DATE: June 7, 2004
TO: All World Citizens
FROM: Benton Musslewhite, President of One World Now
I am attaching a summary and outline of a proposed new United Nations Charter. I presented it to the Conference on “What Future For The United Nations,” held at Seton Hall University School of Law on November 14, 2003 and it seemed to be well received by those who got a copy.
As you can see, it is very comprehensive. It is our belief that, if we are going to amend the United Nations Charter at all, we should do it comprehensively and not piecemeal. This is because the global problems are so serious, so urgent, so complicated and so interwoven that we do not have the time to engage in gradualism.
Let me give you just one example of why time is so much of the essence. As the New York Science Times reported on November 4, 2003, unless the world takes drastic action, the global temperatures will rise three to ten degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, causing devastation worldwide. In order to deal with this certain disaster, as Dr. Martin I. Hoffert, physics professor at New York University, states, the world needs to “embark” on “six or seven energy research programs on the scale of the Manhattan Project that built the entire atomic bomb . . . or the Apollo program that put man on the moon” and “be prepared to invest several hundred billion dollars over ten to fifteen years” on developing renewable sources of energy and transportation, as ways of reducing CO2 levels, such as earth-based solar, space-based solar, wind, next generation nuclear, hydro/geothermal, wood and plants and carbon storage.
There is no way this can possibly be done except through a fully empowered structure of global governance and the same is true of all the other global problems we face – devastating poverty for almost one-half of the people in the world; brutal war and terrorism, sinister human rights abuses, many forms of environmental degradation, increasingly extreme natural disasters such as the Indian Ocean tsunami, destruction of the rain forests, ocean pollution, excessive population growth and others.
We simply cannot prevent a global catastrophe (such as a nuclear explosion by terrorists) or a slow, ongoing descent into Armageddon (from global warming and an accumulation of all our global problems), by addressing these problems one at a time. Nor can we create the structure of global governance we desperately need by making changes in the United Nations Charter one change at a time. A piecemeal approach to either the global crises we face or the global structure of governance we must create is not an option.
Please remember, the attached is only a “proposal.” We are not so arrogant as to believe that everyone should accept this proposal out-of-hand. Indeed, we recognize that probably not a single one of you will agree with everything we propose. But at least this proposal is a start in the right direction. It is something that I hope will trigger you into entering into a dialogue about the proposed new charter and participating in what we call the “109 Process.”
The “109 Process” is explained to you in some detail in the Summary/Outline attached and is briefly described in the “109 Petition” attached. I urge each of you to sign the Petition and help us move this great crusade forward.
I ask that you take the time to read and seriously think about the proposal we are attaching. We have put in a lot of time and effort on this. I know many of you will say that what we are proposing is too utopian. But my reply is the same as it is with regard to the complaint that the proposal is too comprehensive. Just as we do not have time to engage in gradualism, the global problems are too serious for us to accept a second best solution or a partial solution on any issue or to accept anything less than what we have to do to resolve each crisis. It is like the man drowning twenty feet out in the water. What good does it do to throw him a fifteen-foot rope and beat our chest that we went three-fourths of the way. The man still drowns.
I sincerely believe that our world is about to drown. Armageddon approaches. We have to throw out the twenty-foot lifeline. As soon as we can, we must get the “109 Charter Review Conference” called and present to it a proposed Charter that is comprehensive, that is a solid structure of real governance and that contains the best solutions we can devise.
At this stage in human history, we have a critical choice. As I told those who attended the Seton Hall Conference, we can do what we have been doing since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 - make great speeches to each other; have a nice lunch together; pat each other on the back; and then just go back to our daily lives. Or we can start something now that will go on from here and provide the spark for what we call the “109 Revolution” that will carry us to humankind's most noble goal - a democratized and empowered United Nations.
Alfred Lord Tennyson long ago wrote the celebrated poem “Lockesley Hall,” and in it he spoke prophetically. We must believe, along with Tennyson, that what he dreamed of in 1842 was not an empty dream. With all of us together, in the greatest mass of People Power the World has ever seen, we can make these beautiful words of Tennyson come true:
“For I dipped into the future,
Far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the World, and all
The wonder that would be . . .
Till the war drum throbbed no longer
And the battle flags were furled,
In the Parliament of man,
The Federation of the World.”
I urge each of you to become part of the “109 Revolution.” If you are willing, you can contact me at lobm@airmail.net, info@one-world-now.com, or fax me at (713) 526-8568.
Sincerely,
Benton Musslewhite, President
One World Now