Recognize, too, that greed is not good, especially when it's driven by profits from weapons that could quite literally extinguish life on Earth. Recall President Eisenhower's words that spending on wars and weapons represents a theft from those who hunger; that U.S. leaders, in building more weapons and prosecuting more wars, are stealing from the future of your own children and grandchildren. Learn how to hate not the alleged "evil" foreigners but war itself and the war machine that lives off it, as well as the terrible waste of it all. Refuse to follow leaders who yearn for yet another cold (no less hot) war, who sing that old siren song of uniting in a crusade against another "axis of evil."
Finally, recognize that this country is stronger together. That what unites us is more important than what divides us. Learn to ignore the methods of the richest few and their political allies, who work so hard to stir us up and keep us distracted, disunited, and angry at each other. Let them know that they're playing with fire.
So, maybe Yoda's right after all. The future is difficult to see. It's always in motion. The question is: Do we have the courage to unite and head in a new direction? Why not set a new course for peace and, in the process, remake our democracy?
It's surely better than the same old future of ever more weapons, ever more wars, and far less hope.
Copyright 2021 William J. Astore
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