The Earth Charter

I had to read this twice before I could really make an accurate assessment of the charter. At first I thought that it was totally unrealistic to even think of some of the solutions they proposed to the issues at hand. Issues like world peace, hunger, poverty are some broad subjects. The second time I read the charter, some of my childhood memories came rushing to my mind. I don't want to bore you, what the heck! When I was younger in Haiti, I remember there was a coup d'etat against the president; and the United Nations came in to restitute peace in the country. Flying helicopters hovering in the sky, army trucks, and soldiers populated the city of Port-au-Prince. We had hopes that if anyone could save the country from turning into a place from Hell, it would be the United Nations. Years later, I was in my classes telling my classmates that they were not doing anything to help the country. But now, after reading the charter, I understand that maybe we are not supposed to worry about how realistic the charter is; maybe we are only supposed to have something to remind us of how good we could have it. You know that old saying: "Aim for the stars, if you miss, you might land on the moon." The field trip that we took to Corkscrew Sanctuary is a great example of the first principle, 'Respect and care for the community of life.' That trip gave me a whole new understanding and apprciation for earth and life. The second principle "Ecological Integrity," The article Ecological Literacy, by David Orr, really gave me a good sense of what it would take to get to the point where I would know what to do to be sustainable, I have to read, and involve myself in the ecological events organized within the community. The charter is indeed a little too unrealistic, but the idea is to have something there to look at and remember what we are aiming for.