"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." Mother Theresa
"A nation that continues, year after year, to spend more on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1960s
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, 1961
"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to
burn it in ways that destroy the planet."
Al Gore , 2008
"The aggregate aid budget of the most developed nations amounts to 0.28%
of their gross national income, woefully below the target of 0.7% agreed to
by world leaders in 2002.
Only Sweden, Luxembourg, and Denmark meet the target. Canada's overseas aid
amounts to 0.28 % of its income. Japan's is 0.17%. The United States, shamefully,
is at the bottom of the list, spending 0.16% of its income on development assistance."
New York Times editorial, 9/24,2008
"All the peoples of Europe and the world will have to go through this agony so that life may arise from death, and pagan nationality may be succeeded by Christian brotherhood-----Dark ferocious times are approaching, we can hear them rumble.The future has a strong smell of leather, blood, impiety, and the sound of flesh on flesh. I advise our grandchildren to come into the world with very thick skin."
Heinrich Heine, German poet, two generations before the outbreak of World War I.