It's Easy if You Try

In the midst of all that has been going on in recent days from turbulent weather to a nuclear winter of the Arab Spring in Egypt, was the passing this past Saturday of Garry Davis, an unceasing advocate for peace founded in a belief that national demarcations and boundaries, were a luxury mankind could not afford. 

I figured in the time between now and when the verdict on the Bradley Manning 'Wikileaks' trial is announced later today and the shouting from both left and right becomes even more strident and even less tolerable, this might be a moment to reflect on Davis, who would in all likelihood be bemused at the attention. 

Now that he is past tense he has become that which he had preached, as the Kingdom of the Dead requires no passports, no transit visas and no customs declarations (sadly, of course, that also means no duty-free shops). I'd hope he went out believing we were closer to his One World than when he had first proclaimed it 65 years ago. But I don't know for sure myself. 

George Bernard Shaw once offered "(P)atriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it." Garry, I'd suggest, underscored the deliberate and delicious ludicrosity of that position through his every thought, word and deed since creating the World Government of World Citizens. 

I regularly visited his blog on the World Government site and when it migrated to here, I followed him even when he did things like provide air cover to Ed Snowden, who outed the NSA secret machinations against US (and other nations') citizens but then changed his mind on facing justice. 

All water under the bridge now. That was how Garry was-he made you laugh, and sometimes angry but he always made you think. And then think again which was in all likelihood the point of the drill. I'd like to believe he would have thought this was a good hope with which to remember him-a man who imagined a better world for all and then worked to make it so.
-bill kenny