty abolition fund. If you have enough to kill some
people, you have enough to help some others.
Moratorium on Weapons Research
I hope that parliaments and congresses approve no more
weapons research.
Reduce the Bloated US Military Budget by 50%
The American people have never had a peace dividend. Since
there is no creditable adversary, the military budget is a
welfare program for the defense contractors.
Train the Armed Forces for Disaster Relief
There are enough volcanos, earthquakes, droughts and other
disasters. The logistics to restore electricity, water, medical
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supplies, drinking water shelter and clothing are good training
for the real thing when people are shooting at you.
Give the soldiers incentives to learn the more difficult
languages, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and others.
Establish a War Abolition Department
British prime minister Lloyd George observed at the Versailles
Conference that making peace was more complicated than
making war.
As the armed forces have specialized education for officers,
like West Point, the society specialized education for people
who deal with conflict resolution and seeking conditions that
lead to peace. These individuals would learn what works in
poverty reduction. Throughout the world, there are peace
studies departments usually sponsored by Rotary
International. Above all, demand war abolition. Sweet talk
about peace and conflict resolution is what war mongers do,
Nuclear Weapons Elimination
At one time, only Martin Luther King and the hippies were
interested in eliminating nuclear weapons. Times have
changed. This was a goal for President Reagan. See ¨ A
World Free of Nuclear Weapons¨ by George P. Shultz, William
J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger, and Sam Nunn the Wall Street
Journal’s January 4, 2007 issue.
I propose that the major powers maintain 300 nuclear
weapons each and deactivate the rest.
Some countries develop nuclear weapons due to national
pride. Look what we can do. Encourage national pride by
recognizing efforts in improving education, health care and
7
living standards. After a while, having nuclear weapons will
be uncouth.
I am hoping that the world’s environmental organizations
participate in the peace movement. Otherwise, all the fine
work that they do can go up in smoke in an afternoon with a
nuclear war. The peace effort described here is ultimately an
environmental effort. Combat and combat preparation are the
most environmentally destructive activities that exist.
Changing the History Courses
I ask that history departments everywhere offer a course on
war and its demise. Up to now, history departments, with few
exceptions, have presented war uncritically. It seems like
natural phenomena, like floods and hurricanes.
This coincides with the military industrial complex’s
presentation:
1) War is necessary,
2) War is fought for the common good,
3) War is glorious, and,
4) A more just world will emerge after the current war.
Each above statement is false but they are accepted as
routine truth by people who write textbooks and teach history
courses at all levels.
Educators like to think that they offer intriguing thoughts to
their students. In fact, the discussion range is narrow. They
praise that people like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar,
Urban II, Christopher Columbus and Bismarck who made
things happen. In fact, they are all war criminals and should
be treated as such. A Nuremberg type tribunal would convict
every one for war crimes.
8
Those who write history books and texts belong at the same
Nuremberg type trials as accomplices. A specific case is
Samuel Eliot Morison in his classic, Admiral of the Ocean Sea:
a Life of Christopher Columbus. He never mentioned the
genocide that Christopher Columbus carried out on the
Indians who welcomed them.
Exploiters give the idea that they are doing the exploited a
favor by bringing telegraphs, telephones, better roads, better
ports, banks, Christianity, public health and civilization to the
underdeveloped world. Remembering Rudyard Kipling’s White
Man’s Burden, it is a tough job but someone has to do it. Karl
Marx had it right. He said that the class struggle explained
history better than any other theory.
The military industrial complex has performed the best con
job ever done by anybody anywhere.
The best war propaganda ever made was the 1952 NBC series
Victory at Sea. The editors reviewed 11,000 miles of film,
prepared a stirring musical score and narrative making 26
episodes lasting about 26 minutes each. Television reviewers
wondered who would want to watch war documentaries on a
Sunday afternoon. By the second week, they got their
answer: just about everybody.
On YouTube see the finale for the episode, Beneath the
Southern Cross, which described the successful efforts by the
American and Brazilian navies to protect convoys in the South
Atlantic.
Find this episode on Youtube by going to:
Victory at Sea Beneath the Southern Cross
Start playing at 19:20.
9
This is the ending narrative:
And the convoys come through,
Bearing the wealth of the Southern Hemisphere,
Refusing to pay one cent for tribute but willing to spend
millions for defense,
The American republics have swept from the ocean highways
of the South Atlantic their common foe.
Spread wide across the sea
Guarded by the might of nations that can fight side by side
because they have learned to live side by side.
The ships stream toward their goal – Allied victory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku-
uLV7Qups&feature=related
Progressives must offer a peace vision through songs, poems,
short stories, movies and plays. Offer contests with some
prize money and much recognition. My favorite peace vision
comes from the 1969 hit, Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy
James and the Shondells:
You can find this song by going to Youtube by inserting;
Crystal Blue Persuasion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXz4gZQSfYQ
Although peace groups hardly have two nickels to rub
together, I hope the make a common effort to hire a public
relations firm to learn how to appeal to a public that is
indifferent to war abolition. Otherwise, we are talking to each
other with the same ideas.
10
National Anthems
Almost all national anthems deal with armed violence in
liberation from a foreign power or revolution. I advocate that
each country have more than one. There will be the historic
one and others that deal with climate change and the defense
contractors’ welfare state.
Bookstores
I invite bookstores to feature a war abolition section. See
three in my references.
Conservancies on Land and at Sea
Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa proposed making a vast
conservancy in his country. Since his country is poor, the rich
countries would pay Ecuador not to drill for oil to preserve the
forests.
Establish no-fishing and no-whaling areas at sea. Outlaw
many fishing nets that destroy the ocean floor and
unnecessarily kill sea animals.
Social Security for All People Reaching 65
Every person should be able to retire in dignity. The wealthy
countries can include this in their Global Marshall Plan.
Autonomous Tibet
I invite the Chinese government to declare Tibet an
autonomous area, withdraw the troops and pay compensation
for social and environmental crimes.
Tax All Income Over 10,000,000 USD
Some three billion people live in poverty. Extremely wealthy
people can buy the politicians and get legislation that serves
11
their purpose but is harmful to everyone else. Ten million USD
is enough to live on.
No More Tax Havens
Secure international agreements to abolish tax havens. Make
all numbered accounts illegal. People are using them for tax
evasion and every illegal activity known, including terrorism.
From now on, the individuals must be identified with a
business address and a telephone number. There will be no
more post office boxes and phony corporations. The entity
that does not respond to a court order will be declared an
outlaw institution. Anyone dealing with that institution after
the public announcement will be dealing in criminal activity.
Trickle Down Economics
This theory has always resulted in the rich getting richer and
the rest getting the crumbs that fall off the table. If
institutions are too big to fail, they are too big to exist.
The best investment is having educated, skilled, healthy
individuals who see brighter future. This is the caring society
where it is only necessary for one parent to have one job.
Mainstream Accounting and Economics Are Detrimental to
Human Survival
In generally accepted accounting principles, accountants only
recognized the income and expenses for the entity. They do
not recognize social and environmental costs. If a company
were to clear cut the trees in the Amazon basin, the only
counted items are revenues and expenses. There would be
no counting contamination, droughts, freak storms, increased
carbon dioxide or health effects. These are externalities, a
fancy way to say that someone else is paying your bills.
12
Gross domestic product does not measure increasing or
decreasing health standards, clear air, prisons, suicides,
educational standards or any social measure. I ask the
accountants and economists truly engage in full cost accrual
accounting showing the entity’s total effects. The Genuine
Progress Index is a good start in this endeavor.
Loans to Dictatorships
Under current circumstances, banks make loans to
dictatorships. When the dictator and his entourage flee the
country, the banks put pressure on the new government for
the loans while the dictator is living on money from his
numbered Swiss bank accounts. All this has to end. Make
the international agreements to relieve the new government
from this debt. Let it be known that there is no one who going
to bail you out.
Prisons
All prisoners have the right to be treated under conditions
offered in the Geneva Conventions. This applies to all jailers,
whether they are recognized authorities, guerilla groups or
outlaw gangs. What goes on in most prisons are human
rights violations committed by the state itself.
Above all, torture is never allowed. There are no excuses for
terrorism or any other flimsy explanation. Those who torture
think that do-gooders like you and me do not live in the real
world. They are protecting the naïve. They ignore actual
experience from successful interrogators who get useful
information from rapport building. Unsuccessful interrogators
think that only brute force works. When it does not work, it is
because you have not used enough.
13
I ask the FARC group to release all its hostages now without
fanfare or negotiations. I ask the US government to close
Guantanamo. Put prisoners on trial or release them. Pay
compensation to all unjustly imprisoned.
Responsive Government and Quasi-Monopoly Companies
Justice delayed is justice denied. The governmental units, the
insurance companies, the banks and similar entities must
employ enough trained people to solve difficulties. I ask that
the days with ¨Your call is important to us, ¨ end.
I ask that all bureaucracies have understandable rules and
simple procedures. The US has Small Claims Courts for
$5,000 and under disputes. There is no need for an attorney
and rules are simple.
Tax codes are terribly complex to represent the vested
interests. Make them simpler. Health insurance policies are
purposely complex to deny coverage.
Pay Poor Kids to Stay in School
The number one reason for leaving school is that the family
needs their children to work. Some countries are paying poor
families to keep their kids in school. Make this for all
countries.
Happy Childhood
Kids should be able to play in parks and practice sports in
safe neighborhoods. At most, they should have one parent
with one job and not parents with two or more jobs. The
society must provide summer camp for all kids to impart the
rural experience.
14
Streamline adoption procedures. I am trying to figure out
why it cost $25,000 to adopt a child in Texas.
Pro-Life Groups
I ask you to be pro-life and not just pro-fetus. Make the
social, economic and political changes necessary for children
to be happy.
I ask you to work to abolish capital punishment. What was
wrong for the convicted prisoner is also wrong for us.
I ask you to help me abolish war.
Globalization
The globalization effort is to help the multinational companies
at everyone else’s expense. I recommend cancelling all
existing treaties and abolishing the World Trade Organization.
Start all over with workers’ and environmental protections
having the highest priority.
Clean Air, Clean Water and Uncontaminated Soil
Humans have an unalienable right to clean air, clean water
and uncontaminated soil. Those exceed established limits
should pay the victims and spend a reasonable time in jail.
Pay Attention to Scientific Evidence
The Catholic Church condemned Galileo and people like me
have been regretting this decision ever since. People in the
petrochemical industry spend millions every year to tell us
that there is doubt that global warming is not occurring.
Scientists concluded years ago that humans have a major role
in global warming. The formal announcement was in Science
Magazine’s December, 2004 issue in the article, “Beyond The
15
Ivory Tower: The Scientific Consensus On Climate Change.”
Naomi Oreskes analyzed 928 abstracts published in selected
scientific journals between 1993 and 2003, listed in the ISI
database with the keywords, “climate change.” She divided
the 928 articles into six categories: explicit endorsement of
the consensus position, evaluation of impacts, mitigation
proposals, methods, paleoclimate analysis, and rejection of
the consensus position. Of all the papers, 75% fell into the
first three categories, either explicitly or implicitly accepting
the consensus view; 25% dealt with methods or paleoclimate,
taking no position on current anthropogenic climate change.
Surprisingly, not a single paper disagreed with the consensus
position.
The scientific debate ended with this article. The public
relations battle will go on as long as corporations lie and
misrepresent scientific evidence.
Maturity for the Media
To reverse current conditions, the media must show results in
the current situation and achievements in improving the
human condition. Everyone wants to know about flight
MH370 but have some balance. The concern for some 239
individuals and their families should not crowd out efforts to
eliminate nuclear weapons and abolish poverty.
I ask the media to show the maturity to cover stories that
have a lasting effect on the world society, to recognize the
scientific evidence that global warming is happening and it is
serious.
Ordain Women
There will be no social peace as long as there is discrimination
against women. The days when there were seven sacraments
16
for men and six for women have ended today. With this
announcement, the Catholic Church will start ordaining
women.
All Ideas Start Out As Quixotic
The old story is that all new ideas are considered impossible.
After they are achieved, people look at them as inevitable.
Former state representative Paul Colbert described how this
works in the Texas legislature:
Session One: This is a crazy idea. It will never work.
Session Two: I have heard that idea before.
Session Three: That idea has been around for a while. I think
it will pass in this session.
When Alexander Graham Bell visited London, merchants
considered his invention to be a toy. They remarked that
there were enough messenger boys in London in those days.
The airplane was a technological curiosity until the US Army
extended a contract to the Wright brothers in 1908. The
automobile industry predicted that the Automobile Safety Act
in 1965 would bankrupt the industry.
Man’s Search for Meaning
In this famous bestseller, Viktor Frankl tells us that there is
no single meaning for everyone. As an existentialist, he tells
us that each has to find his or her own purpose. Religious-
type organizations like mine prepare people for what to come
after death and seek a just society in this life.
Producing goods and services is important. The primary
requirement is that benefits and pain is distributed to all, not
to benefit the One Percent at everyone else’s expense.
17
I propose The Caring Society as people can see in the old
song I’ll Be Home for Christmas and Robert Frost ‘s Death of a
Hired Man. Home is the place you go and they have to take
you in.
Abraham Maslow’s needs hierarchy is simple and elegant. I
wonder why a Jewish prophet, Aristotle, Confucius or
someone else did not see it first. Our society exists to help
each other in our triumphs and difficulties.
The Twelve Step programs have a basic premise that
members share their “experience, strength and hope.” We all
get in over our head at some time in our lives. We go
through unemployment, addictions, divorce and other
misfortunes. Teachers, clients, supervisors and others expect
more than we can deliver. May there be a format safety net
and an informal one where we help others in a pinch.
Some worry that ant-poverty programs will encourage people
to be lazy. The late Wendell Gordon at the University of Texas
had an answer for these concerns, ¨Give them a bunk in an
opium den.¨ When there is collective living, the food and
medical costs are small. What makes prison expensive is the
guard service.
The Golden Rule and the 11 th Commandment
The Rotary Club offers depth in the Golden Rule in their 4
Way Test:
- Is it the TRUTH?
- Is it FAIR to all concerned?
- Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER
FRIENDSHIPS?
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- Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
I encourage the Rotary Club and non-Rotarians to add a 5 th
Way: Is it environmentally sustainable?
I ask everyone to add an 11 th Commandment: Thou shall
develop a social and environmental conscience.
Catholic Message
Pope Leo XII started the social gospel for modern times. Of
course, as the Pope, I think the Catholic Church offers the
message that is most in tune with God’s Will. There is no
surprise there.
I look at the universe in all its vastness, mystery and awe. In
our own galaxy, the Milky Way, it takes one hundred
thousand light years for light to travel from one end to
another. Let us endeavor to understand what we can.
What I offer here is also in all faith and humanitarian
traditions. May the religious people, atheists, agnostics and
everybody work to this common goal that Isaiah offered in
turning swords into plowshares. In a well-known speech,
Winston Churchill foretold that after Allied victory that we
would walk in broad sunlit uplands. The Allies went on to win
the war. With what I have outlined here, we can achieve the
peace. We can walk in broad sunlit uplands. We can get to
there from here.
There is no geographic cure. We are all on the same planet.
There are no safe havens. This was mostly true even decades
ago. There was a paragraph or two in Reader’s Digest in the
1950s describing a British couple who could foresee another
war coming in Europe in the 1930s. They wanted to get away
from all that. The husband got a job on a plantation in the
19
South Pacific which was far away from everything. The
plantation was on Guadalcanal.
Ed O’Rourke, former Houston resident, is a retired certified
public accountant living in Medellin, Colombia. He is currently
writing a book, World Peace, The Blueprint: You Can Get to
There from Here.
Reference material:
Dyer Gwynne, War: the Lethal Custom, Carroll & Graf, New
York, 2004, 484 pages.
Kurlansky, Mark (with a forward by His Holiness the Dalai
Lama. Nonviolence: Twenty-Five Lessons from the History of
a Dangerous Idea.
Regan, Geoffrey. Picking the Past: Reclaiming the Past from
Politicians. The Spanish language title is better: Guerras,
Politicos y Mentiras: Como nos enganan manipulando el
pasado y el presente (Wars, Politicians and Lies: How They
Deceive by Manipulating the Past and the Present).
Butler, General Smedley. War Is a Racket. Round Table
Press, 1935, 51 pages.
A World Without War (Website)
http://www.afww.org/index.html
Appendix 1
I adapted this story from a science fiction comic book that I
read around summer, 1957. As in any fiction story, if you are
too critical, you cannot enjoy it. I am hoping that someone
20
like Stephen Spielberg will make a movie on the theme you
see here.
The Challenge
A space ship visited our planet. The crew quickly learned
humans’ history and did not like what they saw. Half the
people on the planet lived in poverty, there were 15,000
nuclear weapons that could end civilization in an afternoon
and there was constant war.
The ship’s captain and officers shook their heads and agreed
that humans would go on to develop technologies that could
destroy the universe. There were many good people but they
had no say-so on what went on. Some countries had formal
democracies but the rich bought and paid for the politicians
and media.
The ship’s captain announced that he would destroy the
humans and attempt to keep the animals and vegetation
unharmed. World leaders gathered at the United Nations.
They issued a challenge to come out and fight in an
uninhabited area. The best place was the South Pacific,
between Chile and New Zealand.
Since the space ship showed its military capabilities, namely a
ray gun that would vaporize any naval ship in one blast,
military leaders on Earth knew that there would be few if any
survivors in the upcoming battle.
Earth’s military leaders and the ship’s captain agreed to the
date, July 26, 9 AM local time, which was six weeks off. For
the ships coming the longest distance, the crews had a final
week to be with their families for the last time. Then, it would
be off to the battle zone, never to come back.
21
On July 26, the space ship arrived at the battle zone at 7:55
AM. At 8 PM, the crew performed a radar scan to find the
zone to be empty. No freighters, no fishing boats, nothing.
The ship’s captain remarked what selfish the earthlings were.
Each nation was willing for someone else to fight while their
navy stayed at home.
At 8:01 AM, the crew identified a British cruiser entering the
zone. At 8:02 AM, the entire French fleet arrived. At 8:03 AM,
97 Russian ships entered the zone. At 8:04 AM, 53
Americans ships arrived. At 8:05 AM, 73 Chinese and
Japanese ships approached from the southeast. At every
minute after that, a new swarm would appear. At 8:55 AM, a
widened radar scan showed that every naval ship on the
planet that weighted more than 2,000 tons was in the zone or
an hour’s sailing distance away.
The captain and the officers met to assess this unexpected
cooperation. At 9:15 AM, the captain issued the
announcement that he would postpone military action for one
year to give time to reform.
Military cooperation was the incentive for political
cooperation. In the six weeks, when military activities were
being organized, nations’ political and business leaders
gathered at the United Nations making plans for abolishing
poverty, war and injustice. Facing certain annihilation made
the leaders consider and carry out actions that would have
been considered radical or crazy before the ultimatum. Some
funds to the poor actually started flowing before the
showdown in the South Pacific and defense contractors
started examining products that would reduce poverty and
humans’ environmental footprint.
22
Remembering the Cold War and the space race to the Moon,
there was an agreement that the rich countries would start a
Second Marshall Plan to end world poverty. Each country
took the primary responsibility for a small country or a region
in a big poor country. For example, some countries like India
were too complex for any single rich country to manage.
During the Cold War, both the Soviet Union and the United
States achieved feats that could have been only dreamt about
in the early 1950s. Other countries applauded when there
was the first satellite, the first man in space, the first space
walk and on July 20, 1969, the world held its breath when
Apollo 11 landed on the Moon and all astronauts returned
alive.
Anyone who was about seven years old or older that day can
remember where they were. For a while both empires
engaged in a competition not dealing with a military or
political struggle. The Second Marshall Plan was what the
Space Race was previously. There would be
accomplishments, providing drinking water to all homes in a
certain country, abolishing illiteracy, primary school education
for all citizens.
In the comic book, lasting world peace was achieved for the
first time in human history.
It was Arthur C. Clarke or someone like him who thought that
a perceived threat would solidify humans and a real one
would be even better.
Appendix 2
We must never forget, that under modern conditions of
life, science, and technology. All war has been greatly
brutalized, and that no one who joins in it, even in self-
23
defense, can escape becoming also in a measure
brutalized. Modern war cannot be limited in its
destructive method and the inevitable debasement of all
participants… A fair scrutiny of the last two World Wars
makes clear the steady intensification of the weapons
and methods employed by both, the aggressors and the
victors. In order to defeat the Japanese aggression, we
were forced, as Admiral Nimitz has stated, to employ a
technique of unrestricted warfare, not unlike that which
25 years ago was the proximate cause of our entry into
World War I. In the use of strategic air power the Allies
took the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians
in Germany and Japan…. We as well as our enemies
have contributed to the proof that the central moral
problem is war and not its methods, and that a
continuance of war will in all probability end with the
destruction of our civilization.
Harry L. Stimson (US Secretary of State from 1929-1933,
Secretary of War from 1911-1913 and 1940-1945) “The
Nuremberg Trial: Landmark in Law” Foreign Affairs, January –
February, 1947 Verify January-February
Appendix 3
In the course of history, there comes a time when
humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness,
to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to
shed our fear and give hope to each other.
From Wangari Maathai’s Nobel Lecture, delivered in Oslo,
10 December 2004.