In recent days, we have been witness
to the fabric of our American Dream coming apart at the seams. One
institutional financial giant after the next has fallen victim to
their own overarching greed. Every American has contributed to this
disaster. Each stock we buy without carefully considering the nature
of the company in which we have invested, each item we buy at the
local Walmart without considering the underlying economic injustice,
every business decision we make without considering how this will
effect our workers and their families, every political, social and
economic injustice that we tolerate or ignore helped to create the
nightmare that now faces us. No one is without blame. The
executives of AIG, our members of Congress, every President, every
American who has not spoken up when one of our brothers or sisters
anywhere has suffered because of our actions or inactions.

The truth is that the American Dream
based on free market economics and profit motive have always been a
house of cards, self delusions, doomed to fail. Our common ideas and
attitudes have reflected these illusions in every aspect of our lives
and we have created a nightmare that it is now up to us to unravel.
Without a common vision, our society self destucts. A life time of
hard work and savings is disappearing along with the American Dream.
Nations, businesses and individuals don't know how to protect their
financial investments. Families are losing their homes. Tent
cities are beginning to spring up all around the world. People are
buying guns in unprecedented numbers, fearing the worst. Americans
who dreamed of using the American Empire to rule the worlds resources
and nations are being sent home in disgrace, their unjust actions
increasingly called into question by a world of nations and people
who have awakened to an awareness of their own rights.

A North Korea, a Pakistan, an India,
an Israel, an Iran, an America with nuclear weapons is a threat to
life on earth. We have weapons of mass destruction because we have
enemies, rivals on our shrinking planet. If we had no rivals, no
enemies, but instead only brothers and sisters, family members, we
would have no need for weapons to protect ourselves and they would
not exist. What is the difference between an enemy and a brother?
Our ideas and attitudes and the actions that flow from our ideas and
attitudes determine whether I see you as my enemy or my brother.

Americans are rising in ever
increasing numbers, demanding economic justice. In a system that has
been designed based on ideas and attitudes that are inherently
unjust, this means our ideas and attitudes must change. Justice is
only just, when it includes everyone, regardless of nationality,
race, sex, color or family of birth. Without Justice, we will always
create enemies. Under our failing institutions, there has never been
justice for all and thus we live in a world of tremendous
inequalities, economic, political and social, a world full of enemies
dedicated to our destruction. We face a tremendous choice. Without
changing our ideas and attitudes, and our ensuing actions, a planet
full of nuclear armed nations means certain annihilation. As
dangerous as the world we now face is, our only real choice is to
change our attitudes and ideas, and begin acting as though our
enemies are our brothers. A great man has said, “Take your
brothers need as the measure for your actions, and save the world.”
“Without Sharing, there can be no Justice, without Justice, no
Peace.”

These are the ideas and attitudes
that must replace our failed ones. These are not new ideas and
attitudes, they are ancient. They have been presented to us time and
again, by all the good men and women throughout history. Those good
men and women, through their ideas and attitudes and their actions
have showed us the only way forward. We must be bigger than our
fears, our angers, our outrages, bigger than our nations, our
religions, our traditional beliefs. We must recognize one another as
brothers and sisters whose needs can be met if we work together and
share. These ideas and attitudes must permeate our everyday life,
our institutions, our businesses, our schools, our temples, churches
and mosques. We must remember the needs of our brothers and sisters
all around the planet every time we vote, every time we shop, every
time we pray. Our lives must become a ceaseless prayer for sharing
and justice for all. “What you do to the least of these, my
brothers, you have done it to me.” Together, through sharing and
justice, we can save ourselves and our planet. Else as enemies, we
shall each surely perish alone.

G