And Like a Good Neighbor...

This may come as a surprise to you, but I've been thinking lately that what the world truly needs is for its leaders, meaning the leaders of our countries (for the most part) is to move out of armed camps and actually be prepared to sit down and talk to each other. With the exception of some radical states that worry me greatly, most countries want the same. Peace and prosperity. Some countries may go about that in different ways, and a fault of the democratic system is that sometimes less-than-qualified, or less-than-honest people find their way into power. But democracies tend to have cheques and balances built in, guaranteeing that no lone person can do irrepairable damage. So again, we are all basically the same, and yet, we tend not to be identified by our similarities, but rather by our differences. Is it because the healthy idea of competition has made the world stage a horse race, where we feel compelled to come out on top regardless of the effect on the world wide culture? Or is it because we fail to realize that just as we are economically and ecologically interdependent, we are also culturally interdependent? Can we truly say that our neighbors behavior does not affect us, or vice-versa? I think we all recognize that cultural, behavioral interdependence. Otherwise New Zealand wouldn't care much what America does, and nobody would care that what was the KGB would seem to be back in control of Russia, and Smiert Spionem (death to spies) is back in fashion over there. No, we do care. We have to care. Because, (and I'm adapting the old saying for the sake of political correctness and gender neutrality), we all are our neighbor's keeper. And yet, if our neighbor says or does something we find disagreeable, do we ring them up and sort it out over tea and scones? No. Suddenly we're an armed camp, and we shout our neighbor down until they give up or we've satisfied our righteous indignation, and we can just quietly grumble about 'what they're doing over there, and someday, I'll...'. Folks, if you really care, don't shout in protest. people generally cover their ears to get away from the noise. Talk. Discuss. Be a good neighbor.