From A Distance

Sixty One years ago today, the first General Assembly of the United Nations, comprising 51 nations, convened at Westminster Central Hall in London, England. This has not been a perfect arrangement, but it is all we've got given the fallibility of mankind. Wars and rumors of wars have run rampant over the earth. Now more than ever is a time to remember that we share this small space.

It doesn't help that we have a man in the office who has never had to do anything hard in his life. Peace is not easy which is probably why our President hasn't tried it. Solving the problems of poverty and ignorance are not easy which is probably why our President hasn't tried it. Delaying or correcting the depredations of global warming are not easy which is probably why our President hasn't tried it. The negotiations that might get us out of the current mess is not easy.

Apparently, Mr. Bush will only do the "hard" things when they are easy for him such as sitting on his pretty yellow ruggie while playing with his soldiers and tanks. Unfortunately the tanks and soldiers are real. The injuries are real. The deaths of Americans and Iraqis are real, and the lack of diplomacy that will stop the carnage has never been tried because it is too hard.

Unlike one of his predecessors, Mr. Bush takes the easy way out. Even worse, he takes the easy way out with an unnecessary war, not something that will actually benefit the country he has sworn to protect.

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not only because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

John F. Kennedy





Westminister Central Hall