Top Ten Steps to Achieving World Peace

Since I began to write mostly about what we need to do to establish a peaceful society, I’ve tried to balance my message with ideas for ending poverty. That’s because I believe we‘ll never end conflict on this planet until no one is forced to wallow in a state of destitution. Thus, my list of steps to reach the goal of world peace consists of the ways we can make our economy function for everyone currently experiencing financial devastation, rather than just those who fear physical and political insecurity.


1) Implement a system of full employment, so even the lowest-paid full-time worker on the planet is able to earn at least twice the cost of all the basic goods and services necessary to enjoy a dignified existence.

2) Implement a worldwide system of fair wages and anti-pollution rules, so no employer or region can undercut another by denying workers or residents access to essential goods and services, and no entity can win a labor contract by fouling the planet we all depend upon for survival.

3) Establish an educational system in which everyone can learn at their own pace to the extent of their individual capabilities.

4) Provide adequate health care for everyone, according to individual need, with no restrictions of discrimination based on health status or the cost of services received.

5) Provide decent basic housing for everyone.

6) Provide healthful, nutritious food for everyone.

7) Provide "green" transportation and utilities for everyone.

8) Balance employment opportunities with basic services for the young, the old, and disabled people, so everyone has access to all they need in exchange for contributing what they can, no matter their limitations.

9) Establish a system in which every individual enjoys full civil rights balanced with community responsibility.

10) Establish a system in which every resident participates in the process and success of their community.

The essays in The World I Imagine not only discuss
each of the 10 steps to achieving world peace,
they contain extensive cross references to show
how improving one area will have
positive effects in several other arenas.

This list includes some of the most vital issues that must be addressed in order to end poverty, but there are countless other details I have yet to discuss. That’s why I plan to continue writing on this subject for as long as I can--or need to. And while I’m grateful for the opportunity to write here, I hope this is only the beginning. I’ll continue to look for more outlets for my columns. In time, I’d like to syndicate. It can happen!


Meanwhile, to everyone who asks about the impact this work can have, I have a simple answer. The first step toward making things change for the better is to share positive ideas. I hope my efforts will spark others to share their own creative ideas for ending poverty and building peace. We all need to "think outside the box," because the same old ways of doing things simply are not working. In fact, those same old ways are the reason so many problems exist in the first place.

Can one person have an impact? Just think about two people who ignored the "nay sayers" and did the right thing: Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi got the English to leave India and established a "home rule" government, while Mother Teresa transformed the way many people treat the poor and sick in India and around the world. Citizens of the subcontinent still have a long way to go to control poverty and conflict, but at least they have many role models to inspire them to take the best course to strive for a prosperous and peaceful future.

In the U.S., people as diverse as Al Gore and Ed Begley Jr. have pushed "green" living for years. Only recently have more people accepted their message as the only hope for the future of the planet. There are still those who can’t see the pollution for the profits, so we must keep talking about both the necessity and the practicality of "being green."

As a child, I was inspired by the Christophers, an organization founded in 1945 by Father James G. Keller "to encourage people of all ages, and from all walks of life, to use their God-given talents to make a positive difference in the world." Their motto is: "It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."

These words encouraged me through years of fighting not only illness, but the people who continued to deny my basic rights and needs because of my disability, even as I tried to use my gifts to help others. Now I’m finding a handful of people who not only care about me but encourage me to continue this work--not only for myself, but hopefully, for the future of all of human society and the planet we call Home!

　

　
The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace and my historical mystery novel, Lion’s Pride, are available through your local bookstore. They are featured at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and most online bookstores around the world. Both are available for Kindle readers.
　
COMMENTS: The purpose of this blog is to share positive ideas for making changes that will help everyone, not just a narrow group of people. I’d love to hear more ideas for imprinting positive effects over a wide range of areas in our society.

Civil Rights For All: Remember International Human Rights Day



Scene from one of the witch trials that took place in

Salem, Massachusetts Colony, in 1692.

The central figure in this 1876 illustration of the

courtroom is usually identified as Mary Walcott.



In honor of International Human Rights Day, I’m reprinting an article I originally wrote for my November 16, 2005, column in the Arizona City Independent/Edition and later included in my essay collection, The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace. It’s important on this auspicious occasion to remind people that all human beings have basic rights that must be acknowledged, respected, and protected.


My dictionary defines "civil rights" as "the rights, privileges, and protection given to citizens" (Oxford American Dictionary, pocket edition, 1979/1980). The book goes on to explain that the "civil rights movement" is "an organized movement to secure civil rights for blacks and other minorities in the U.S." (The italics in both definitions are mine!)

Many civil-rights activists need to check their dictionaries--and their hearts--so they can get their perspective straight on the issue of just who all those civil rights belong to. They seem to believe that only members of their minority group own the power to define which rights apply to members of other minority groups. Besides denying many rights to gays and lesbians, people involved in civil-rights movements have actually informed me, a person disabled by chronic illness, that people with disabilities have no civil rights--the Americans with Disabilities Act notwithstanding!

Sadly, this attitude is neither unusual nor new. The history of civil rights has always involved groups that fought to obtain their own rights, then denied those rights to others. Each November Americans gather around sumptuous turkey dinners to commemorate a group of religious pilgrims who left their European homeland to establish a colony where they were free to worship as they chose. Unfortunately, those same pilgrims adamantly refused to extend that right to others.

In fact, the Puritans of Massachusetts are probably best known for the witch trials of Salem, in which 19 people were executed and scores of others tortured and imprisoned when the false claims of two young girls incited the prejudices of that fanatical religious sect. And though the colony would have failed without aid from local natives, within a few years these immigrants were waging war on the same Indians with whom they’d celebrated their first "harvest festival" in 1621.

After America gained independence as a nation, abolitionists began fighting to free black slaves. On the other hand, most of the men and some of the women working for that cause refused to extend the same consideration to women, though the experience of most women paralleled that of many slaves and the earliest suffragists were also abolitionists. Thus, when the 15th Amendment was ratified, the law applied only to black men. It was another 50 years before women of any color gained the legal right to vote in national elections.

That’s why I’m not surprised that many people working for the betterment of people of color don’t understand that civil rights are inherent to every human being. Moreover, this narrow attitude is not limited to our own country.

Regarding the Third Reich, Martin Niemoeller explained, "In Germany, they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Though he acknowledged several different groups whose rights--and even lives--were abridged by that infamous regime, even Pastor Niemoeller ignores the minority group that Hitler’s minions targeted first. Niemoeller’s statement should have opened with this sentence: "In Germany, they came first for the people with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities, and I didn't speak up because I was healthy."

The sad fact is, many execution methods that were later used to murder millions of people in Nazi death camps were originally "tested" on small groups of people with various disabilities and physical abnormalities, such as dwarfism. Others with serious and even incurable medical conditions spent the war years in government "hospitals," where doctors performed cruel medical experiments that enhanced their suffering and often led to their early demise.

Those who claim that certain civil rights are the exclusive purview of their particular group and apply only to those who share a similar experience should remember the lessons of Nazi Germany. History is replete with examples of groups that were targeted, harassed, tortured, and eventually wiped out because others lacked the courage or concern to speak up for the rights of everyone.

In the world I imagine, society will protect all the inherent rights of every single human being, no matter their minority status. This can be accomplished only by eliminating the tool that people in power now use to perpetuate the conflicts between minority groups: poverty.

By limiting access to the resources that people need to enjoy a dignified existence, governments and businesses are able to exercise more control over the lives of the people in their sphere of influence. People and groups who are being manipulated in this way often view other individuals and groups who need the same resources in a competitive light, and vice-versa.

These people usually fail to understand that if people were to cooperate, and even join forces, with those they perceive as their enemies, they might be able to generate enough power to upset the status quo and spread the resources around for all to enjoy. Thus, poor people who fight among themselves for mere crumbs could become a mighty army for good and, with positive force, convince the government to help them work to end poverty forever.

Of course, poverty will end only when all the basic goods and services necessary for a dignified existence are available to every person on the planet at a cost of no more than half the amount earned by the lowest-paid full-time worker. When that becomes a reality, humans can finally begin to build a peaceful society where no one questions the rights of any other person, for the first time in the history of this planet.
 

The Videos: Gay Marriage: Why the Right has got it all wrong

For several years, I’ve often written about the right of all people to marry the person they choose, regardless of their sexual orientation and the gender of their chosen partner. In the first of these articles, published in the Arizona City Independent/Edition on March 15, 2006, and reprinted in my essay collection, The World I Imagine: A creative manual for ending poverty and building peace, I explained what is perhaps the most important reason for my support of same-sex marriage:

“If the U.S. wants to impose a wall between religion and government in places like Iraq [which was foremost in the news at the time], then we must do the same here at home.”

In other articles, I’ve explained that even if gay marriage were to become legal throughout the country, no church would ever be forced to marry two people of the same gender if they didn’t want to do so. And beginning on May, 2009, I wrote my first article addressing the fallacies of as many of the objections to legalizing gay marriage as I could think of at the time.

I’ve since updated that article and reprinted it twice as a single article in this blog. Finally, I’ve expanded my coverage of this issue by explaining these points in the two videos on this page, one on the religious issues and the other on the secular issues involved in the gay marriage question.

I hope I explained clearly enough the basic principle that no matter what any person believes, they have absolutely no right to use the law to impose their religious values on people who are not members of their religion. So, we must continue to work for the end of all laws that limit the civil rights of anyone simply because of their sexual orientation.

Let’s put an end to all hate in our society. This is an absolute necessity if we’re ever going to put an end to poverty and war.

Why This Peace Activist Celebrates the Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Flying Rainbow Flag

The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is but one step forward

in a long fight for civil rights for every human being.

Finally, the Senate has approved a bill repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. With an earlier positive House vote on the issue, the bill now goes to the desk of President Barack Obama, who’s promised to sign it immediately and end the discriminatory practice of preventing gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military.

Why would a peace activist care about this issue? Because people who want to see the end of conflict in the world don’t feel negatively about those people who truly want to serve their country, its citizens, and its best ideals. We simply want to encourage the political leaders to find more positive ways to accomplish their goals in the world than by killing people.

Standing for peace is not anti-military. In fact, the best thing that can be done for the troops and their families is to help make the world a place where there is no more armed conflict. A world in which military forces can perform positive functions to help people, such as aiding people stricken by natural disasters around the world; helping to build hospitals and schools overseas that are not in danger of being destroyed by enemy forces; bringing food, water, and medicine to people living in remote areas of the world.

Peace people also believe in respect for civil rights for everyone. That’s why restricting people from being able to choose military service, or any other employment, simply because of their sexual orientation is anathema to us. That’s why I take every opportunity to stand for full civil rights for all members of the LGBTQ community. DADT is merely one of the ways in which gay rights are being limited or denied.

So, now is the time to celebrate, but briefly. There is more work to be done to ensure that all human beings will be treated with respect, that their rights will not be denied.