Personal Statement
Jim Ledwell
3 February 2008
<>Millions of people die prematurely each year, many of
them
children. The causes of most such deaths
are war and disease, exacerbated by malnutrition, unclean water, and
exposure. I believe that the human race
now has it within its power to put an end to most of this suffering and
death,
if enough had the will to do so.
Everyone alive can contribute to this effort, rich or poor. The richer we are, though, the greater the
responsibility – yet maybe the less the inclination.
I count the majority of people in the
“developed” world as rich, even though many may not think of themselves
that
way.
I believe we should strive for a
state of the world in which
each person born has the opportunity for as good health, and as long
and full a
life as nature allows. This state I call
Peace. I would like to see the
achievement of Peace become the top priority of all people. By “top priority” I mean a higher priority
than our own well being, and that of our children, extended family, and
friends,
for example. I believe that soon after
enough of us have made Peace the top priority, Peace will follow. I confess that the achievement of Peace has
not been my own highest priority, and judging from the amount of
resources I
put into it now, versus the resources I put into my own well being, my
family,
and my work, it is still not my top priority.
<>Yet, I think it is in all of us to make
Peace our highest
priority. One of the ingredients for
success of a human group is altruism, the willingness of individuals to
sacrifice something of themselves, or even themselves, for the good of
the
group. Such behavior seems all the more
fitting for the elders of a group – those who are past the age of
raising their
own children, such as I am. I think that
such behavior is built into our human nature.
Selfishness, especially in the elderly, is most unbecoming and,
given
our mortality, futile. Complete
fulfillment as a human being lies in giving all that one has for the
good of
ones tribe.
One step to Peace, then, is to see
all of humanity as our
tribe. Another step is to commit
ourselves to the welfare of that tribe, and thereby find fulfillment.
How does a citizen of the United
States go about working for the
welfare of
humanity? I think it is for each of us
to decide. An obvious avenue is to give
money or time to worthy philanthropic causes.
I don’t wish to discourage this avenue, but there is a danger
here. As a nation we contribute just a few
billion dollars,
both privately and through the government, to worthy causes. At the same time, however, the United States
is putting hundreds of billions of dollars into aggressively exerting
our will
in the Middle East, leading to a death rate of over a hundred thousand
per year
in that region, and refugees and internally displaced people both
numbering
over 2 million. So our philanthropy, as
a nation, may be “window dressing” that helps our malevolence, as a
nation, to
continue. We need, then, first to set
aside once and for all our aggressive foreign policy, which at present
is disastrous
for the people of the Middle East, and has been
disastrous for various other nations over the past many years,
especially in Latin America and Southeast
Asia.