Possibility
We can create Heaven on Earth
Rather than believing in realms of which we have no direct evidence, we stake our claim on the only world we all can know. The sacred form the world takes in our experience is the manifestation we call Reality.
Despite the terribly troubled history of our species, we must acknowledge that we are also the most intelligent life forms we have encountered. Without minimizing the daunting obstacles that must be overcome, we also must not deny that our minds are capable of finding solutions to problems, of creating fantastic wonders and delights. Without denying the dangers of shared beliefs and ideals, we also know that passionately organized human activity can literally "move mountains."
What if some of the many, many millions of individuals who are deeply troubled by the direction in which we are headed found a way to join their efforts, a way to turn their concerns into synergistic actions? What if a large and growing, organized segment of humanity were to focus on building a veritable paradise, right here, in the real world of our collective experience?
All "what if's" aside; this we know for sure: Caring and working together with intelligence and commitment, there simply are no known limits to what the human community can achieve.
With sustained effort, care, and intelligence, it is possible that Humanity will face Reality. It is possible to rise above the divisiveness of competing group identities, to recognize our common heritage and fate. It is time for us, for humanity, to face "Childhood's End" and to take the next great step in the development of our species.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
In the future days . . . we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression . . .
The second is freedom to worship God in [one's] own way . . .
The third is freedom from want . . .
The fourth is freedom from fear . . .
This is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis
for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.
Rosalind Franklin
The pioneering scientist whose work led
to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA
Faith is essential to success in life . . .
All that is necessary for faith is the belief that by doing our best we shall come nearer to success and that success in our aims (the improvement of the lot of mankind, present and future) is worth attaining . . .
I maintain that faith in this world is perfectly possible without faith in another world.
John Lennon
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world.
Eleanor Roosevelt
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Howard Zinn
"Author of A People's History ..."
I am totally confident not that the world will get better, but that we should not give up the game before all the cards have been played.
The metaphor is deliberate; life is a gamble.
Not to play is to foreclose any chance of winning.
To play, to act, is to create at least a possibility of changing the world.
H. G. Wells
Royal Institute, London, 24 January 1902
It is possible to believe that all the past is but the beginning of a beginning,
and that all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn.
It is possible to believe that all that the human mind has ever accomplished
is but the dream before the awakening . . .
All this world is heavy with the promise of greater things, and a day will come, one day in the unending succession of days, when beings - beings who are now latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins - shall stand upon this earth as one stands upon a footstool, and shall laugh and reach out their hands amidst the stars.
