A POSITIVE WAY OF SEEING IT.
> :
>
>Dr. Robert Muller, former assistant secretary general of the United
Nations, now Chancellor emeritus of the University of Peace in Costa
Rica was one of the people who witnessed the founding of the U.N. and
has worked in support of or inside the U.N. ever since. Recently he was
in San Francisco to be honored for his service to the world through the
U.N. and through his writings and teachings for peace. At age eighty,
Dr. Muller surprised, even stunned, many in the audience that day with
his most positive assessment of where the world stands now regarding war
and peace.
>
>I was there at the gathering and I myself was stunned by his remarks.
What he said turned my head around and offered me a new way to see what
is going on in the world. My synopsis of his remarks is below:
>
>"I'm so honored to be here," he said. "I'm so honored to be alive at
such a miraculous time in history. I'm so moved by what's going on in
our world today."
>
>(: I was shocked. I thought -- Where has he been? What has he been
reading? Has he seen the newspapers? Is he senile? Has he lost it? What
is he talking about?)
>
>Dr. Muller proceeded to say, "Never before in the history of the world
has there been a global, visible, public, viable, open dialogue and
conversation about the very legitimacy of war".
>
>The whole world is in now having this critical and historic
dialogue--listening to all kinds of points of view and positions about
going to war or not going to war. In a huge global public conversation
the world is asking-"Is war legitimate? Is it illegitimate? Is there
enough evidence to warrant an attack? Is there not enough evidence to
warrant an attack? What will be the consequences? The costs? What will
happen after a war? How will this set off other conflicts? What might be
peaceful alternatives? What kind of negotiations are we not thinking of?
What are the real intentions for declaring war?"
>
>All of this, he noted, is taking place in the context of the United
Nations Security Council, the body that was established in 1949 for
exactly this purpose. He pointed out that it has taken us more than
fifty years to realize that function, the real function of the U.N. And
at this moment in history-- the United Nations is at the center of the
stage. It is the place where these conversations are happening, and it
has become in these last months and weeks, the most powerful governing
body on earth, the most powerful container for the world's effort to
wage peace rather than war. Dr. Muller was almost in tears in
recognition of the fulfillment of this dream.
>
>"We are not at war," he kept saying. We, the world community, are
WAGING peace. It is difficult, hard work. It is constant and we must not
let up. It is working and it is an historic milestone of immense
proportions. It has never happened before-never in human history-and it
is happening now-every day every hour-waging peace through a global
conversation. He pointed out that the conversation questioning the
validity of going to war has gone on for hours, days, weeks, months and
now more than a year, and it may go on and on. "We're in peacetime," he
kept saying. "Yes, troops are being moved. Yes, warheads are being lined
up. Yes, the aggressor is angry and upset and spending a billion dollars
a day preparing to attack. But not one shot has been fired. Not one life
has been lost. There is no war. It's all a conversation."
>
>It is tense, it is tough, it is challenging, AND we are in the most
significant and potent global conversation and public dialogue in the
history of the world. This has not happened before on this scale ever
before-not before WWI or WWII, not before Vietnam or Korea, this is new
and it is a stunning new era of Global listening, speaking, and
responsibility.
>
>In the process, he pointed out, new alliances are being formed. Russia
and China on the same side of an issue is an unprecedented outcome.
France and Germany working together to wake up the world to a new way of
seeing the situation. The largest peace demonstrations in the history of
the world are taking place--and we are not at war! Most peace
demonstrations in recent history took place when a war was already
waging, sometimes for years, as in the case of Vietnam.
>
>"So this," he said, "is a miracle. This is what "waging peace " looks
like."
>
>No matter what happens, history will record that this is a new era, and
that the 21st century has been initiated with the world in a global
dialogue looking deeply, profoundly and responsibly as a global
community at the legitimacy of the actions of a nation that is desperate
to go to war.
>
>Through these global peace-waging efforts, the leaders of that nation
are being engaged in further dialogue, forcing them to rethink, and
allowing all nations to participate in the serious and horrific decision
to go to war or not.
>
>Dr. Muller also made reference to a recent New York Times article that
pointed out that up until now there has been just one superpower-the
United States, and that that has created a kind of blindness in the
vision of the U.S. But now, Dr. Muller asserts, there are two
superpowers: the United States and the merging, surging voice of the
people of the world.
>
>All around the world, people are waging peace. To Robert Muller, one of
the great advocates of the United Nations, it is nothing short of a
miracle and it is working.
(See attached file: C.htm)
To: Thom Ziska/SDG-CA/US/Marsh/MMC who-is-at MMC
cc:
From: JacobsMiracle@aol.com@Internet
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Apr 01 2003 - 01:00:07 PST