losing the uniqueness of the planet

I watch TED... 700 plus talks about almost everything. Today was a day for talks about the loss of languages of people. I cannot describe the beauty of the talk or the tradegy of the outcome, only to say that perhaps half of the languages are gone due to globalization. What that means is the culture of these people is gone also. For wrapped inside the language is the life blood of the culture itself. the knowledge and history that the people are, represented by their language.

When the last speaker of a language dies, so does the culture it represented.

There will come a time in the near future, I hope, that the USA will put down its mighty guns of war. As I read blogs from around the world talk of my country, I am faced with the ugly thoughts of why my country spends approx 44% of the budget on war machine, 21% plus on interest on national debt and the rest, which is borrowed, on the country itself. Corporate lobbying determines US policy, funding the political landscape, to the point where is would no longer exist without it.

Our roads, bridges, all our infrastructure is crumbling around us, our pre university schools are no longer the best, our children no longer feel the need to learn. War is for hire, prisons are for hire.

Wdhen we, as the great nation we are, choose to lay down our arms, and pick up our plowshares, take the twig our of our eyes and quit trying to save the planet through military might, only then will we win.