Everything is a process, and nothing can happen that is completely isolated from everything else. Obviously, the problem with this terrorism, etc, begins with how other countries see us. This is what is not being done, and should be. Why do they hate us / envy us / etc. How is it, that someone like Bush became OUR president? Well, We must have done something, (and others before us, for perhaps many generations) that have led to this path.

    It starts on the inside of all of us. War occurs in us, we need power over others in order to compensate for the lack we have over our own selves. We allow ourselves to be corrupted and we align with others who are similar to us. Then, we get our power, we are the government, and we have outcasted the middle class and the poor. We have taken away their power, they just don't know it yet. We make the Constitution harder and harder to understand. We make taxes harder and harder to understand. We make spirituality harder and harder to understand. It is a long process that occurs so slowly that the people, which is also us, don't move to stop it. But, then suddenly, we each start noticing in our own time that the mission statement of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the laws around us, no longer work to protect us. They work against us. We realize slowly, that we are working against ourselves. Everything from our thoughts to our actions. Everything from the individual to society.

    So, we find that we are working two jobs, we need to save money, we buy from sweatshops and in bulk. We have our cars that we drive a half-hour to work in everyday, and we trap ourselves into a system we don't think we can get out of.

    Other countries see the richness that those in power have, they see that we don't do anything about it, and yet, our government is still moving and gaining power over other countries, in the same way it has taken over its own. They are mad at us for letting it get so out of control. The only difference, is that our government, (which is still us) has learned to be quicker and better about conning the rest of the world. It happens faster to them, and they notice it quicker. Why haven't we done anything? Because, we think we can't.

    Then starts the revolution. The key, is to think, then BELIEVE, that we can change. We don't need to buy from Corporations, or if we do, we can write them letters saying that we will stop if they buy from sweatshops. We must pay our dues, too. We can demand the Freedom of Information Act to reveal where they buy from, and what is happening around the globe because of it. We can demand that they treat their employees with federal regulations and respect. We can demand a living wage so we don't have to work two jobs. We can get together, plan boycotts, demonstrations, everything, just like with the peace rallies, and we can change the way the world exists! We can work to better ourselves and therefore better foreign relations, because we have respected and returned our power to ourselves, and their power to themselves. Because it is the US that is doing this, it is the US people who need to make the first move. The peace rallies can be the beginning. There wasn't ever supposed to be an ending.

    When I was young and learning about the US History, I learned that it was part of our duty as citizens to make sure that our government worked in the favor of its people. We must change our way of living, our demands, and force our government to change as well. To live in peace means to respect other people in other countries. To respect ourselves. It is time we started living in peace, and begin it with ourselves.

-Heather Kuhn