Happy Interdependence Day!

Writing in the last minutes of July 4th - INTERDEPENDENCE Day, 2008.

As the fireworks fade, I think about the greatness of America.

Does it lie in our ability to exert our will over all other nations, or does it lie in being willing to do our small part in bringing nations together to save this planet and put an end to violence and war?

Does America's greatness lie in our ability to occupy, to invade, to devastate other lands...or does it lie in developing an occupation, a fascination with peacemaking.

Does our greatness lie in thinking that we are the critical central piece holding the world together, or does it lie in being humble enough to see that we are just one small piece in the larger puzzle that is the global community.

Celebrate Inter-depedence day...
recognizing the work we have to do in lowering our nation's ego to half-mast (a solemn tribute and "goodbye" to the bull-headed arrogance that led us, for instance, to the delusion that bulldozing our way through foreign lands in the name of national security in order to exponentially increase profits for our impoverished oil tycoons is good foreign policy).

understanding that, like the fireworks of tonight, an existence based on boasting of our superiority will quickly fade away from its initial brilliance, becoming nothing more than smoke in the sky.

believing that love, generosity, kindness, and the principles of equity and justice can be the foundation for our interactions with the world, with soul power replacing military power
as the ticket to national security.

The question is not nonviolence vs. violence. It is nonviolence vs. nonexistence.

Happy Interdependence Day!!!!!