2001-10-29 - 8:33 p.m.

We interrupt this broadcast to issue the following advisory. Oldgreedy has received credible information of a general threat to the life of all readers. Unfortunately, this threat does not include information as to its timing, place or nature. It could come at any time beginning now, and could be biological, chemical or physical in nature. This threat is ongoing and permanent.

As a result, we urge all readers to go about their lives, but to remain on constant alert to the fact that they could be dead at any moment. We urge each person to make any adjustments necessary, including changing life routines to make each day worthwhile, rewarding and enjoyable. We also urge people to take necessary precautions, including telling their parents they love them, saying their prayers and doing things they always wanted to do but were afraid to try. This advisory applies not only to readers of this message, but also to oldgreedy, who has done no better than the rest of us in making such adjustments.

We thank you for your cooperation in this time of ongoing crisis known as life. And now back to our scheduled programming...

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As for these new priorities, well, I don�t know what they are. Several months of wandering don�t teach you that. The attacks, it turns out, haven�t told me that either. They have simply told me that the world is screaming, that there is an urgent message for somebody, anybody, that we can�t sit and wallow in our freedom, we have to work to keep it vital.

I�ve decided I�m not joining the war. My blind support won�t help much; enough people are doing that. I can�t see war as the answer, or at least not as the final answer. We do need to get these people who are trying to kill us; no peace signs will deter them, no existing international court has the strength to bring them to justice. The only solution, in this imperfect world, is not a pretty one. It is a solution that will fail if it does not include an effort to make the Earth a more fair and livable planet.

The problem, as I see it, is selfishness. America has huge wealth and power, the rich have more wealth than they could ever want, and we still follow policies to make the rich richer. People act in their personal interest, nations act in their national interest, corporations act in their corporate interest, and nothing forces anyone to act in a larger interest. We have never been willing to act unselfishly; America�s foreign policy has been formulated to line our pocketbooks, not to pursue justice or democracy. So we�ve supported dictators and bombed nations when it was in our interest, even if it wasn�t in the interest of the world. America has been the only nation with the power to help the world, and we�ve hardly even bothered to try.

Maybe we�ve run our old ideas and ideals into the ground. America has always elevated freedom as the great virtue, but maybe it�s time to move beyond freedom. The elites who run this country haven�t had to worry about freedom for centuries, except for the freedom to exploit other people, or to bow to the blind will of the corporation. This freedom doesn�t make people happy � corporate CEOs aren�t much happier, I suspect, than the middle class businessman or even the laborer � and what good is freedom if it doesn�t make you happy?

We have to shift our ideals from valuing freedom to valuing responsibility. America has its freedom, and many of us have all we need externally to be happy. Now we need to propose responsibility to our fellow man, to our poorer neighbors, who don�t have enough to eat, or work 12 hours a day, or can�t speak their minds. Those of us who have enough should not climb on the backs of others to get more; we should realize it is enough and turn to nobler pursuits. We should finally abandon the American dream of having more than our neighbors. It won�t serve us anymore.

It�s fine to say these things, of course, and another matter entirely to implement them. After all this, I�m still not sure what to do with my life.

For now, I�ll try supporting this Earth Charter. It�s trying to promote the idea of global responsibility, of realizing that we are all part of the same world, and with open borders and a global economy, we can�t ignore other people�s and nations� problems. It�s a na�ve document; maybe nobody will notice it, but at least it�s trying to change the way we look at the world. And maybe, after September 11, we�ll realize it�s in our national interest, and our personal interest, to pay attention to the world. Maybe we�ll realize that if we follow a foreign policy based on oil prices and proving we�re the world�s most powerful nation, the world might just bite back.

If this country is waking up from its collective dream, it's waking up slowly. Attendance is low at the Earth Charter meeting, where groups from all over the country connect via teleprompter to sign a �Declaration of Interdependence.� A little over fifty people stop by the University of Chicago drop by to catch debate over a document that presumes to show the way to an evolutionary step in man's history, toward a nobler world. And a few weeks later, when some of us are to meet to plan the Charter's next stop on its way to the United Nations in June, I�m joined by one other person. We chat about population growth and hydrogen-based energy plans over a cup of coffee and go home.

I guess we�ve been distracted by horror of the attacks and the immediacy of war. We�re not thinking of ways to make the world so just and reasonable that terrorism is no longer a concern � we�re thinking of ways to keep men with box cutters and ceramic knives from getting on our airplanes. We�ve curled up inside ourselves, nervous, hoping that regulations at home and war abroad will make this problem go away, but we�ll realize, eventually, that we can�t.

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