It's already January 18, Martin Luther King's birthday, and I've been away from the blog for a month now, focused on family and home and holidays. 2010 has already reminded us of the political and economic challenges we're confronting. The To Do list remains more or less the same: health care, climate change, education, terrorism, intolerance. Witnessing, from afar, the tragedy in Haiti puts a perspective on things and reminds me of the power of nature and the sanctity of life on earth. Our earth.
I'm repledging myself to the simple habit of referring to "our" world. Replacing the definite article "the" with the possessive "our". In practice, it is a small, spoken reminder of sharing, responsibility, ownership, collaboration. Since the original pact on November 6, 2009, I know that Martin Hope, Martin Frick, Benjamin Barber and I have been mindful in conversation as well as public speeches; it is always now, "our" world, "our" earth. And I'm gratified that so many friends and readers of this blog have told me that they are doing the same.
the gratifying thing about the otherwise horrific Haitian disaster is that for once celebrities, nations, newspeople and ordinary citizens seemed to acknowledge that it was "our earth" that wreaked the consequence of its natural physical laws on Port au Prince, and it is "our responsility" to work together to overcome the damages.
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