October 25, 2002

Turning Tide of History #11: "Midwifering" a New Era of Peace and Love

Hello everyone

One final compilation vibrant with love and hope for you this week.

The next Meditation Focus - mainly on the need for peace and healing in Chechnya in the wake of the current hostage crisis in Moscow - will soon follow.

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000

P.S. Check also my latest Media Compilation #93: Resistance to the War Plans is Growing --- Posted at http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/Archives2002/MediaCompilation93.htm


"It is only with the heart that one can see clearly... what is essential is invisible to the eye."

- The Little Prince


"Peace can not be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

- Albert Einstein


"Seek the path of a bold heart and stay true to your deepest longings."

- Anonymous


"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but rather spiritual beings having a human experience."

- Pierre Tielhard de Chardin

Taken from the Foundation for Global Awakening website at http://www.ffga.org/BR>

"Our most powerful contribution to world healing and evolution at any time is simply who we are and the natural state of being we generally resonate to. "There is nothing to do but to BE". When we are in the "doing" mode, it is mostly the ego that is trying to drive the game, whereas when we are in the "being" mode, it is mainly the inner Divine soul that is radiating its all-encompassing frequency of Love which naturally soothes and heals everything and guides us onto the best path of action, the ideal wording and the optimal thinking and feeling."

- From the Source Within Us All


CONTENTS

1. Reflection on Peace
2. Comments on last Sunday's Meditation Focus
3. James Twyman reports from Middle East
4. THE IRAQ PEACE TEAM: Good Americans in Baghdad
5. This Rare Historical Moment


See also:

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? (Excellent article!)
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14375

July 25, 2003 / Day Out of Time / GALACTIC BE-IN
http://www.tortuga.com
This is a call for artists and creative humans everywhere to join in a massive day-long celebration of life, love, art and universal forgiveness, marking a new era of peace and harmony and the birth
of a renewed Galactic Earth. A mass demonstration of unified good will worldwide promoted by Jose Arguelles.

Picture of the "Golden Light Grid
http://www.thenewearthnews.com/global.htm
Created by Maureen Ericson who also publishes THE NEW EARTH NEWS - A Magazine Celebrating the Rebirth of the Earth! (Details at http://www.thenewearthnews.com)




1.

A MOST INTERESTING AND TIMELY REFLECTION ON PEACE AND HOW IT SHOULD FIRST BEGIN WITHIN ONESELF AND THEN RADIATES OUTWARD

From: "Barry & Aannsha" <bazaann@ozemail.com.au>
Subject: Re: Turning Tide of History#10: The Last Stand For Peace
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002

Dear Jean

I just wanted to add a little thought to the world peace cause ...

Barry (my husband) and I are concerned with the way George Bush is pushing for world peace (war) and have been doing our bit by e-mailing various politicians etc. I also truly send encouraging thoughts to each and every one of those people whose information you have forwarded lately.

It occurred to me the other day (at my son's 4th birthday party actually when two parents started arguing over strongly held points of view), that even if Bush and his "allies" & "opponents" do lay down their weapons and thoughts of destruction, what then? Will we have world peace?

I wonder... on a personal level, in each of our daily lives, how often do we "take up arms" to (innocently) defend ourselves?

I considered how strongly both of these parents upheld their own points of view, and how difficult it seemed for each of them to hear/understand/acknowledge the other's beliefs. I looked at the other parents who seemed uncomfortable at the hostility. I asked the two men to 'come on guys, let it go. They continued. They appeared to have arrived at a point where it was more important to fight it out and 'win' without any regard for anyone around them. I thought, how selfish.

Then I began to notice my own inner environment and how I wasn't feeling peaceful either. My heart was racing, my blood pumping and my jaw clenched. I realised I had inadvertently become caught up in their 'war'. Not by agreeing with either party, but by feeling angry that the two could be so intolerant of each other's point of view. I thought how stupid they were and how uncaring they were of everyone around them. I wanted to shout at them to stop and let it go. I even entertained the possibility of physically lashing out at them to enforce my wish for peace. But I couldn't do that - what would everyone think, and suppose they hit me back. I felt too scared to act, and so I busied myself with the plates of food and party bags and hoped it would all go away. I just wanted peace - but I was so angry.

Peace! Where had peace gone in all of this?

A friend of one of the blokes calmed his mate down and an uneasy truce was silently declared until the party ended and these two ordinary blokes sent off retaliatory shots at each other as they left the party - one using his physical size to intimidate the other while threatening he 'watched himself in future', and the other saying he didn't ever want to cross his path again...

Jean, in these two men and myself, I saw the whole play of world events ... and I know at least two of us in this triangle passionately uphold world peace.

So Jean, my question to everyone is - if world leaders miraculously lay down their arms and declare world peace, what then? Will it also miraculously occur in your own back yard?

Or will it take each and every one of us, on a daily basis, to create a peaceful inner environment first? One where we listen to the telltale signs of aggression within, become aware of the thoughts of prejudice, judgement and intolerance - and take that mighty first step - choose to let them go? (And we all know how hard that is).

Even now, while we are taking action for world peace, what are we wishing for the leaders who are perpetrating this unholy war? If the thoughts we are projecting towards these men are not noble thoughts, but thoughts of anger, or a desire for revenge or even their physical demise in order to end their actions, are we not perpetrating war ourselves?

So I would ask everyone, it is so easy to project our desire for peace onto the leaders of countries, yet how can peace happen until we can each lay down all thoughts of defence for whatever cause, yes, even peace? How can peace come until we can each stand vulnerable and trusting, with hands open and arms extended, ready to welcome our neighbours, children, parents, friends, enemies - with all of their beliefs, values and emotions - with open hearts?

How can peace come until we can love and accept ourselves?

This to me seems the only way we will achieve lasting world peace. And it seems an almost impossible task. Do you think we can achieve it?

But I believe it only takes each one of us to achieve peace within.

So I ask each reader, Are you up to it yourself?

I figure there is one way you will know for sure. If you cast a good hard long look inside your own heart, and if you find the answer is "yes" (even if it is "yes, but it will be a hell of a struggle"), then we are well on the way.

What do you think?

Kind regards,

Aannsha Jones

---

(The following message was received on 01/01/01)

Great People of Earth,

Take your highest goals, your loftiest visions, your most cherished dreams - focus on them first thing after waking and last thing before sleeping. Revisit them during your day and while you sleep. Then bring them to Earth. Share your visions with trusted ones. Encourage your enemies. Lay down your weapons and take up the Challenge. Earth is to be reborn and you can be a part of the midwifery team. You each have a part to play in this if you so desire - nothing is too small, nor too large and all shall be equal in the overall scheme of things. But take up the Challenge and take it up now. Time is running out and you will be left behind if you tarry much longer.

End of message.

(Sent on wings of love for all to hear). Your Brother, Christ.

More at Healing Truth Website on http://www.ozemail.com.au/~bazaann




2.

NOTE FROM JEAN: Here is what I received from someone (name withheld so as to remain anonymous) who has participated to last Sunday's Meditation Focus entitled "Reclaiming our Power to Choose and Shining the Light of Love" (archived at http://www.aei.ca/~cep/MeditationFocus73.htm)

I want to share with you while wonder is still fresh within my consciousness. Today was more than powerful. (...) I will now move into the actuality of the experience for me. We begin to anchor from the celestial to our Beloved Terra Gaia the higher frequencies to assist our Beloved sleepy brothers and sisters to Choose Peace Now, to Choose Love Now, to Choose Equality Now, to Choose New Earth Now. Going deeper now into the sanctuary of the Heart of the Mother Earth, we co-create Peace now. We co-create with our beloved animal, mineral and plant kingdoms in unison. We co-create in sacred union as we open deeper, wider and higher to our true mission. This mission of anchoring Peace on Terra. We forgive, forgive, forgive. We are leaders of Love in all circumstances. We are leaders of truth in all circumstances. We erase blame. We instill Love. We erase hate. We instill Love. We erase judgement. We instill Love. We erase War. We instill Love. The dolphins and whales join now guiding us further into the energy of the heart. Choose Love Now. Choose Love on behalf of All That Is. Anchor in the thought within the heart. It is simple. It is pure. We are wayshowers. Love leads, Love lasts, LOVE IS FOREVER. Love is the Force. I see an energetic group consciousness emerging as we shine our love together. This is most intensely beautiful power I have only experienced on several other occasions. The eyes of our beloved sleepy brothers and sister are sad no longer. Their eyes are beaming brightly with the radiance of God showing through, guiding their every action and their every thought. Love is shining through. Yellow/aquamarine energies coming to anchor more love and more light on Beloved Terra. These energies gracefully assist with the removal of the fear grid that surrounds our Terra. All the "new" children were above us opening our crowns even wider to the power of prayer and Love. I energetically hugged all world leaders and whispered Choose Peace Now, Choose Love Now into their golden ears. You joined me in this Light endeavor, as we partnered in the peaceful true resonance of who we are, without question, with only LOVE as the motivation and answer. I then saw golden pools of water everywhere, a sort of baptism was taking place. All beings, without holding back, were soaking in these golden ponds of fear removal, and as they stepped out of these healing waters, a symbolic robe of gold was placed around them. It was so beautiful. Everyone is awakening to their God brilliance of gold. Fear is loosing its power. Love is teaching all who want to awaken now... and so many want this change in thought.




3.

From: james@emissaryoflight.com
Sent: Sunday, October 20, 2002
Subject: James Twyman reports from Middle East

Beloved Friends,

I would like to bring you up to date on my peace mission to Iraq. First of all, I want to thank all of you for joining me. It felt as if millions of people were standing by my side, and in a way they were. Information about the vigil spread all over the world, and there is no way to know how many were holding the vibration. It felt like it was raining Grace in the desert, and I am humbled to have been present for this miracle. Peace has certainly prevailed, and we know that it is now being revealed perfectly. I was just inside the border of Iraq when the vigil began, while an hour before I was with about thirty Iraqi boys teaching them how to sing: All we are saying, is give peace a chance. It was a real gift, and you were all there with me.

I will save the other details of the journey for another e-mail. I would rather share something much more important. It is probably because so many thousands of people joined as One Mind and One Heart that I am so inspired right now. I have a vision I would like to share with you, and I pray that it will touch your heart as much as it is touching mine.

As I write this letter from Amman, Jordan, the television reports an endless stream of horrific news from around the world. The same day we gathered in prayer, a bomb set off in Bali killed nearly two hundred people. One word describes the overall feeling of so many FEAR! Peace appears to be losing, and there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about it.

Nonsense!

We are and will continue to do something about it. My experiences with the Psychic Children, as well as the Emissaries of Light in Bosnia, tell me that this is when we must stand and be counted. This may be a dark hour, but it is when we are called to be Instruments of Peace.

I have an idea that I want to share with you. We have nearly 50,000 people on our present e-mail list. I believe that if all of you would choose to dedicate yourself to creating peace in the world, then we could have a massive worldwide impact as Spiritual Warriors. Scientists have already proven that small numbers of dedicated people are capable of shifting the planet in significant ways. I would like to see more than 50,000 people poised and ready to work together at a days notice. My goal is to have a contingency of over 100,000 people by the end of the year, and I believe we can make that happen.

I am not kidding about this. It is time for us to create a New World, and we must work together to do this. 100,000 Spiritual Warriors by the end of the year poised to Pray Peace at any given moment. This is how we can change the world, I believe, and I hope you do too. It would be like an army of inner peace soldiers, the strongest army in the world.

Here is the favor I ask, not for me but for the whole planet. Please commit yourself to inspiring two of your friends to join us by being part of this e-mail list. Imagine having the ability to contact over a hundred thousand people in a matter of hours and using the power of prayer to bring peace. If only half the people on this list inspired two more friends, then we would be there. Here's what you can tell them:

There is a network of people from nearly every country who believe that prayer is one of the most powerful forces on the planet, and they are working together to use this force to bring peace to the whole world. The group is called: The Spiritual Warriors, and we would like you to join us.

All they have to do is send a blank e-mail to this address: list@emissaryoflight.com

Then they will be on the front line, just as you are, ready to create peace by Being Peace. We need your help to make this happen. I believe that we can have a powerful impact on the world, and I'm sure you agree. Just two friends apiece to be Instruments of Peace. I thank you in advance for playing your important role.

In Peace,
James Twyman

ALSO, FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE SCIENTIFIC POWER OF PRAYER, VISIT
http://www.permanentpeace.com

---

IN ANOTHER SUBSEQUENT EMAIL JAMES ALSO WROTE:

(...) When the moment arrived for the vigil I could feel the energy so powerfully, and even my driver mentioned that everything felt different. Not being able to go all the way to Baghdad didn't seem to matter, for the most important role was held by the millions around the world who joined together in prayer. Thank you for playing your part. And now the work continues. We are not facing a political problem, or even a sociological one as many people believe. What we are facing is a spiritual dilemma, and so it must be solved spiritually. That is why I believe our role is so important. We must be willing to change the way we view each other, as well as how we relate to our creator. When we realize that we are one with God, then we will know that we are one with each other as well. Then we will not consider war, because it will be an impossible response. Then love will prevail, for it is the thing we most want for ourselves. We must be the ones to demonstrate this today, and that is why it is important that we join together in this cause. CLIP




AWESOMELY COURAGEOUS PEOPLE PUTTING THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE FOR PEACE

4.

From: http://www.counterpunch.org/kysia1016.html

THE IRAQ PEACE TEAM

Good Americans in Baghdad

by RAMZI KYSIA

You get what you pay for in life. What are you willing to pay for peace?

With George Bush as president, it doesn't seem to be a problem any of us will ever have to face again, but you can't be a pacifist only in peacetime. You can't be a pacifist by yelling at your tv set, or forwarding a million emails to everyone you know. Pacifism isn't that passive, it isn't that easy. It is, and always has been, by definition, a radical challenge to every element of worldly power and violence.

I'm in Iraq with a handful of other Americans: Eric Edgin, an Indiana college student; Nathan Mauger, a recent journalism graduate from Washington State; Farah Mokhtareizadeh, a Pennsylvania college student; Jon Rice, a history teacher from Chicago; Henry Williamson, a paramedic from South Carolina; and Joe Quandt, a writer from New York. More are joining us. By the end of October, we'll have over 30 people on our team. By December, our numbers will be over 100. We're here to tell the stories of the Iraqi people; to put our lives on the line to stop this war.

Living in Baghdad, you wouldn't know there was a war. The streets bustle with people on their way to work or school. In the evenings the parks are full of kids playing soccer, people visiting with family and friends. There are no tanks in the streets, no soldiers marching, no civil defense drills, and--other than foreigners like us--no one here seems to be stocking up on food or water. Is it denial? Disbelief? Some inner despair? I honestly don't know.

It's painful that Baghdad is so beautiful. There's a unique and striking blend of traditional and modern architecture. I love the city's parks, it's wide, tree-lined boulevards--each avenue sprouting date palms and poplars. This is truly a green city. I told a cab driver that Baghdad was a beautiful city. He just looked hard at me. "No," he said, "Baghdad is not beautiful. Baghdad is tired."

We hear it over and over again--just below the surface--a melody of melancholy, resignation, and fear. People quietly complain, "What more can America do to us?" We visit a high school, and the kids want to make absolutely sure we really understand that they're not natural-born killers or terrorists. A teacher lets us know that his 8-year-old asks him every day if today's the day he's going to die.

Ask an Iraqi about "liberation," and they'll laugh at you. It's bitter mirth. If the U.S. doesn't bomb the civilian infrastructure again, and if the government falls fast, and if the army doesn't break-up along ethnic and religious lines--then only a few thousand innocent people will be killed when George Bush starts his war. But if Bush bombs the water and power systems like his dad did in '91--tens of thousands will die from the resulting epidemics. If the army falls apart, there could be a civil war that makes past conflicts in Lebanon or Bosnia look like schoolyard brawls. And if food aid distributed by the Iraqi government under the Oil-for-Food program is disrupted for more than a few weeks, UNICEF is warning there will be country-wide famine.

When will Americans wake up to the fact that we are not the only real people on this planet; that our security cannot depend on the insecurity of everyone else?

George Bush seems to be living out some comicbook fantasy, never sure of whether he's really the President, or just Alfred E. Neumann doing a poor impersonation. Donald Rumsfeld angrily denounces Iraq for having an "insatiable appetite" for weapons. This from a man whose budget for war is over 50 times the size of Iraq's entire economy. And Colin Powell criticizes the UN for forging an agreement to return weapons inspectors--4 days after Bush demanded that the UN do it or become "irrelevant."

Have we failed to notice that the inmates are now running the asylum?

Some accuse us of being "fools" or "apologists" for the Iraqi government. We don't often have the opportunity to speak with officials here, but when we do we always raise concerns about prisons, extrajudicial killings, and state-directed violence.

That isn't to toot our own horn. Our status as Americans gives us this luxury, in a way that Iraqis do not have for themselves. That's uncomfortable and troubling, and if it strikes some as hypocritical for us to be here as pacifists, I can understand that. But it strikes me as much more hypocritical to speak out against a foreign government for killing innocents--while facilitating the killing of countless more by our own government through our silence and our tax dollars. We apologize for no one but ourselves.

According to Human Rights Watch, Iraq has roughly 3,000 extrajudicial killings a year. According to UNICEF, U.S. policy kills over 50,000 Iraqi children every year. Both are terrible. They aren't equivalent.

My government may not care, they may be intent on war no matter what--but I refuse to be "irrelevant." I'm here. I choose to believe that if Americans knew what was being done in our names, we wouldn't allow it. The alternative is madness.

It's disgusting that millions of people being threatened with massive destruction isn't "news," and Americans joining them is. But if the only way to get anyone to pay attention is to be in Baghdad when the bombs fall, so be it. We're here.

Our hotel isn't fancy, but at least it isn't close to anything "strategic." Our risks are the same as the other 5 million people in Baghdad, the other 24 million people in Iraq. As our team's numbers grow, we'll turn the hotel into our own hostel--living 5 or 6 to a room.

We're volunteering with NGOs already working in Iraq, and we're doing regular writing and journaling. Some of that writing will be carried in alternate media and small-town papers, and, even after the U.S. destroys the electricity and phone lines, we'll get reports out through the local press center on a satellite phone. We won't let folks back home forget the human consequences of what they do here. Milan Kundera once wrote, "The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." We're here to be part of that struggle.

Mohammed Ghani Hekmat is perhaps the most prominent artist in Iraq, and one of the kindest men I've ever met. His sculptures decorate the country. He's proud to be the first Muslim artist ever commissioned by the Vatican. In 1991, he was working on a series of life-size reliefs of the Stations of the Cross, when the Gulf War happened. The windows in his studio were blown out by the explosions. We asked him what he thought of the American people, and his voice filled with anger: "They're innocent," he accused, "Innocent! Like children."

We're here because we know we're not innocent. Being here is our part in the war against terrorism: humanizing Iraqis in the eyes of Americans, humanizing Americans in the eyes of Iraqis--taking direct responsibility for what's done in our names.

Our government, our country--our people--have killed hundreds of thousands of human beings in Iraq since 1990. We're about to compound that atrocity with another war that, if it goes badly, will likely kill hundreds of thousands more.

In 1945, when the Allies liberated the death camps, the entire Western world was absolutely shocked. We asked, "how could this have happened? How could the German people have allowed this? Where were the 'good' Germans?"

Today, I know where the good Americans are: they're in Iraq, and they're organizing in the streets of America--laying their entire lives on the line to prevent the mass destruction of human life.

We get what we pay for in this life. I don't want to die. I am scared for my life. But this storm is fast upon on us. This is the moment when we all must ask--what are we willing to risk for peace?

Ramzi Kysia is a Muslim-American peace activist, working with the Education for Peace in Iraq Center - http://www.epic-usa.org/ . He is co-coordinator of the Voices in the Wilderness http://www.vitw.org/ ' Iraq Peace Team http://www.iraqpeaceteam.org/, a group of American peaceworkers pledged to stay in Iraq before, during, and after any future U.S. attack. The Iraq Peace Team can be reached at ivoices@uruklink.net

Dorothy J. Maver, Ph.D.
Vermont Peace Institute
PO Box 13, Northfield, VT 05663 USA
802/485-9675
peaceinstitute@trans-video.net




5.

Recommended by "Hugh Perry" <hugis@cyberus.ca>

From: http://www.consciouschoice.com/issues/cc1510/rarehistorical1510.html

This Rare Historical Moment

Without social and economic justice there can be no peace with the Earth

by Kenny Ausubel

Conscious Choice, October 2002

When Frances Moore Lappe posed the question of why societies finally abandoned the divine right of monarchies, she found the reason was that people simply stopped believing in it. Ideas have real power, much greater than political or economic structures. It's what I like to call the B.S. factor -- belief systems.

And everywhere you turn these days, belief systems are crashing and burning like a meteor shower. From Enron to Arthur Andersen to the Catholic Church and even major-league baseball, people's faith in institutions is disintegrating.

People in this country are realizing that we have the best government money can buy. When Bush Lite proudly kicked off his regime as America, Incorporated, you have to wonder why he didn't propose reconstituting the Senate and the House as Fortune 100 and Fortune 500. If we enforced truth-in-advertising laws, Senators and Congresspeople would wear jumpsuits like race-car drivers sporting the logos of corporate sponsors. Then we could easily distinguish the Senator from General Electric and the Congressperson from Disney.

Corporate economic globalization contains the seeds of its own destruction, and we may well be witnessing the beginning of the decline and fall of the corporate empire. Enronitis is systemic. Arthur Andersen globalized fuzzy math, the arithmetic of corporate accounting in 1995, and they're going to have a heck of a time doing a factory recall. Whenever people say free trade, I always ask if free is a verb. What we actually have are highly managed monopolies that epitomize crony capitalism and insider trading as a way of doing business.

The rest of the world is certainly onto it, which is why European and Japanese capital is begining to flee U.S. companies. Consumer confidence is not looking too promising either when three-fourths of American citizens think big business has too much influence over government and society.

Around the world today people are rising up in defense of the Earth and demanding a democratic process over the decisions that affect our lands, our communities, and our lives. The pro-democracy movement is gaining momentum worldwide, and recent events indicate that it is only going to pick up steam, far sooner than many people may have expected.

Just over the last couple of years, countries across Latin America have generated a political groundswell against the failed experiment of so-called "free-market" capitalism. Popular uprisings have derailed the privatization of state-owned companies and utilities, because 44 percent of Latin Americans still live in poverty and the number of unemployed workers has more than doubled in a decade. And with China's acceptance into the WTO, the next giant sucking sound from the South is going to be jobs leaving Mexico for China.

It's going to get even dicier because the never-ending war on terrorism is anathema to economic globalization, which is predicated on the free flow of goods, services and workers across borders. This time they've shot themselves in the foot, or actually a little higher.

Ecology does not recognize national borders, and planetarization demands that we create a restorative economy grounded in healthy ecosystems and job creation. It also calls upon us to celebrate the world's rich diversity of cultures, and to forge a working community of nations committed to social justice. Without social and economic justice there can be no peace with the Earth.

This rare historical moment offers us a gleaming opportunity. It's up to us to step into the breach with alternatives, with solutions that work. We are finding over and over again that solutions residing in nature surpass our wildest conception of what's possible. There is great hope in how little we know and what little we do know.

We can start with a Marshall Plan to hasten the extinction of petrochemicals. Even oil executives acknowledge that we have entered the beginning of the end of the Age of Oil. Large companies including BP, Shell, Daimler-Chrysler, and Ford are making sizeable commitments to renewable energy, though it's still marginal to their core business. The emerging alternative energy industry may well mimic the vertiginous expansion of the oil industry just 100 years ago. Wind and solar photovoltaics grew around ten-fold in the past ten years.

While the United States political class tries to march us backward into the future carrying a sack of coal, much of the rest of the developed world is going green. Iceland is the first nation totally powering its electricity with renewable energy, and it's well on its way to breaking through as the world's first hydrogen economy to run its cars without gas. Germany has committed to doubling its economy by 2060 on half the power, using mostly renewable energy. Japan has seized the global market on photovoltaic cells. Denmark is the world's leading wind producer, a profitable industry employing more people than its entire fishing and shipbuilding sectors. But of course those Danes are crazy: They say environmental protection is more important than economic growth anyway.

Sweden will close a second nuclear reactor in 2003 in its plan to phase-out nuclear energy by 2010. Germany has committed to a phase out of its nuclear plants. It's worth remembering that those four hijacked airplanes flew perilously close to twelve separate nuclear plants, and that no private insurer will back the 103 nukes in the country.

Cars getting 78-235 mpg are already rolling off the line, and zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cells and hyper cars are close behind. Energy efficiency is of course the single most cost-effective approach, capable of halving our energy use by itself.

Wind power from seven Northern Plains states alone could provide all the nation's electricity needs. The North Sea winds have enough force to power much of Europe. Solar collectors in just 2 percent of the world's deserts could supply the hydrogen needed for the world's current energy consumption.

The technology is here now. Solar, wind, and hydrogen technologies are infinitely better proven than any Missile Defense Shield and they will give us true national security by removing the choke collar of OPEC and our own Oiligarchy. The only energy crisis is the energy to make the transition happen faster.

These soft technologies also lend themselves to localization and decentralization. They can be democratic by design. Power to the people is not an abstraction.

This same kind of transformation is starting to happen across the board, demonstrating our capacity to reduce human footprints by 90 percent while improving our standard of living and creating jobs, decidedly better than flipping burgers and telemarketing.

There are many deep wounds to heal, not the least those of the human spirit. This transformation also demands a change of heart flowing from an empathic connection with the fullness of the living Earth. It's about the sanctity of all life.

The choices we make today are going to have long-lasting and far-reaching consequences. As human beings, perhaps our greatest facility is how rapidly we re-invent culture. That's why we're gathering again for Bioneers '02, to accelerate the creation of an Earth-honoring culture.

---

Kenny Ausubel is the president of Bioneers. For more information on the Bioneeers and their annual conference go to http://www.bioneers.org







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