State of the Planet

September 2, 2005

These times cry out for honest leadership to guide us through the dangers that beset us in every corner of this planet. It is the very planet itself, and our species continued existence that is at risk as we find ourselves governed by selfish, small-minded men with no vision for a future that does not resemble the past. We are at war with the earth and with ourselves. Violence in the form of armed warfare is tearing vast regions of the planet apart, violating families and sewing seeds of vengeance and hate that will torture us all for generations. Violence against our environment has destroyed our planet’s ability to regenerate the resources necessary to sustain life and has created conditions that spawn great and horrible storms, deep droughts and spreading deserts slowly encroaching on previously fertile land, sucking life itself from the surface of the earth. Violence against the poor, by ignoring their suffering and perpetuating a system of commerce and selfish accumulation and exploitation of resources by the privileged few, produces a massive daily death toll, an accumulation of suffering and despair that tears at the very essence of humanity and cries out for remedy. Our situation is no longer tenable; we are perishing but are too frightened to acknowledge the truth of our imminent demise.