World Synergy

It is an anomaly that we can split the atom, but we are nearly powerless to persuade each other to embrace justice. We can recombine our genes, but we cannot ask each other, in simple ways, for love… In short, we have learned to dominate people as things, but when it comes to relating to people as people, we still tread wearily through the dark ages. – Gerry Spence

Phoenix, Arizona – America won the revolutionary war with the aid of the French. Some historians believe it would have been about as close to impossible as one can come, for us to have won without their help.

There is much Americans can do. We were the first to go to the moon. We developed cars, airplanes, and the ideas of special relativity quantum mechanics. But we cannot build everything alone. But we know that there are some things we cannot do alone. When we built the atomic bomb, we did it with the help of scientists from other countries.

Patriotism is a good thing. A powerful force. But patriotism should not change into exclusivism. The world has many types of people, and many of them have ideas about science and inventions and ways to make the world a better place, not all the great leaders in the world are Americans.

To have peace there must be respect. Nations cannot blatantly cross each other’s borders, make gigantic shows of force, build high flung rhetoric, and pout and turn their backs when they do not get the ninety-seventh clause in the treaty of trade that they wanted. I am reminded of a world war two poster I once saw which stated a great truth “United we are strong, united we will conquer.

And speaking of world war two, one of the greatest shows of synergy between nations in the history of this planet of ours was during that war, and especially at D-Day.

Thousands of men, massive amounts of ships, floating docks, marines, paratroopers, planes, supplies, generals, rangers, artillery, and men from nations from around the world. When those men hit those beaches, they were not concerned about the different accent of the man next to them, they stopped thinking about the differences of food, color, or things like that.

What mattered was the job that needed to be done, not where the person was from that you were doing it with. And that is something that should be remembered as a lesson to us. There are still tyrants in the world, there are still things to invent, there are still huge projects to pull off, still places where people are not free, still things to do. The tyrants of world war two would never have been toppled, the world would never have been saved, the beaches would never have been won, if the different nations there had not had each other backs. As sons of Adam, we’ve got each other’s backs. Now, let’s do this.

 

Andrew C. Abbott