Dragoncave: Contemplating the Earth

Take a look at these beautiful images of our blue water planet. Can you see any lines drawn on it in these photos? Any partisan political boundaries? Any regional stereotypes? Any national markings? Any lines at all?

No? Me neither.

It's time now to work together, to forget partisan differences and arguments, to stop seeking political power for its own sake, and work together to make the world a finer place.

There's no question that in the next thirty or forty years a Negro can also achieve the same position that my brother has as President of the United States, certainly within that period of time. —Robert F. Kennedy, speaking probably in 1961, as Attorney General, on a Voice of America world radio broadcast

I have a dream. —Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, 28 August 1963

There are dreams to be dreamed. There are promises to be kept. It is a time for quiet celebration, in all humility realizing how much work remains to be done. A good night's sleep, rather than an all-night party, and on the morrow, we must roll up our sleeves and get to work.

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black. —Robert F. Kennedy, speaking in Indianapolis, Indiana, 4 April 1968, announcing to the crowd that Martin Luther King, Jr., had been assassinated.

Look at that. You can see most of North America in one image. But you can't see a single national or state boundary. No lines, no markers, no divisions, just one continuous zone for living on This Earth on Turtle's Back.

It's time to start thinking about politics and personal as well as national goals from this perspective, where there are no lines to be drawn, no borders to be seen. Take a look at the planet, hanging there blue in black night. Look at the whole thing. It's time to realize that we're all in this together, and we'd better figure out how to all work together, or we're going to drag this beautiful blue water world down with us.