| A SUMMER PRAYER FOR PEACE (or, it all begins with you!) |
| In 1970, Ron Dante and The Archies recorded a song entitled, "A Summer Prayer for Peace." The song was unique in that, between verses, it featured a spoken dialogue between Ron and producer-songwriter Jeff Barry in which Ron would recite the name of a country or a U.S. state, and Jeff would respond with the current population of that region. The song's refrain included the sobering reminder that we lived among (at the time) three billion people! It is astounding to note that, in the 30 years since that song was recorded, the world's population has DOUBLED! Yup, Pals 'n' Gals, that's not a typo -- we are up to SIX BILLION-with-a-B souls! Now more than ever, we need to heed the words of that song in which Ron implores us all to love one another and treat each other with respect, not rancor. We're all in this together. First, a little math lesson. It is difficult for most people to comprehend the number one billion, much less six times that amount. So let's start with a more realistic number, say, one hundred. Most of us can comprehend a hundred. Now all we have to do to get to a thousand is to multiply that hundred by ten. Ten groups of one hundred. That's a thousand. Now to get to a million, we just multiply that thousand by itself. A million is a thousand thousand. Still with me? Next, to get from a million to a billion, all we need to is multiply the million by another thousand, and here we are. A billion is a thousand million. And there's not just one billion folks on earth, there's SIX TIMES that many! Small wonder why so many regions are facing overcrowding. "A Summer Prayer for Peace" dealt with the very serious subject of world peace. But the fact of the matter is, peace of any kind begins in our own back yards. |
| WAKE UP CALL!!! There are currently 6,000,000,000 folks living on planet Earth. The world does NOT revolve around you! Do you treat others with kindness and understanding, or do you act as though the entire rest of the population of the world are merely "bit players" in the drama of your life? BE HONEST! Read on and take my little test. You may be surprised at what you learn about yourself! |