I open with that because I desired to say something more constructive than "Kerry says stuff like this, and I wonder why I should bother mailing my ballot."
"In response to this tape of Osama bin Laden, let me just make it clear, crystal clear, as Americans we are united in our determination to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden and the terrorists," Kerry said. "They are barbarians, I will stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down, capture or kill the terrorists wherever they are, whatever it takes."
In that video, Osama -- who's obviously absorbed in his own distorted vision and violent agenda -- dropped this nugget of reality: "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry, Bush or Al Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands."
Read outside of the context,
that statement is exactly right.
We, as individuals and beings of intelligence, creativity and common, conditional, interdependent existence, are the ones who must take responsibility for ourselves and the world in which we live. To continue to allow self-interested (or interest-driven) men and their power games be "the way it is" is to give up power and control of our collective destiny, and to consign this world and its inhabitants to ongoing and unnecessary suffering and injustice.
No matter who the system is said to be led by, we have to wake up and accept that we are fully capable of leading ourselves and crafting the world that must come to be if our species is going to survive on this planet.
To paraphrase King:
"We must learn to live together as family,
or perish together as fools."
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