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*-First, TAKE A BRIEF SERIES
OF SIDESTEPS HERE--but then come right back here.
Previous to giving me the copy of "Day One" one
Christmas, my friend in Ottawa, whom i met in our 1965 Grade 9
homeroom class, gave me a copy of Robert Scheer's book,
"With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush & Nuclear
War".
I'm amazed how often i find myself thinking (and often saying)
when i talk with people younger than me, that "knowing this
(already) would be generational, but...." And then i have to
decide whether to stay mum or reiterate a point of fact or
anecdote that at a previous time was as widely known and subject
to discussion at a kitchen
table or an office water cooler as, say, are today's
discussions of exactly what it is that can be a "physical
relationship--but not a sexual one."
Ah, but such is life, eh?
And such is the story behind the "With Enough Shovels"
title.
For the record here Marc Ian Barasch's book, "The
Little Black Book Of Atomic War" (copyright 1983 by Marc
Ian Barasch), records the source anecdote behind Mr.
Scheer's book title thusly:
"Everybody's going to make it if there are enough
shovels to go around. Dig a hole, cover it with a couple of
doors, and then throw three feet of dirt on top. It's the dirt
that does it."
(Thomas K. Jones, deputy undersecretary of defense for
strategic and nuclear forces, 1982)
I remember having coffee at the University Of British Columbia
(site of the first Yeltsin-Clinton summit) once
during the mid-1980's with the then-vice president of
Vancouver's peace group, "End The Arms Race". I arranged to
meet with him because i wanted to ask him how they came up with
that particular name for their organization. I explained to him
that in 1978 i sent then-Prime Minister of Canada Pierre E. Trudeau a preliminary
statement about the "International
Diplomatic Work...on a direct basis" for the world's
children:, saying in so many words it was commonly
understood between then-United Nations Secretary-General Dr.
Kurt Waldheim and i that we would phrase one of the goals as
being to "end the arms race." So i asked Gary from where
they got their name. He told me there was no linkage to that,
or anything more specific in mind than it just coming out of a
group discussion.
I gave them this quote at one point because he told me he hadn't
heard it. And later, when he had read it, i remember saying
that i didn't understand what Jones was thinking when he
said this. It brought to my mind the "designated driver"
procedure when a group plans a social outing that would include
consumption of alcohol and one person agrees not to drink so he
can drive the others home safely: How does the person throwing
the "three feet of dirt" on the doors get under the doors
himself/herself to survive also?
...I trust you took that first sidestep at the beginning of this
page that i recommended so you understand that, er, someone with
thinking like this may be sticking up for the rights of plants
at least.
When i did that preparatory "International
Diplomatic Work...on a direct basis" in 1978, we set it up
to be a coalition of common values between baby boomers and our
parents--the generation which had fought and died to defeat the
Nazi/Japanese imperialist menace in World War II--for the
world's children.
So, frankly, i never mind that i have to repeat things when that
is the purpose behind it. I think children are a sacred trust,
and those of us older than them have the responsibility to take
care of them and nurture their development and understanding of
personal and collective value systems to enable them to make
competent decisions on their own when they reach maturity.
If there's any "Circle Game" worth perpetuating--and i
tend to believe my fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell would
agree (and i'll ask her as much in future when i have the
opportunity)--it would be this one.
The first "significant" thing in 1978 i did as SENIOR ADVISER TO
THE YEAR OF THE CHILD (beyond the aforementioned advisement to
Trudeau asking him for his
help) was write to the former members of the Beatles to ask them
if they'd consider doing a special reunion concert for the
following year's United Nations International Year of The
Child.
John wanted more time then with his wife
Yoko to raise their son, Sean, so he was
unprepared to undertake it at that time. This was explained in
the statement i prepared at that time on their behalf for
disclosure to the United Nations, Vatican, etc.
It also stated that perhaps in future the four of them would
consider undertaking something together. But it would most
likely be something composed of individual contributions to
something they'd do together. And i promised to get back in
touch with John and Yoko in future about this.
Nothing was definitely promised beyond that. And i vividly
recall to this very day explaining in the documentation on their
behalf that we had a common understanding that i would know when
to get in touch with them.
I believe i pointed out then that, if judged upon positive
contributions to world progress and human development in the
twentieth century (as opposed to negative--and the obvious cases
of Hitler, Stalin, and the like)--i would think
the four of them and what they did will be near the top of the
very short list of people and things people care about and
always will.
Or, in other words, because i guess it can now be effectively
argued the point was lost on some who tried to avoid application
of the Thomas Jefferson "principle"
cited on the cover page of this website in what they did
after that 1978 multipartisan "International Diplomatic Work...on a direct
basis" for the world's children:
we thought it would be
unreasonable and impossible to do this without including the
broadest possible public awareness because it involved possibly
the four most famous people of the twentieth century on the
basis explicated here.
And we agreed then it would be easy to see/read when conditions
would be better in future to ask them to consider such an
undertaking.
Bearing in mind that i started this preparatory "International Diplomatic Work...on a direct
basis" for the world's children in 1978 with the belief that
we could never again use nuclear weapons or we might
plunge the world into a final military confrontation that would
in short order kill "all of us," i
thought visitors to this website, trying to understand "the big
picture" of what the "International
Diplomatic Work...on a direct basis" for the world's
children and this website are all about, might like to
consider this series of hotlinks and what they culminate
in...with the current U.S. President.
A final note before you go on this brief journey of
understanding is a point i also recall to this very day telling
Paul in a 1978 letter. It's pertinent to such
understanding as you may pursue in spending time to evaluate the
contents of this website that you know that what the U.S.
Congress was debating in 1978 was the bill that produced "The
U.S. Presidential Papers Act". If you want to see an
excerpt from it relevant to what i told Paul in 1978 and
also the contents of this website: TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
I told Paul if he wasn't satisfied by the amount of
substantiation of the SENIOR ADVISER TO THE YEAR OF THE CHILD
authority i then provided him with that this wasn't a practical
joke or a crackpot bugging him, he should write to the Vatican
and ask them to substantiate what i was writing them about as
the Holy See was included in the process.
...I trust visitors to this website, therefore, understand the
contents of what you find if you TAKE
ANOTHER BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
That 1978 "legal agreement" to provide the Vatican with a
"summary statement" to detail what happened in continuing and
completing this "International Diplomatic
Work...on a direct basis" for the world's children that they
could compare to the documentation that was provided for them in
1978 requires that i, Gordon C. Wong, on behalf of "a
Christian concern," prepare that document.
Then the Holy See is expected to state whether the promises made
in 1978 were kept as to how it should be continued and
completed.
I seriously doubt that what can be found in the public libraries
in Canadian towns and cities about my unemployment insurance
disentitlement appeal is going to satisfy the Holy Father as an
effective remedy to the threat of "suitcase-sized nuclear
weapons," "five-pound bag of sugar"-sized biological weapons, or
"aerosol cans" that can contain chemical and biological weapons
(as one pundit during this recent session of American-Iraqi
"megaphone diplomacy" (as Pierre E.
Trudeau once termed the strident, accusatory and angry
exchanges in the media between the Americans and Soviets during
the 1980's Cold War) explained is a possibility in identifying
these arms.
I continue to believe that the Holy See policy would be what is
mine to respond to this threat to which, i happen to think, does
not now and never will have an adequate military answer. The
only answer i see is what you find when you TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
Mind you, in my 198======== registered letter to Pope John
Paul II, i included as a term of reference what you find if
you TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP
HERE.
Marc Ian Barasch's book, "The Little Black Book Of
Atomic War" (copyright 1983 by Marc Ian Barasch) also
records the following:
"There are contingency plans in the NATO doctrine to
fire a nuclear weapon for demonstration purposes to the other
side that they are exceeding the limits of toleration in the
conventional area, all designed to maintain violence at the
lowest level possible." (Alexander Haig, former [U.S.]
secretary of state, 1981)
...Presumably the Clinton Administration will demonstrate
to "all of us" how one of its
Patriot missiles can home in on, say, the surviving family
members of what you find if you TAKE A
BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.THE GORE SPEECH DATES...
Now, to begin this revelatory journey, TAKE YOUR NEXT
FOOTSTEP HERE.
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