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.

Why Not Green?

During most of 2008 I wrote several articles on green living for my column in the Arizona City Independent/Edition. As part of that series, the following article was published in the October 8, 2008, edition of that paper.

　

‘Green living’ is ‘in’ now, thanks to people like Al Gore, who was sounding the alarm on global warning for decades before it became popular. Jim and I heard his message years ago. Back then, we were doing small things to help, but it wasn’t enough. We still have a long way to go. Becoming green is a step-by-step process; it doesn’t happen overnight.

No matter how popular it is to fight global warming, there are still nay-sayers, especially among powerful people who, sadly, stand squarely in the way of progress. I fear that they could be signing a death warrant for many species on the planet--including, eventually, the human race.

That’s why we’re involved in this effort. Actually, I made up my mind to join the ecological fight over fifty years ago. In the summer of 1958, I witnessed an example of why we must be careful about managing our natural resources.

Growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, I loved going with my family to swim in Lake Worth, east of the city. In the early ‘50s, Lake Worth was a nice place for families to swim, picnic, and just hang out. When we lived in Ridglea on the east side of town, we went up there several times each summer, but after we moved to Handley on the west side in December 1955, we didn’t get to the lake much at all.

Then one day we took a trip up to Lake Worth, just to spend a day in the country. For some reason, we didn’t wear bathing suits, which we would have done in the early part of the decade. Maybe our parents knew. I never did ask them about it. But it turned out to be an eye-opening trip.

Though it was a bright summer day, there weren’t many people around. I understood why after we left the car and started walking toward the lake. I first noticed that there was a different odor to the air than the fresh country smells I remembered from earlier days. The closer we got to the water, the more I could smell it, and it wasn’t pleasant.

Upon reaching the water, we realized the lake was much smaller than it had been before. Fort Worth was always going through alternate spells of too much and too little, floods and drought, so a shrunken lake wouldn’t be that much of a surprise. But it was the condition of the water and the beach that shocked me.

The water itself was dark and dirty looking, not like the fresh, clean water we used to swim in. It looked so bad we weren’t even tempted to wade in, which we would’ve done, even if we hadn’t planned to swim. On that day, we didn’t even want to walk across the beach, which was littered with trash and dead fish. Even the soil, the former lake bed, didn’t look or feel like good old Texas dirt. As an outdoor kid, I knew good dirt when I saw it, and this wasn’t it!

The entire area had a doomsday feel to it. Even vegetation surrounding the expensive lakefront houses looked sick. The entire scene had the pall of death. I don’t know whether it was pollution or neglect or just all the trash that had been dumped around there. It was probably a combination of all those things. The lake and the land around it was dying, and something must be done to bring it back to life.

We didn’t stay at Lake Worth for long that day, and it was the last time we went there. The next spring, we moved to Littleton, CO. I haven’t been back to the area, except during a couple of subsequent moves when we drove straight through the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex without stopping.

I do know that since that fateful day, things have changed for the better. Apparently, people took charge of the situation and cleaned up the lake. I discovered this while watching an episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger" and saw Chuck Norris visiting a house on the shore of Lake Worth.

The area was beautiful again, the lake clean, and all the houses surrounded by lush lawns and thriving trees and plants. I’ve since checked the internet and found that Lake Worth is a thriving resort community now. That would’ve been impossible with the lake I’d seen in the summer of 1958.

That’s why I have no doubt that no matter what other factors affect the environment, positive human involvement is vital. Besides, it’s the one factor we can control. We have the choice to ignore the obvious and kill this planet, bit by bit. Or we can nurture it and help it to thrive as a wonderful ‘mansion’ for the enjoyment of the entire human race. It’s up to us.

I plan to be among the positive inhabitants of this planet, our virtual home. I hope you’ll join me in that effort too!