[Continued from HERE.]

Unlike the era of Swift and his Gulliver, we are alive in a century where exists miraculous communication technology that has shrunk the globe and created torrential rivers of information never before attainable without many years, much money and endless effort. Unfortunately, the information has not yet been harnessed to banish ignorance and the resultant ‘isms’ it creates (racism, sexism, religious supreme-ism… ok, I made that last one up, but just the word, not the concept.) We, with access to the internet, especially Americans, have an obligation to exercise our privilege to tap a phalange and learn about the people and places which we are affecting.

"Obligation? What Obligation?" you may be asking.

Well, it is like this: we know that we consider ourselves and are considered by many, the police of the world. We also know that we consider ourselves and are considered by many a very successful if not the most successful democracy. (We even consider ourselves and are considered by others the democracy police.) I am just not sure that we know how important we each are as individuals in how America wears both of these mantles. If we are indeed the democracy we claim to be, it breaks down like this:

One person. One vote. Power in numbers. Information is power.

WE, THE PEOPLE no longer just represent ourselves, but also the other 6,226,726,049 people who are not American but have a stake in who we choose to determine the goals and directions our country takes, especially in relation to international policy. Let’s do the math. In the 2006 election, 85,251,089 people voted. Each voter ostensibly represented seventy-three ‘dependents:’ neighbors from around the world not allowed to vote for themselves. (We won’t even get into plant and animal numbers that we are representing with our votes. 1. Because then you’ll think I am crazier than you already may think, and 2. Because I just don’t have time for all that research and math today.)

As you can see, this is no small responsibility.

So here’s a thought: this year, rise to your job as a representative of human beings from around the world.

Once a week, instead of surfing to find out what is happening with all of your favorite stars, see what new recipes are out there, or find out sports scores, take an hour to look at the world around you. Goto the English website for Al Jazeera and find out what Arabs and Muslims around the world are reading about as well as what they think. Check news and reviews of news from around the globe. Google the names of countries or tribes or religions or, heck, ANYTHING that you have read or heard about that you have no idea who, where, what, why and how they are or it is. (Here is a link to links on lots of brilliant information concerning cultures on our planet.)

Try to look for positive and interesting things happening in far-away cultures instead of fixating on what is wrong with them. Make an attempt to understand how people living in the countries that America impacts with its decisions feel about things, without the always biased lens of the various (and very politically motivated) news outlets. Inform yourselves. Grow. Be TRULY human. Don’t sleepwalk through the present while staring at the glow-y future. Take a shot at living and learning TODAY.

Then have lots of INFORMED opinions and share them. Put your well-informed two cents out there. And most importantly, VOTE and vote well, never again out of fear or the least of two evils. Vote out of the same sense of responsibility you have always had: to yourself, your family and your country. Just add to that a sense of your new, 21st century responsibility to the world population that can not participate in the election of the world police, the arbiters of democracy.

Perhaps eventually, we can put our Yahoo days behind us … and Gulliver’s Travels.

Sorry, Mr. Swift, but I think that would be a good thing.

Happy New Year everyone. May 2007 be all that you need it to be.