Hope in Bolivia

I arrived in La Paz this morning at 6 am, just in time to catch a most luminous and hopeful sunrise on this 14,000ft high mountain plateau surrounded by sun lit peaks and thin air. From there I flew to Cochabamba where the First People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth is being held.

As I flew over these dry and barren mountain peaks I wondered if the nearly 20,000 participants from 129 countries would be able to find common ground and construct an agreement that might be proposed as an alternative to the non-binding agreement from Copenhagen at this December’s UN conference on climate change being held in Mexico.

I am hopeful that something substantial will come out of this gathering — that the little voices of the multitude will swell into a unified front that stands united, not against something, but for the rights of mother earth and the commons — knowing that we are strong as an aligned force, but powerless divided. The Machine is too big, the issues too pressing and time too short to come away with anything less than a document that addresses all life on this planet. We need to get beyond blame and finger pointing and find out how we can provide clean air, water, enough food to eat, education, shelter, health care so that everyone can live a life of dignity and self respect. It is time to recognize that we are all connected and that the future of life on this planet depends on our coming together in common unity.

From my vantage point the success of this conference will be dependent on our willingness to listen compassionately, to drop our personal agendas, our anger and opposition and focus on our common needs holding a vision of a world that works for all life with no one and nothing left out. This could be the start of a peaceful global revolution where the 2 million organizations that Paul Hawkin has called Blessed Unrest stand together as a unified force for good.

So we have gathered here to bring our light, our listening and our prayers to this conference which starts tomorrow morning when President Evo Morales gives the opening address. Robin Milam, our team and I will be bringing you up to the minute reports through our blog and the evening news on KVMR (to listen go to KVMR.org) Stay tuned…

Bless us all,
michael