Uganda RPCV Edward P. Fisher writes: Remember those who dared imagine a peaceful world
A lot has changed in America since that tragic day in Dallas, now more than 40 years ago, when the music died. For somebody like me, who lived through those times, I can still hear that clarion clear voice, and these famous words from the Kennedy inaugural: "Now the trumpet summons us to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself ..."
Many who heard those words have forgotten, and others will never know, how great it felt to be an American in those days. I can tell you those were exciting times, full of danger and challenge, risk and anticipation, but, honestly I never felt more alive, never believed in my country and the good it could do more and was never more inspired by and proud of the high-minded qualities of its leaders.
Unfortunately, however, the days of "the Ugly American" are back, and average citizens like you and me are becoming painfully aware of the fact that our corporate culture of greed is not always something to be glorified — that its excesses and pitiless ethos tend to exploit and marginalize the poor, the undereducated and the racially disenfranchised — in other words, most of the people of the world.
After the catastrophe and upheaval of World War II, and especially after the apocalyptic dread that the Atomic Age ushered in, almost everyone understood we had to put an end to war before it put an end to us. President Kennedy struck a chord among the young when he called on them to imagine an "army of peace" — a Peace Corps. He understood that the universal dream of peace was not impossible but, in the final analysis, a technical problem requiring rigorous experimentation and vigorous practical application.
America's reputation has suffered in recent years because of a series of fateful misjudgments. To bring it back will take hard work, but the task is not impossible. During the terrible tsunami following Christmas Day 2004, even after the worldwide condemnation of our pre-emptive war in Iraq, America redeemed itself in the eyes of the world, if only for a moment, because of our prompt humanitarian response to the crisis. I thought to myself at the time: "If only we were doing more of that — helping people!" Imagine if, over the past half-century, America had spent as much on promoting and preparing for peace as it has on its bloated, oversized military budget!
Imagine if these vast resources and sums, and the creative energies of our best minds, had gone to fund an "army of peace" instead of overthrowing and undermining governments all over the planet, or bombing millions of simple peasant people back into the Stone Ages. I guarantee you the world would be a quite different place. Read more.