April 3, 2002
Charles Mortimer

The world I see in the mirror is all backwards. It is beset by horrible social injustices which it tolerates until the human death toll reaches epidemic proportions, it allows egregious environmental atrocities until they are "proven" harmful, and it permits political inconsistencies that even a grade school student would find dangerously fallacious.

AIDS in Africa

Let the record reflect that this epidemic will only get worse as time goes by. For anyone arguing that it is too expensive to solve this health problem, and that "free" AIDS drugs for Africa will bankrupt American pharmaceutical companies, please refer to the following CNN exclusive:

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/aids/

Although AIDS in Africa has made it to front page news, not enough is being done to help. The notion that the installation of a free market economy and democratic elections will help Africans solve their own problems is beset by the same tragic logic that has allowed this epidemic to go unchecked for so long.

No civilized country would let this epidemic rage in its own back yard; that it is allowed to flourish in Africa reveals a global political failure which will mar history books for untold generations.

Global Warming

Let the record reflect that the mounting evidence that links Global Warming with greenhouse gas emissions is still not being taken seriously. As world watched the Rhode Island sized "Larson B" ice shelf fall into the sea two weeks ago, one wonders what kind of apocalyptic event will need to take place before world politicians [particularly those of the United States - the worst greenhouse gas emitter in the world] take this issue seriously?

The conservative mantra, "more evidence is needed," blatantly turns a blind eye to the conclusions of existing research, and exploits the idea of the fallibility of scientific truth. Will requirements for cleaner burning air bankrupt the world economy? The short term solution may be economically painful, but even the conservative estimates as to the long term results of continued carbon dioxide emissions make the near future look bleak; and they make the prospect of human extinction just as "probable" as the notion that greenhouse gas emissions are not causing any serious or irreparable harm.

Terrorism

Let the record reflect that the political bodies which supported the as yet unsuccessful witch hunt for Osama Bin Laden [the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the United States] have now demanded that Yasser Arafat [the alleged mastermind of numerous terrorist attacks on Israel] be kept out of harms way in Israel's recent anti-terror offensive.

How long can this untenable position on be maintained? The United States' repetitive issuance of the monotonous jingle, "Israel, has a right to defend itself," [issued again on March 31, 2001] masks the hypocrisy of its own "war" against terror. This "war," is based on a massive subversion of democracy. Even the semantic labeling, of the political and military response to the crimes of September, 11 a "war," reveals an undemocratic and apolitical departure from a "trial" against terror.

A trial requires a victim and a perpetrator. A war only requires two parties of differing opinion. The winner of a trial is the one with the best evidence. The winner of a war is the one with the best bombs.

The backwards reflection in a mirror can be explained through a discussion optics and the reflection of light. How is one to explain the backwardness of current political, social, and environmental trends that beset our world?