brown, lawrence My Country Is Called Earth. My Country Is Called Earth. pp. 1-57.

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Abstract

have decided to make My Country Is Called Earth available for free as an ebook so that more people will read it and also because I hope the readers will be encouraged to buy my new book, The Education of a Messiah. Almost sixteen years have passed since the publication of My Country Is Called Earth and there are some things I would write differently today. But there are also many things I’ve written that I still think hit the nail on the head, so I’ve decided to leave the text in its original form. However, I have moved the Introduction in front of the Foreword and have added the acknowledgement above. I have also corrected the spelling and typing mistakes and have changed the formatting to fit the requirements of ebook publishing. Now I would like to say a few things about terrorism, which was not a major problem when I published My Country Is Called Earth in 1994. To have any chance of ending terrorism, we have to stop giving Muslims reasons to hate us. But when we support Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its inhumane policies in Gaza by sending Israel weapons and money and by defending Israel at the UN, when we invade Iraq and Afghanistan and abuse, injure, and kill innocent people, how can we expect Muslims not to be angry with us? By applying the principles of the Declaration of Independence to everyone, by acting as if other people have the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that we demand for ourselves, we’ll be able to bring to an end much of the hatred directed against us. I‘m not saying that we have to love Muslims, but we must respect their human rights, their religion, and the sanctity of their homes. And we must stop thinking that we are special, chosen, or God’s gift to the human race. I hope that this book will help readers understand that the world’s problems (or challenges, as Exellon calls them) do have solutions, but the solutions require that we have the courage to open our eyes to the truth and that we then change our beliefs and actions. No one can make us change and if we do not change, we will not solve our problems. Period. One final note: All of our major problems—war, injustice, terrorism, poverty, unemployment, overpopulation, pollution, global warming, the extinction of species, and the destruction of rain forests—are involved with our failure to recognize that we are connected to the earth and each other and that we are responsible to the earth and each other. Lawrence Brown Gwangju, South Korea March 1, 2010

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