The Future is Bright

The year is 2010. The great product of the last 10 years has been waste. Now there is so much of it the real money is being made by the garbage barons. They make the garbage go away, get plenty of money for it and it's not just junk, it's toxic. Not only do we drink bottled water but our homes are equipped with air purification systems with special filters. You can’t just hop in your car and get away from it all. For one thing-- where is there to go, and for another, a tank a gas will cost you about $150.00. Air is so bad you can only drive 3 days a week. A different colored license plates tells you when it's your turn to drive. The city is no longer a cultural center but a war zone. School buses carry armed guards and home security has become home defense, every thing the media warned us about has come to pass.

That is Vancouver in another 10 years. Wrong!

Beware of how we are being programmed by the media. 100 years of predominately bad news has caused us to think wrong. Life would be quite different if it just so happened bad news never sold, if nobody wanted to hear it, and if, over the past 100 years, most of what we heard was good news about our planet, society and people in general.

Maybe it would sound like this, the year is 2010. We have learned from our mistakes and made good decisions. We don’t simply recycle but we replenish. Corporate America has been transformed to meet our needs in a profound way. The city is no longer a heartless void but a community of neighbors. Most of us work at home and we are closer to our families. Electronic technology has served us well, freeing time for leisure. Government is back to its roots and provides true service. Quality is important not only in the things we make but in the things we do. The future is bright and people are happy.

One of the biggest problems is news out of context. You bet! Media is king at taking things out of context and it is sure to mislead you. Here's an example of whar I mean. 

It is time to elect the world leader, and your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates:

Candidate A associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists. He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.
Candidate B was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.
Candidate C is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and hasn't had any extramarital affairs.

Which of these candidates would be your choice?

Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt
Candidate B is Winston Churchill
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler

We have to start to read again, but we need to read with our minds and hearts. I loved this article in the November Toastmaster "What does it mean to be well-read?" Well- read signifies intelligent, wise, something we all would like. The article talked about reading material that challenges our minds. Most of our reading is informational reading. Newspapers, magazines, flyers, etc. which unfortunately does not require us to do much thinking. We read the mass media print like we ingest fast food, which gives us little to no nutritional value. The article said, quote, "if we read with our hearts and minds disconnected we can become highly informed, very ignorant people" end quote.

The article quoted George Bernard Shaw saying "Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of a civilization."

I for one am greatly concerned about how media programs a negative mind- set. Too many are buying into that first scenario I talked about. It's the sense of hopelessness that bothers me. We have to have hope for our children's sake. If they don’t see a bright future they won’t try and the truth is the future is bright. I could speak for 4 hr. on the positive things but let me share a few highlights from a couple of books. I recommend everybody read "Is Progress Speeding Up" by Sir John Templeton, subtitled "Our Multiplying Multiple Blessings"

Food:
- As recently as 1940 one farmer produced enough food for a dozen people. Now a single worker produces enough for 80 people. This translates into the world's population consuming 20% more then fifty years ago, with those in developing nations eating an average of 2600 calories per/day.

Health & Life Expectancy:
- 50% of all medical knowledge has been developed in the past decade.
- The U.S spends 15.9 billion on medical research, 5300 times the 1940 level
- The U.S death rate has dropped 40% in the last 2 decades.

Political Freedom:
- Of the world's 192 sovereign states fully 93% (179) of them elect their own legislators.
- Democracies rarely wage war against one another and political freedom is increasing dramatically around the globe.

Environment:
- American pollution levels are down to one-third the level that existed on the first Earth Day in 1970.
- Recycling rose from 3% to 22% from 1988 to 1993 (5 years)

Getting along:
- Military spending is down $935 billion between 1987 and 1994
- Many countries spend more on health and education than on the military.

Spiritual:
- Religious contributions are at their highest exceeding $60 billion in the US alone.
- In 1990 overall sports attendance was 388 million while religious services exceeded 5 billion.

Talk about other positive changes: crime rates have been dropping over the past decade. "The Soul of Politics" by Jim Wallis talks about transformation in gangs. (Page 21) Quote "Why now?" " I don’t know man . We just woke up." The young gang members spoke of their need for the community to reach out to them. "We need spiritual power". They are taking responsibility. These gang leaders planned a Summit meeting where they were to introduce a national truce and redirect their energies toward personal transformation and economic development. (Page 23)

These facts don’t even consider the huge leaps in working conditions, education, social & economic freedom, etc., etc., etc. I close with this statement. The bottom line is in spite of the negative reports you hear people are, in fact better fed, better clothed, better housed and better educated than ever before in human history. There is hope. Get excited for your children, because the future’s so bright you will have to wear shades.