I'm lonely, and I am not the only one. We cannot touch
one another. It is not just our bodies that are separated, it is
also our souls, our hearts as well. This virus eats at our
oneness worldwide. The truth is we have suffereded from
this sickness of the soul it seems forever:  wars, murders,
killings, tortures, slavery, racisim, and more. The ones who
tried to lead us to love sacrificed their lives:  Jesus, Lincoln,
Gandhi, King, and many nameless others. Love, of course,
is the ultimate cure for all theses sicknesses of the soul. When
all those on Earth come to realize this and embrace it and act
on it, we shall be spiritually immune from its perniciousness,
but not until then.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

PASSION

What is life without passion? Life without
passion is not living; it is subsisting. It is
emotional malnutrition. We slowly starve
ourselves over a lifetime. And as we grad-
ually die from the inside out, we take with
us those whom we are closest to. What a
pity! What a shame! And those we call our
friends, we betray them when we fail to
share our real selves with them. We
turn them into props in a bad play. And
what of our community? When we join
others in prayer, do we lie to ourselves
and others in silence? If we are apos-
tates, are we not committing blasphemy
to all those around us, and to God?
And when we wish for better times, when
we hope for change for the good, how
can we begin to be an instrument in
that effort if we are not truly ourselves?
Without truth, our actions are vacuous
at best, harmful at worst. We owe it to
ourselves, our loved ones, to all really,
first to follow our hearts where passion
lies so when we die, we might have a
moment to remember a life well lived.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

A song, like a painting, has its patina. Take, for example, Art Ganfunkel's rendition of BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER. I listened to it as one of Simon and Garfunkel's songs they sang in THE CONCERT IN THE (CENTRAL) PARK in1981, some 39 tears ago. The song was beautiful when Garfunkel first sang it in the early 1970s. It was even more evocative when he sang it in Central Park in 1981. But today, 19 August 2020, when I listened to him sing it in the YouTube video, I realized I was listening to the song that would go down in musical history as 20th century's equivalent of Van Gogh's THE POTATO EATERS of the 19th century. The song was august. It had attained an enequaled patina for songs sung in the previous century. But songs and paintings aren't the only creations that attain a patina. People do, not just famous people, but all people. Each of us has a life to live, and how we live it will determine our patina. Will our patina be one of love or hate, joy or sorrow, generosity or parsimoniousness? We are our own singers, are own artists, are own makers of the lives we live. Our patinas, in the end, will be how we are remembered.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

What is this business about paying for "suns"? Do we really need to
pay to promote ourselves, our poems, our treasures? Isn't this come-
on a form of self-prostitution? Are we pimps or poets? Did William
Blake buy ads in the newspapers of his time to promote himself? No,
he did not. He simply wrote the poems that came to him, and then
illustrated them. That it took 200 years for the rest of the world to
discover him and his work was no matter to him. Throughout his life,
he remained true to himself, a goal for eveyone who writes poetry.
And Emily Dickinson, she spent virtually everday of her adult life alone
in her bedroom writing some 1,800 poems in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Yet the poems she wrote came to her through the infinite universe.
Did she hire a P.R. firm to promote her work? Did she pay to have
more and more "suns" shine on her poems that were already brilliant?
No, she did not. And it was not until the 1950's that an academician
got hold of the original versions of her unique and transformative
poems and had them published. Perhaps unwittingly, perhaps on
purpose, if any of us poets become complaisant to the "pay and play"
of the world of poetry, we vitiate the worth of our work, and lose
the heart and soul not only of our poems, but also the import of
our very beings.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Peace is the most precious gift humankind can ever give to itself. But peace is not control. It is not oppression. It is not coercion. It is not a war won. Peace cannot be forced. It can only be evoked. It can only rise to the full consciousness of mankind through the moral poultice of love of self, and then inexorably, of love of all others. It was 56 years ago that Martin Luther King, Jr. accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, and it was only one year earlier that he gave his stirring, utterly eloquent "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the summer of 1963. But more than a half century later, where does humankind find itself? It finds itself on the verge of extinction from existential threats of both catastrophic climate change and nuclear holocaust. But who and where are the global peacemakers of today? I do not see or hear them. I know dictators of totalitarian nations rob, enslave, and **** their "citizens." But I also hear the president of a democracy lie multiple times everyday to the people of his nation. Where on the horizon is another Lincoln, another Gandhi, another Mandela, another Martin Luther King, Jr.? There are politicians aplenty, but we desperately need women and men who have the courage and the wisdom to be leaders, not simply vote-getters. Without peace worldwide, we shall all die soon, I believe, along with all other living creations around the world. But I know where to search for peacemakers--in the heart of every human being now on Earth. Love begets love. If one is loved enough, that human being will not only love her- or himself, but will ineluctably come to love all others. That is how love works. And when love becomes the grand motif of human existence, sharing will supplant aggrandizement, caring will replace callousness, and peace eternal will preclude extinction.

Tod Howard Hawks

PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE:  Planet Peace


Turning the World Right-Side In

by

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE:  All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth," usually on Christmas cards. But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this  annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths:  millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Then, when I got curious, I used my computer to find out that, according to many scholars, only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.  

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY:  There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. John Donne was prescient. Earth is as impoverished as its poorest Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 7,500,000,000 Citizens on Earth will die. All species will be accorded the same concern and care as Citizens. The imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change we need urgently to prevent. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.  

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH:  If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic;  therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons--from handguns to hydrogen bombs--will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All Citizens will be free to choose their own personal and professional goals, but will do no harm to Earth or other Citizens. All Citizens will be afforded the same resources to live a full, safe, and satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE:  The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, or at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover, through being loved, so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time.  Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH:  In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY:  To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.
  
FIRST VOTE:  The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. All Citizens will have access to  Internet voting, as well as access to cell phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will have to be 18 or older to vote. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will vote on these proposals of each month during the days of the following month. Citizens of Earth will be Earth’s government. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT:  If the multinational corporations that now rule Earth do not abide by the outcome of a majority vote in favor of CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH, Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement, a one-at-a-time mancott, womancott, girlcott, boycott--hence, Allcott--against each multinational corporation unwilling to relinquish control of its global business and give it, and all its assets, to Citizens of Earth. Citizens will continue the Allcott Movement until all multinational corporations have done the same. All personal and smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally to all Citizens. All proceeds in excess of what’s needed reasonably by each Citizen will be saved for future generations. No violence of any kind will occur during the transfer of these resources. Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

CELEBRATE AND SHARE: If you were to take a photograph of humanity and gaze at it, you would see a beautiful mosaic of mankind of different, beautiful colors. If you could step into the photograph, you would hear a melody of languages and dialects. You could have a worldwide picnic with all your sisters and brothers and experience different customs and taste different, delicious foods. And in moments of silence, all of you could pray in your different religions, separate but together at the same time. You would also share the same human laughter and joys and feel the same sorrows and cry the same tears, all in Peace on Earth eternal. All of you would come to delight in these differences, not dread them. You would look forward to celebrating and sharing with your family, not killing them. The spiritual whole would be larger than the sum of its sacred parts.

A QUANTUM LEAP:  The world, over millennia, keeps evolving. Over 3,200 years of recorded history, powers, nations keep shifting, sometimes seismically. Now is the time for not only the grandest seismic shift ever, but also the one that will save Earth and all living creations upon it. It is time for Earth to become Earth--not a scattering of over 200 nations with artificial borders, but an Earth that has one land, one sea, one sky, one people. The boundaries that have simplistically divided us for eons are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. The air and water of Earth, even the pandemic, take no notice of national borders, nor should we, the Citizens of Earth. Technology, with its innumerable advances, has made us into a world when all can become one. We are free to be our real selves, to spend our variegated lives not aggrandizing, but by sharing and giving. Rather than dreading our superficial differences--our different skin colors, our different cultures, our different religions, our different languages--we can explore and enjoy them. Let us finally be what we truly have been forever, one big, worldwide family of humanity. No more wars, no more weapons, no more killing. No more hunger, no more homelessness, no more hopelessness. No more ignorance, no more illnesses, no more social classes. This is the quantum leap of which I speak.

PEACE ON EARTH:  Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, are. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more wars, no more dictators, no more corruption. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth forever.

Copyright 2023 Tod Howard Hawks

A graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.

todhawks2@gmail.com

(Please share this commentary with others and email me if you wish to join all the other Citizens of Earth around the world in helping to save Earth through LOVE.)

PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE

Turning the World Right-Side In

by

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE: All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth.” But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths: millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Then, when I got curious, I used my computer to find out that, according to many scholars, only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY: There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. John Donne was prescient. Earth is as impoverished as its poorest Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 7,500,000,000 Citizens on Earth will die. The pandemic does not care at all about national boundaries. All species will be accorded the same concern and care as Citizens. The imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change we need urgently to prevent. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH: If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic; therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons — from handguns to hydrogen bombs — will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE: The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, or at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover, through being loved, so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time. Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH: In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY: To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.

FIRST VOTE: The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. All Citizens will have access to Internet voting, as well as access to cell phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will have to be 18 or older to vote. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will vote on these proposals of each month during the days of the following month. Citizens of Earth will be Earth’s government. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT: If the multinational corporations that now rule Earth do not abide by the outcome of a majority vote in favor of CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH, Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement, a one-at-a-time mancott, womancott, girlcott, boycott — hence, Allcott — against each multinational corporation unwilling to relinquish control of its global business and give it, and all its assets, to Citizens of Earth. Citizens will continue the Allcott Movement until all multinational corporations have done the same. All personal and smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally to all Citizens. All proceeds in excess of what’s needed reasonably by each Citizen will be saved for future generations. No violence of any kind will occur during the transfer of these resources. Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

PEACE ON EARTH, FOREVER: Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, is. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. Indeed, profit will never be seen on Earth again. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more wars, no more dictators, no more corruption. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth, forever.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

A graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.

todhawks@gmail.com

(Please share this commentary with others.)

PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE


Turning the World Right-Side In

by

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE:  All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth," usually on Christmas cards. But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths:  millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Then, when I got curious, I used my computer to find out that, according to many scholars, only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.  

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY:  There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. John Donne was prescient. Earth is as impoverished as its poorest Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 8,00,000,000 Citizens on Earth will die. All species will be accorded the same concern and care as Citizens. The imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change we need urgently to prevent. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.  

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH:  If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic;  therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons--from handguns to hydrogen bombs--will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All Citizens will be free to choose their own personal and professional goals, but will do no harm to Earth or other Citizens. All Citizens will be afforded the same resources to live a full, safe, and satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE:  The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, if at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover through being loved so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time.  Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH:  In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY:  To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.
  
FIRST VOTE:  The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. All Citizens will have access to  Internet voting, as well as access to cell phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will have to be 18 or older to vote. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will vote on these proposals each month during the last two weeks of the following month. Citizens of Earth will be Earth’s government. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT:  If the multinational corporations that now rule Earth do not abide by the outcome of a majority vote in favor of CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH, Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement, a one-at-a-time mancott, womancott, girlcott, boycott--hence, Allcott--against each multinational corporation unwilling to relinquish control of its global business and give it, and all its assets, to Citizens of Earth. Citizens will continue the Allcott Movement until all multinational corporations have done the same. All personal and smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally to all Citizens. All proceeds in excess of what’s needed reasonably by each Citizen will be saved for future generations. No violence of any kind will occur during the transfer of these resources. Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

CELEBRATE AND SHARE: If you were to take a photograph of humanity and gaze at it, you would see a beautiful mosaic of mankind of different, beautiful colors. If you could step into the photograph, you would hear a melody of languages and dialects. You could have a worldwide picnic with all your sisters and brothers and experience different customs and taste different, delicious foods. And in moments of silence, all of you could pray in your different religions, separate but together at the same time. You would also share the same human laughter and joys and feel the same sorrows and cry the same tears, all in Peace on Earth eternal. All of you would come to delight in these differences, not dread them. You would look forward to celebrating and sharing with your family, not killing them. The spiritual whole would be larger than the sum of its sacred parts.

A QUANTUM LEAP:  The world, over millennia, keeps evolving. Over 3,200 years of recorded history, powers, nations keep shifting, sometimes seismically. Now is the time for not only the grandest seismic shift ever, but also the one that will save Earth and all living creations upon it. It is time for Earth to become Earth--not a scattering of over 200 nations with artificial borders, but an Earth that has one land, one sea, one sky, one people. The boundaries that have simplistically divided us for eons are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. The air and water of Earth, even the pandemic, take no notice of national borders, nor should we, the Citizens of Earth. Technology, with its innumerable advances, has made us into a world when all can become one. We are free to be our real selves, to spend our variegated lives not aggrandizing, but by sharing and giving. Rather than dreading our superficial differences--our different skin colors, our different cultures, our different religions, our different languages--we can explore and enjoy them. Let us finally be what we truly have been forever, one big, worldwide family of humanity. No more wars, no more weapons, no more killing. No more hunger, no more homelessness, no more hopelessness. No more ignorance, no more illnesses, no more social classes. This is the quantum leap of which I speak.

PEACE ON EARTH:  Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, are. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more wars, no more dictators, no more corruption. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth forever.

Copyright 2025 Tod Howard Hawks

A graduate of Phillips Andover and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet. a novelist, and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.

todhawks9@gmail.com

(Please share this commentary with others and email me if you wish to join all the other Citizens of Earth around the world in helping to save Earth through LOVE.)

PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE


Turning the World Rightside-in

By

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE:  All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth," usually on Christmas cards. But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this  annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths:  millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Then, when I got curious, I used my computer to find out that, according to many scholars, only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.  

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY:  There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. John Donne was prescient. Earth is as impoverished as its poorest Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 7,500,000,000 Citizens on Earth will die. All species will be accorded the same concern and care as Citizens. The imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change we need urgently to prevent. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.  

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH:  If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic;  therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons--from handguns to hydrogen bombs--will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All Citizens will be free to choose their own personal and professional goals, but will do no harm to Earth or other Citizens. All Citizens will be afforded the same resources to live a full, safe, and satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE:  The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, or at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover, through being loved, so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time.  Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH:  In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY:  To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.
  
FIRST VOTE:  The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. All Citizens will have access to  Internet voting, as well as access to cell phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will have to be 18 or older to vote. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will vote on these proposals of each month during the days of the following month. Citizens of Earth will be Earth’s government. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT:  If the multinational corporations that now rule Earth do not abide by the outcome of a majority vote in favor of CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH, Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement, a one-at-a-time mancott, womancott, girlcott, boycott--hence, Allcott--against each multinational corporation unwilling to relinquish control of its global business and give it, and all its assets, to Citizens of Earth. Citizens will continue the Allcott Movement until all multinational corporations have done the same. All personal and smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally to all Citizens. All proceeds in excess of what’s needed reasonably by each Citizen will be saved for future generations. No violence of any kind will occur during the transfer of these resources. Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

CELEBRATE AND SHARE: If you were to take a photograph of humanity and gaze at it, you would see a beautiful mosaic of mankind of different, beautiful colors. If you could step into the photograph, you would hear a melody of languages and dialects. You could have a worldwide picnic with all your sisters and brothers and experience different customs and taste different, delicious foods. And in moments of silence, all of you could pray in your different religions, separate but together at the same time. You would also share the same human laughter and joys and feel the same sorrows and cry the same tears, all in Peace on Earth eternal. All of you would come to delight in these differences, not dread them. You would look forward to celebrating and sharing with your family, not killing them. The spiritual whole would be larger than the sum of its sacred parts.

A QUANTUM LEAP:  The world, over millennia, keeps evolving. Over 3,400 years of recorded history, powers, nations keep shifting, sometimes seismically. Now is the time for not only the grandest seismic shift ever, but also the one that will save Earth and all living creations upon it. It is time for Earth to become Earth--not a scattering of over 200 nations with artificial borders. Technology, with its innumerable advances, has made us into a world when all can become one. We are free to be our real selves, to spend our variegated lives not aggrandizing, but sharing and giving. Rather than dreading our superficial differences--our different skin colors, our different cultures, our different religions, our different languages--we can explore and enjoy them. Let us finally be what we truly have been forever, one big, worldwide family of humanity. No more wars, no more weapons, no more killing. No more hunger, no more homelessness, no more hopelessness. No more ignorance, no more illnesses, no more social classes. This is the quantum leap of which I speak.

PEACE ON EARTH:  Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, is. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more wars, no more dictators, no more corruption. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth forever.

Copyright 2021 Tod Howard Hawks

A graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.

todh21376@gmail.com

(Please share this commentary with others and email me if you wish to join all the other Citizens of Earth around the world in helping to save Earth through love.)

PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE
OF ALL RACES WORLDWIDE

by

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE: All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth,” usually on Christmas cards. But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths: millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Many scholars believed only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY: There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. Earth is as poor as its most destitute Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 7,500,000,000 Citizens on Earth will die. The water and air of the world care nothing about a nation’s border, nor does the pandemic. But the imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change do need urgently to be prevented. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH: If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic. Therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons — from handguns to hydrogen bombs — will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All Citizens will be free to choose their own personal and professional goals, but will do no harm to Earth or other Citizens. All Citizens will be afforded the same resources to live a full, safe, and satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE: The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, if at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover, through being loved, so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time. Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH: In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY: To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.

FIRST VOTE: The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. All Citizens will have to be 18 years old or older to vote. All Citizens will have  access to Internet voting, as well as access to cell phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will vote during the first two weeks of each month, every month, on the proposals of the previous month. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. Citizens of Earth will be Earth’s government. There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT: Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement--not boy-, not girl-, not woman-, not man-, but the nonviolent Allcott Movement against each multinational corporation and every mega-rich individual unwilling to abide by the democratically held, worldwide vote in favor of the CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Citizens will continue to use the nonviolent boycott against recalcitrant multinational corporations, and, in a similar manner, will continue to use viable pressures against the recalcitrant mega-rich of the world. All smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally among all citizens. All proceeds in excess of what’s needed reasonably by each citizen will be saved for future generations. Consequently, Earth, which for millennia has been turned inside-out finally will be turned right-side in.  Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

CELEBRATE AND SHARE:  If you were to take a photograph of humanity, you would see a mosaic of mankind of different, beautiful colors. If you could enter the photograph, you would hear a melody of languages and dialects. You could have a worldwide picnic with all your sisters and brothers and experience different customs and taste different, delicious foods. And in moments of silence, all of you could pray in your different religions, separate but together at the same time. You would also share the same human laughter and joys and the same human sorrows and tears, all in Peace on Earth eternal. All of you would come to delight in these differences, not dread them. You would look forward to celebrating and sharing with your family, not killing them. The spiritual whole would be larger than the sum of its sacred parts.

PEACE ON EARTH:  Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, is. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more corruption, no more dictators, no more wars. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth forever.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

A graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.

todhawks@gmail.com

PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE OF ALL RACES WORLDWIDE

by

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE: All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth,” usually on Christmas cards. But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths: millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Many scholars believed only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY: There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. John Donne was prescient. Earth is as poor as its most destitute Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 7,500,000,000 Citizens of Earth will die. All water and air of the world care nothing about national borders, nor does the pandemic. The imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change do need urgently to be prevented. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH: If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic. Therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons — from handguns to hydrogen bombs — will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All Citizens will be free to choose their own personal and professional goals, but will do no harm to Earth or to other Citizens. All Citizens will be afforded the same resources to live a full, safe, and satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE: The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, if at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover, through being loved, so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time. Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH: In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY: To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.

FIRST VOTE: The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. All Citizens will have to be 18 years old or older to vote. All Citizens will have access to Internet voting, as well as access to smart phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will have the first two weeks of each month, every month, to vote on the proposals of the previous month. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. Citizens of Earth will be Earth's government.  There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT: Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement--not boy-, not girl-, not woman-, not man-, but the nonviolent Allcott Movement--against each multinational corporation and every mega-rich individual unwilling to abide by the democratically held, worldwide vote in favor of the CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Citizens will continue to use the nonviolent boycott against recalcitrant multinational corporations, and, in a similar manner, will continue to use viable pressures against the recalcitrant mega-rich of the world. All smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally to all Citizens. All proceeds in excess of what's needed reasonably by each Citizen will be saved for future generations. Consequently, Earth, which for millennia has been turned inside-out finally will be turned right-side in. Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

CELEBRATE AND SHARE:  If you were to take a photograph of humanity, you would see a mosaic of mankind of all different, beautiful colors. If you could enter the photograph, you would hear a melody of different languages and dialects. You could have a worldwide picnic with all your sisters and brothers and experience different customs and taste different, delicious foods. And in moments of silence, all of you could pray in your different religions, separate but together at the same time. You would also share the same human laughter and joys, and sorrows and tears, all in Peace on Earth eternal. All of you would come to delight in these differences, not dread them. You would look forward to celebrating and sharing with your family, not killing them. The spiritual whole would become larger than the sum of its sacred parts.

PEACE ON EARTH: Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, is. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more corruption, no more dictators, no more wars. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth forever.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

A graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.

todhawks@gmail.com

PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE:  Planet Peace

Turning the World Right-Side In

By

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE:  All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth," usually on Christmas cards. But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this  annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths:  millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Then, when I got curious, I used my computer to find out that, according to many scholars, only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.  

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY:  There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. John Donne was prescient. Earth is as impoverished as its poorest Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 7,500,000,000 Citizens on Earth will die. All species will be accorded the same concern and care as Citizens. The imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change we need urgently to prevent. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.  

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH:  If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic;  therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons--from handguns to hydrogen bombs--will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All Citizens will be free to choose their own personal and professional goals, but will do no harm to Earth or other Citizens. All Citizens will be afforded the same resources to live a full, safe, and satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE:  The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, or at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover, through being loved, so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time.  Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH:  In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY:  To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.
  
FIRST VOTE:  The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. All Citizens will have access to  Internet voting, as well as access to cell phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will have to be 18 or older to vote. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will vote on these proposals of each month during the days of the following month. Citizens of Earth will be Earth’s government. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT:  If the multinational corporations that now rule Earth do not abide by the outcome of a majority vote in favor of CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH, Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement, a one-at-a-time mancott, womancott, girlcott, boycott--hence, Allcott--against each multinational corporation unwilling to relinquish control of its global business and give it, and all its assets, to Citizens of Earth. Citizens will continue the Allcott Movement until all multinational corporations have done the same. All personal and smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally to all Citizens. All proceeds in excess of what’s needed reasonably by each Citizen will be saved for future generations. No violence of any kind will occur during the transfer of these resources. Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

CELEBRATE AND SHARE: If you were to take a photograph of humanity and gaze at it, you would see a beautiful mosaic of mankind of different, beautiful colors. If you could step into the photograph, you would hear a melody of languages and dialects. You could have a worldwide picnic with all your sisters and brothers and experience different customs and taste different, delicious foods. And in moments of silence, all of you could pray in your different religions, separate but together at the same time. You would also share the same human laughter and joys and feel the same sorrows and cry the same tears, all in Peace on Earth eternal. All of you would come to delight in these differences, not dread them. You would look forward to celebrating and sharing with your family, not killing them. The spiritual whole would be larger than the sum of its sacred parts.

A QUANTUM LEAP:  The world, over millennia, keeps evolving. Over 3,200 years of recorded history, powers, nations keep shifting, sometimes seismically. Now is the time for not only the grandest seismic shift ever, but also the one that will save Earth and all living creations upon it. It is time for Earth to become Earth--not a scattering of over 200 nations with artificial borders, but an Earth that has one land, one sea, one sky, one people. The boundaries that have simplistically divided us for eons are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. The air and water of Earth, even the pandemic, take no notice of national borders, nor should we, the Citizens of Earth. Technology, with its innumerable advances, has made us into a world when all can become one. We are free to be our real selves, to spend our variegated lives not aggrandizing, but by sharing and giving. Rather than dreading our superficial differences--our different skin colors, our different cultures, our different religions, our different languages--we can explore and enjoy them. Let us finally be what we truly have been forever, one big, worldwide family of humanity. No more wars, no more weapons, no more killing. No more hunger, no more homelessness, no more hopelessness. No more ignorance, no more illnesses, no more social classes. This is the quantum leap of which I speak.

PEACE ON EARTH:  Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, are. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more wars, no more dictators, no more corruption. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth forever.

Copyright 2023 Tod Howard Hawks

A graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.

todhawks2@gmail.com

(Please share this commentary with others and email me if you wish to join all the other Citizens of Earth around the world in helping to save Earth through LOVE.)

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Perfidy and perfume,
Wars and well-being,
Caligula and Beethoven,
Buckenwald and the benign,
Slavery and Stars and Stripes,
Flags and fireworks and Jim Crow,
Lynchings and liberty,
MAGA and magnanimity,
Hate and love.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

PLACES IN THE HEART

I believe in royalty.

So one thinks of King, Queen,
Prince, Princess, Duke, Duchess,
Marquess, Marchioness, Earl,
Countess, Viscount, Viscountess,
Baron, Baroness.

But none of the above is
royalty I would ever bow to.
In fact, all, by their titles, are
charlatans.

I believe every member of the
human race is royalty. Royalty
has nothing to do with blood
lines and crowns.

Places in the heart that every
human being has, not palaces,
are the provenance of royalty. I
bow only to the regal, all my fellow
human beings on Earth.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Multiply 8 (the average number of planets in
a solar system) by 100,000,000,000 (the average
number of solar systems in a galaxy) by
2,000,000,000,000 (the estimated number of
galaxies in the Cosmos) and you will have the
approximate number of planets in the Cosmos.
But remember, the Cosmos is infinite.

And yet, while planet Earth is a little more than
4.5,000,000,000 years old and human beings
have inhabited it for about 200,000 years, Earth
remains the only planet in the infinite Cosmos
that we know sustains human life. In terms of
probability, how can this be true? What is most
surprising is not that extraterrestrials may or may
not have visited planet Earth, but that they have
not yet landed in the Rose Garden and held a
news conference to introduce formally themselves.

Do the math. We are certainly not alone.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

"Plausible deniability" is an euphemistic phrase often used, it seems, by the CIA, among many other spying agences around the world, that really means "lying."

Is "lying" what our flag stands for? Is "lying" what we really want our flag to stand for?

When push comes to shove (too often, literally, as in "off the cliff"), that's exactly what it stands for.

What a morally grotesque, spiritually denuded flag we therefore salute unwittingly.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Lines and cubes, unparalleled construction,
participles that don't dangle, heads of horses,
Guernica in stanzas, feelings contorted,
crying while dying, iambic pentameters,
stiff arms straight up, screams wide open,
metaphors and ******, hanging on walls of
Museo Nacional Centre de Arte Reina Sofia,
blue pillows on the floor, broken legs and
arms, ******* and agonies, montage of
blood and brutality, peace and war, love
and kisses, hits and misses, curves and
angles, bulls beheaded, silence and solemnity,
silver-blue stars bursting through open
windows, helplessness and hope. Picasso
and I.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

POETRY AND PAINTING

I write poems the way Van Gogh painted paintings
the last two years of his life. Wild, frenzied, crazy,
incredible, unique masterpieces that only his inner
genius could appreciate. Theo tried, but with few
successes. Self-portraits after self-portraits, the
potato eaters, a chair somewhat skewed, an old
man in sorrow, madness on his palette, yellow, blue,
and aquamarine--mixed up, all together in blends
and ways only a genius could create by scores.
Or was his madness the result only of a gift no
other artist had? Maybe my words and phrases
are phases only craziness can open. Maybe Van
Gogh did not know how to be ordinary, a ferry from
the sky, a mystical message he could not hear but
only feel. Cypress trees, sunflowers galore, paint
more he said. So many cannot see, the glory of
the stars that are ours only if we are blind to the
mundane but open to unorthodoxy he alone
perceived. Van Gogh poured himself on his can-
vases that Theo could not sell, paintings by the
hundreds that now hang on walls around the world
so those who eschew society’s mores are free
and unafraid to know Van Gogh and how he
understood the universe as no one else ever will.
Poetry and painting, you see, are one in the same.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Poetry is like the ocean wind:
It blows only for those sails
that are open.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Poetry is not for everyone, only
the special:  those who see fields
for loving, not cutting;  those who
hear sonatas for breathing, not
listening;  those who know a sea
is for walking, not sailing;  those
who find a panoply of human skin
colors a sign of heaven, not hell;
those whose poetry is not for
prizes, but truth and beauty.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

To use a statistic to describe poverty
is to turn a human being into a number,
the antithesis of compassion.

Yet The World Bank, The International
Monetary Fund, The United Nations--
all use statistics when talking and writing
about poverty.

Nazis turned human beings into numbers
by using indelible ink when they wrote them
on the arms of those they soon were to ****.

One human being in poverty on Earth is
one too many.

My nouns are different:
starvation, hopelessness, illnesses,
slums, violence, death.

There are over 3,000 billionaires in the
world right now.

How much has each given to end world
poverty?

How many of them have held
in his or her arms the body of a child
dying of poverty?

Not enough, not nearly enough.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

POVERTY AS A POEM

To use a statistic to describe poverty
is to turn a human being into a number,
the moral antithesis of compassion.

Yet The World Bank, The International
Monetary Fund, The United Nations
all use statistics when talking and writing
about poverty.

Nazis turned human beings into numbers
by using indelible ink when they wrote them
on the arms of those they soon were to ****.

One human being in poverty on Earth is
one too many.

My nouns and adjectives are different:
starvation, hopelessness, illnesses,
slums, violence, death.

There are over 2,800 billionaires in the
world right now.

How much has each given to end world
poverty? How many of them have held
in his or her arms the body of a child
who has died of poverty?

Not enough, not nearly enough.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Why do autocrats, tyrants, emperors, and dictators seek ruthlessly power, wealth, and fame? Because they are insecure human beings. Most likely, none were not loved not enough, if at all, during their earliest of years, so they compensated unconsciously for this terrible deprivation. Instead of becoming leaders who lift others up, they became oppressors. Instead of caring for those without, they aggrandized to try to fill the emptiness in themselves.  They could not realize what and why they were doing. Oppressors are actually scared. They are frightened of the emotional abyss at their center, but unable to feel it consciously. Instead of giving, they take absolute power, gargantuan wealth. and fame, which is actually infamy. They are not happy. They are not fulfilled. But they are noticed, and worse, like a raging forest fire that consumes and destroys everything and everyone in its path. If one is not loved, one eventually will hate and reify both the sadness and cruelty of their soul.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Prizes, awards, ribbons?
How about a kiss, a hug, a "thank you,"
a memory instead, knowing inside
that you remained true to yourself,
to the inner worth that is in everyone,
sacred and inviolate?
The prizes, awards, and ribbons
remind me of the shiny stars
your 3rd-grade teacher stuck
on your paper after you had answered
all the addition problems correctly.
We have turned our existence inside-out.
We still do not know the locus of our worth,
which is within each of us.
Shakespeare and Michelangelo--
how many prizes and awards and ribbons
did they win? No wonder Hemingway
shot himself dead in Ketchum,
as have so many others.
Remember always the poem is the prize.  

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

The story is that Rachmaninov was depressed for three years from 1898 to 1901. Eventually he sought the help of Dr. Nikoli Dahl who saw Rachmaninov daily using hypnotherapy and psychotherapy. Rachmaninov responded favorably to these treatments. In 1902 he composed his Piano Concerto No, 2. There are, of course, many great and beautiful musical compositions, but Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2, along with Beethoven's 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th symphonies, together with Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and his Toccata and Fugue in G Minor stand at the pinnacle of the world's pyramid of great music. I have written poems since my early 20s. A poem is not a symphony, but it is a work of art. Do I ever feel the way Rachmaninov felt when he heard the deafening applause after No. 2 was performed for the first time? Sometimes.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

There is no quota on doing the right thing.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Racism is the worst mental illness amongst us all. It metastasizes in our hearts and spreads throughout our lives hurting, often destroying, our sisters and brothers whose skins are of a different color than ours. But if we were to close our eyes and open our hearts, we would embrace them. "Come, join us for dinner. Tell us how your day was," we would say. All 8 billion of us would have a feast. Earth, the only home we all have, would no longer know wars, only peace. We would care and share. Generosity would supplant genocide. All air and water would be clear and toxic-free. With glee, we all would celebrate our ultimate freedom:  the right to be our real selves, helping, not harming, all others. There would be no weapons, no weeping over other lives killed, no artificial boundaries despots use to keep us desperate and distant from others whom we love. We do not have to die to incur the same noxious fate. Open your eyes and hearts to see and feel we are one.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Ready to die, or am I?
When I go and whenever, I
I shall take with me myself,
my flowers and my kisses,
my misses in the outfield,
my portraits and my poems.
My home will be both here
and there, and wherever you
may be is where I shall lie
beside you, for the universe
is endless, as is my love for
you. We live so many lives,
I shall never be without you.
My poetry and flowers will
always shower you.

Copyright 2019 Tod Howard Hawks

Reality is infinity is Cosmos is love.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Hut, 2, 3, 4. Hut, 2, 3, 4. I was 4-and-a-half years old. Dad lay on his bed reading books as he gave me marching orders. I marched to his cadence through rooms and hallways upstairs. I was Dad's good, little boy for the first 22 years of my life. I was 23 when I found out Mom had had an affair--Dad actually had walked into the room and saw his naked wife in the arms of a naked man--when I was 4-and-a-half. Blew Dad away for the rest of his life. That's when Dad began--I believe, unconsciously--to live out his dreams vicariously through his only son, me--not a good idea. I remember all too well how an ominous, dark, toxic cloud enveloped all 5 of us (I had 2 sisters). I enjoyed going to grade school more than being at home. I had a number of friends during those years:  Bruce, Virginia (my first girlfriend), Ralph, another Bruce. Dad had made himself rich, growing up dirt-poor, working assiduously, becoming wealthy. Mom, on the other hand, came from one of the most socially prominent and wealthiest families in Kansas. The sad news was she was extremely depressed virtually her entire life. The good news for me was Maggie, our maid and my surrogate mother, who made me breakfast every morning--two poached eggs and two pieces of wholewheat toast. Maggie washed my ***** clothes, spanked me when I needed a spanking, hugged me with her two big, black arms when I needed to be loved, brought me a sandwich and a bottle of Squirt when I was sick in bed. God bless Maggie! In junior high, I was elected co-captain of the football team and the basketball team, and president of the student council. I was elected president of our sophomore class at Topeka High by my 800 classmates. But Dad had dreams for me, so he sent me to Andover, considered with Exeter, Eton, and Harrow the best prep schools in the world. I chose to matriculate at Columbia over Yale, because spending four more years at the latter would have been like spending four more years at Andover, which I had not liked. I loved Columbia. I kid from Kansas, I found living in and exploring New York City for four years made me a de facto Citizen of the World despite the fact that I would wind up living life after college in a number of different cities. Dad had wanted me to become a lawyer, then get a MBA, then work on Wall Street, make millions (now billions), so Dad never forgave me for dropping out of law school my first semester. In time, I became a poet and human-rights advocate for the rest of my life. And most importantly, I found my real self.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

REMEMBRANCES
Hut, 2, 3, 4. Hut, 2, 3, 4. I was 4-and-a-half years old. Dad lay on his bed reading books as he gave me marching orders. I marched to his cadence through rooms and hallways upstairs. I was Dad's good, little boy for the first 22 years of my life. I was 23 when I found out Mom had had an affair--Dad actually had walked into the room and saw his naked wife in the arms of a naked man--when I was 4-and-a-half. Blew Dad away for the rest of his life. That's when Dad began--I believe, unconsciously--to live out his dreams vicariously through his only son, me--not a good idea. I remember all too well how an ominous, dark, toxic cloud enveloped all 5 of us (I had 2 sisters). I enjoyed going to grade school more than being at home. I had a number of friends during those years:  Bruce, Virginia (my first girlfriend), Ralph, another Bruce. Dad had made himself rich, growing up dirt-poor, working assiduously, becoming wealthy. Mom, on the other hand, came from one of the most socially prominent and wealthiest families in Kansas. The sad news was she was extremely depressed virtually her entire life. The good news for me was Maggie, our maid and my surrogate mother, who made me breakfast every morning--two poached eggs, grits, and two pieces of wholewheat toast. Maggie washed my ***** clothes, spanked me when I needed a spanking, hugged me with her two big, black arms when I needed to be loved, brought me a sandwich and a bottle of Squirt when I was sick in bed. God bless Maggie! In junior high, I was elected co-captain of the football team and the basketball team, and president of the student council. I was elected president of our sophomore class at Topeka High by my 800 classmates. But Dad had dreams for me, so he sent me to Andover, considered with Exeter, Eton, and Harrow the best prep schools in the world. I chose to matriculate at Columbia over Yale, because spending four more years at the latter would have been like spending four more years at Andover, which I had not liked. I loved Columbia. I kid from Kansas, I found living in and exploring New York City for four years made me a de facto Citizen of the World despite the fact that I would wind up living life after college in a number of different cities. Dad had wanted me to become a lawyer, then get a MBA, then work on Wall Street, make millions (now billions), so Dad never forgave me for dropping out of law school my first semester. In time, I became a poet and human-rights advocate for the rest of my life. And most importantly, I found my real self.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

We worry about the price of a gallon
of gas. We feel angst about whether
our car is newer than our neighbor's.
Is our grass greener than their's? They're
vacationing in Santa Fe, but we're
flying to Antigua. There are no Blacks
or Hispanics in our lovely part of
suburbia, thank god. And speaking of
God, we both pray Sunday mornings,
albeit at different churches (ours is
bigger, though). Climate Change?
Why should we worry about that?
Most of the smog is still in L.A, right?
Nuclear Winter--what the hell is that?
We fly to Aspen in the winter to ski.
My brothers and sisters don't live
all around the world. They mostly
live in Peoria. Pour me another scotch
and soda.

Copyright 2019 Tod Howard Hawks

Laws? Forget laws. They are merely social conventions to
expedite the activities of life. In so many cases, they rarely
embody truth. Truth? Ah, there's the core!  The question
truth demands of each of us is to discern, then act upon,
what is right, and not act upon what is wrong. Right is what
is moral, wrong immoral. If properly reasoned, every act must
be reduced to this fundamental question:  What is moral and
what is not. A library of law books will not answer for you
this question. You must go to your heart and dwell there until
ineluctably you sense what your heart is telling you is moral,
what is right. This is the trial that must be held in each of us
each time we act;  your heart paradoxically is at once a jury
of one and the truth of infinite Cosmos.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

I was a kid from Kansas.

I was 18 years old when I flew to New York City to attended
Columbia College, the traditional undergraduate liberal arts school
of Columbia University. At that time (1962). Columbia College
was all male, but Barnard, one of the so-called "Seven Sisters"
colleges, was all female, and all you had to do to see incredibly
bright, and often also exceedingly attractive young women, was
to cross Broadway (at 116th Street) and you were there.

Langston Hughes, one of America's greatest poets, grew up mainly
in Lawrence, Kansas, only a mere 24 miles from my hometown, Topeka.
In 1921, he entered Columbia College. Hughes was black and suffered
greatly from the malevolent racial prejudice that permeated Columbia
at that time. And even though he maintained a B+ average, Hughes
dropped out after the end of his freshman year and headed to Harlem.
He became one of the brightest stars of the Harlem Renaissance, a
famous artistic community and movement whose members were, in
effect, the intelligentsia of Harlem. He finished his higher education
at the all-black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

All students had to take the Core Curriculum, regardless of their major.
Referred to as simply "The Core," it was a two-year rigorous course of
studies ranging from philosophy to literature to art to music to writing to
language. It was founded in 1919. It was Columbia College's attempt
to study the roots of western civilization and hopefully to find ways to
avoid forever the flaws thereof to prevent any more world wars. Obviously,
it did not realize its lofty goal, but it did make every Columbia College
student learned for life. No other school in what was to become known
as the Ivy League (founded in 1954) has the equivalent of "The Core."
In 2019, Columbia College celebrated its Core's centennial anniversary.

I majored in American history and found out, among many other salient
facts, that our nation was founded on the evil institution of slavery and the
ignominious policy of genocide, and yet we have the audacity to call our
country a democracy. Eight of our presidents were slave owners themselves;
Thomas Jefferson, who authored the Declaration of Independence, and in so doing, immortalized the phrase "All men are created equal," owned over 600
slaves as he wrote and later became our third president. And today, the progeny of slavery, racism, permeates our country from the Oval Office through virtually all cities and towns of any and every size.

Living in and exploring New York City for four years makes a student a
veritable citizen of the world, even if that student chooses after graduation
to reside in some other location, as I, in fact, did--Boulder, Colorado.

Two years before I showed up, Columbia College admitted a class (1960)
that still holds the record of having the highest average SAT scores per
student of any other college or university in the annals of higher education, and I had to compete academically with many of those students.

Just yesterday, 26 March 2020, Columbia College admitted a little over 2,000 out of a total of a little over 40,000 applicants both from the USA and around the world, thereby creating an admit rate of 6.1% and making Columbia College the 3rd most selective school out of a total of 5,300 other colleges
and universities in the United States.

Lastly, Columbia University has the largest number of Nobel laureates who
graduated or taught at my alma mater (84), more Nobel prize-winners
than any of its Ivy League peers.

Thank you letting me share with you just some of what I still consider to be among the best years of my life.

And, by the way, I am still, at heart, a kid from Kansas.  

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

If you asked virtually any person on Earth if he/she would like to see Peace on Earth, he/she would say "Of course." So why isn't there Peace on Earth today? The answer is the vast majority of those in positions of power, probably unconsciously, would really be reluctant to give up their power, and all of its accoutrements--title, wealth, status, to name but a few.

Take, for example, a hypothetical figure who is the head of a large, important UN agency sitting at his/her desk peering out the large window of his/her office at the East River high atop the UN building. If you were able to ask him or her, "Do you want Peace on Earth?", he or she would, at first, consider your question ludicrous, and then consider it a personal affront.

But after you left, he/she would begin to think what the reality of Peace on Earth would mean personally to him or her:  he or she would no longer be able to peer our his/her large window at East River high atop the UN building, because there would be no need for his/her position, his/her agency, the UN itself. Instead, there would be Peace on Earth where everyone on Earth would be an equal to everyone else.

This mind-set would essentially be the same for anyone in a position of power at any level worldwide. There are, right now, billions of poor, to extremely poor, human beings on Earth.

Below, I reprint my notions of how we, as a world of equals, could create Peace on Earth. My commentary speaks for itself. We would collectively, by worldwide, democratic majority vote, be able, finally, to turn our world from being inside-out to right-side in.


PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE OF ALL RACES WORLDWIDE

by

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE: All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth,” usually on Christmas cards. But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths: millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Many scholars believed only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY: There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. Earth is as poor as its most destitute Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 7,500,000,000 Citizens on Earth will die. The water and air of the world care nothing about a nation’s border, nor does the pandemic. But the imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change do need urgently to be prevented. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH: If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic. Therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons — from handguns to hydrogen bombs — will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All Citizens will be free to choose their own personal and professional goals, but will do no harm to Earth or other Citizens. All Citizens will be afforded the same resources to live a full, safe, and satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE: The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, if at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover, through being loved, so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time. Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH: In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY: To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.

FIRST VOTE: The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. All Citizens will have to be 18 years old or older to vote. All Citizens will have  access to Internet voting, as well as access to cell phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will vote during the first two weeks of each month, every month, on the proposals of the previous month. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. Citizens of Earth will be Earth’s government. There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT: Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement--not boy-, not girl-, not woman-, not man-, but the nonviolent Allcott Movement against each multinational corporation and every mega-rich individual unwilling to abide by the democratically held, worldwide vote in favor of the CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Citizens will continue to use the nonviolent boycott against recalcitrant multinational corporations, and, in a similar manner, will continue to use viable pressures against the recalcitrant mega-rich of the world. All smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally among all citizens. All proceeds in excess of what’s needed reasonably by each citizen will be saved for future generations. Consequently, Earth, which for millennia has been turned inside-out finally will be turned right-side in.  Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

CELEBRATE AND SHARE:  If you were to take a photograph of humanity, you would see a mosaic of mankind of different, beautiful colors. If you could enter the photograph, you would hear a melody of languages and dialects. You could have a worldwide picnic with all your sisters and brothers and experience different customs and taste different, delicious foods. And in moments of silence, all of you could pray in your different religions, separate but together at the same time. You would also share the same human laughter and joys and the same human sorrows and tears, all in Peace on Earth eternal. All of you would come to delight in these differences, not dread them. You would look forward to celebrating and sharing with your family, not killing them. The spiritual whole would be larger than the sum of its sacred parts.

PEACE ON EARTH:  Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, is. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more corruption, no more dictators, no more wars. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth forever.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

A graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.

todhawks@gmail.com

There is nothing but the murmur of your breathing, the moonlight
spreading its luminous light cutting through the darkness across the
white sheets. I am the keeper of the silence. You, Sarah, are the
keeper the sensuous. Now you sleep, but gently I begin by kissing
lightly your forehead, so lightly you do not move. I kneel on the bed
beside you gazing at your long, flaxen hair that the generous, silver
moon graces with its silver streams. There is nothing wrong with
silence or the darkness of the the rest of the room, a chiaroscuro by
the ghost of Giotto. I slowly pull the white sheet from your shoulders
to below your knees without awakening you, a panoply of pulchritude.
With only my eyes, I touch you. I am enraptured. In silence and darkness
and silver streams, there is no time. I am the keeper of silence, an august
post, more regal than any throne, any crown. Sleep, dear Sarah, as long
as you wish, for there is no time when we are at the epicenter of love.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Milton was blind,
Beethoven deaf.
Yet from the first,
we have an epic poem,
and from the latter,
we have oceans of pulchritude and passion.
But for Van Gogh's madness,
we would not have "Starry Night"
and "Sunflowers" and hundreds
of other masterpieces that hang
in museums and in our minds.
Afflictions do not always debillitate.
Sometimes they create.
Our world would be much the less
without their magnificent, myriad works--
the poems and paintings,
the symphonies and songs--
that bring beauty into our lives endlessly.
Say a prayer and give thanks
to those who endured pain
long enough to transmute
theirs into what we
will always find joy.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I am one with sensibilities of an adagio. There are few things
I cannot describe with words. A beautiful adagio, I think, is one
of them. Its beauty is ineffable. All are musical poems, but one
is tinged with sorrow. I am thinking of Barber's ADAGIO FOR
STRINGS. PACHELBEL'S CANON, on the other hand,
is gentle and evocative, as is Albioni's adagio. You're sitting on
the sofa holding your sweetheart in your arms listening to
Bach's AIR ON THE G STRING as you give her a sweet kiss
on her neck. You dim the lights. Vivaldi's GUITAR CONCERTO
begins to play followed by Marcello's ADAGIO IN D MINOR
and then you give her another kiss, this one on her lips. It's
getting late, but there's still time to absorb the exquisite PAS DE
DEUX by Tchaikovsky from the NUTCRACKER. Now she
kisses you, not once, but many times. You slip in Beethoven's
MOONLIGHT SONATA, Debussy's CLAIR DE LUNE, Satie's
elegant TROIS GYMNOPEDIES, and Chopin's PRELUDE,
OP. 28, even though they are not adagios, but because they are
etheral. And before you and she go to bed to make love, you listen
to Rodrigo's CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ FOR GUITAR AND ORCHESTRA. No better foreplay exists.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and CASABANCA are tied as my most favorite film I've ever seen in my life, Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins in the former, Ingrid Bergman--the most beautiful woman I've ever seen--and Humphrey Bogart, a fellow Andover alum (he got kicked out his first year).

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION is, indeed, tied as my most favorite movie.

But it's also a documentary.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

She's gone.
On and on
I think of her,
but in the end,
she's gone.

Her kiss I miss,
her eyes
still cry for me,
but in the end,
she's gone.

Those moments when
we lay together
it seemed forever,
but in the end,
she's gone.

I hold her hand
in memory
a thousand times,
but in the end,
she's gone.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Silence is most eloquent.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Some live in houses that their love turn into homes while others live in mansions empty but for silver and servants. Some hear voices angelic, transcendent, while others listen to lies of presidents and pretenders. Some feel love so deeply for those of us who suffer silently while others feel hate for all because they hate themselves. Some touch tenderly those they love while others hit with words and fists. Some will give a helping hand while others simply step over homeless bodies on sidewalks in December's cold. What all should know is that we are one, and as Donne once wrote many years ago, when one dies, we are all the less.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Simone, Simone
I'm all alone.
Simone, Simone
I'm all alone.
Simone, Simone
please come to me
and bear your breast
for me to rest
my weary head
and shattered heart
upon a part
so soft and warm.
Simone, Simone
I'm all alone.
Simone, Simone.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Simone, Simone
I'm all alone.
Simone, Simone
I'm all alone.
Simone, Simone
please come to me
and bear your breast
for me to rest
my weary head
and shattered heart
upon a part
so soft and warm.
Simone, Simone
I'm all alone.
Simone, Simone

Tod Howard Hawks

Simone, Simone
I'm all alone.
Simone, Simone
I'm all alone.
Simone, Simone
please come to me
and bear your breast
for me to rest
my weary head
and shattered heart
upon a part
so soft and warm.
Simone, Simone
I'm all alone.
Simone, Simone

Tod Howard Hawks

In Sixth Grade, I discovered infinity, not the finite, was reality.

I took my ruler and placed it on the top of my desk. On a sheet of paper and with a pencil, I began dividing 12 by 2 and got 6. Then I divided 6 by 2 and got 3. Then I divided 3 by 2 and got 1 1/2, then 1 1/2 by 2 and got 3/4, then 3/4 by 2 and got 3/8, then 3/8 by 2 and got 3/16 by 2 and got 3/32, and so on. Then I realized I could go on forever.

Thus, infinity.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

We spend roughly one third of our lives asleep. What does that mean? I suppose that means different things to each of us, things that are different, but at the same time, in all cases integral to our lives, variations on the same thing, if you will. Freud thought that one-third was the most important of all three. Many of us find our dreams are meaningful, not necessarily in a clinical way, but in a personal way, and therefore meaningful nonetheless. Perhaps surreal is an apposite word to use in the latter cases:  former girlfriends, in my case, appear in many of my dreams, sometimes erotically, other times in a symbolic way it seems. Other dreams appear enigmatically, ones that are hard to tell what their import is;  they are not unlike clips from Ingmar Bergman movies. Some people say they never dream;  my guess is that they do, but for unknown reasons, they unconsciously repress them all, easier, I suspect, for them for various reasons. Pedro Calderon de la Barca wrote LA VIDA ES SUENO (LIFE IS A DREAM). Perhaps he had the answer.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

There is nothing but the murmur of your breathing as the silver moon cutting across the darkness spreads its luminous light across white sheets. I am the keeper of the silence. You are the keeper of the sensuous. I kneel beside you on the bed, gazing at your flaxen hair. You are asleep now. I am enthralled.  The rest of the room is in darkness, highlighted only by silver streams, a chiaroscuro by the ghost of Giotto. I kiss you lightly on the forehead. You do not awaken. I begin to pull the white sheet gently from your shoulders to below your knees, a panoply of pulchritude. Silence and darkness and silver streams are timeless. Sleep, dear Sarah. I am the keeper of the silence, a post more regal than a throne, a crown. We are at the epicenter of love. Sleep, dear Sarah, sleep.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

In Plato's description of Socrates' "Apologia," he describes the latter's defense during the trial of Socrates. Socrates says he is the wisest because he knows nothing about anything, an astute defense. Nonetheless, he is found guilty and sentenced to death. Socrates receives this sentence with equanimity.

In contrast, **** Trump, like Socrates, knows nothing about anything, but unlike Socrates, **** Trump is so ignorant that he is not conscious of his stupidity;  rather, he thinks he knows everything about everything, which not only tells you how deluded he is, at best, but also shows you what an existential threat he is to our nation, and indeed, to the entire world.

I wish Plato were still alive so he could record **** Trump's lunacy. But we still have The New York Times and The Washington Post.

What a Greek tragedy we are living through! But where is the deus ex machina?

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

I will wander
into wilderness
to find myself.
I will leave behind
my accoutrements,
memories of medals,
of past applause
and accolades,
accomplishments that
warranted degrees
and diplomas
portending future
successes. I like
who I am, who
I have become. No,
I love myself, and that
is my greatest achievement,
the acme most men
are blind to as they
mistake wealth for worth.
Most would say
I will be lonely,
but they are wrong,
because I will always be
with my best friend ever,
my real self. And I will
share my joy with
squirrels and rabbits
and deer, with bushes
and broken branches
and brush, with rills
and rivulets and rivers,
with rising and setting
suns and countless
stars coruscating in
night's sky. I will say
prayers to piles of pine
and sycamore limbs
that once were live,
but now make monuments
I worship. I am at one
with all I prize.  My eyes,
even when they are closed,
see their beauty. I know
I will be blessed forever.
I lie on my bed, Earth,
and wait to join all
in solitude and grace.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS