Silicon Valley newspaper publisher invites all U.S. representatives and senators to join in a nonpartisan movement to create a world forever free of wars by Christmas Day 2040.
Greetings to all members of Congress, the representatives and senators of the United States.
This is a plea. This is a plea for you to help me save America. This a plea to all of you to come together and use your leadership power to do the right thing and help heal our nation for the sake of our common humanity.
I love America. I believe in America. And I really, truly hope you do, too.
But I see what’s happening to our beautiful country and it frightens me. We’re killing our country. We are growing so divided and so hateful of one another that we’re destroying our democracy. Democracy is a fragile thing. The American republic, the 1776 experiment, cannot go on much longer if we continue the process of breaking this great gift, destroying this wonderful heritage we were given by our founders.
We receive a heritage. We leave a legacy. What legacy do you want to leave?
We Americans love to complain and whine about the horrible state of America. Yet not one of us is offering a solution. A real solution. How do we heal our nation? How do we unite our people? What can we do to end the division? When will we stop fighting and start uniting?
I would like to suggest a simple idea. It’s something called Vision-2020. I’m going to ask for you to publicly and actively support this audacious idea. Like the Apollo program in the 1960s and 1970s brought the American people together during a turbulent time, Vision-2020 can bring us together around a project. Imagine this. Imagine Americans leading the way for the world to achieve a forever freedom from war by Christmas Day in the year 2040. That would be the greatest Christmas gift ever.
Unlike in previous times, we now possess the tools to gain that ambitious goal. Media technology and digital innovations have connected us together as a human species far beyond anything past generations might have dreamed. We can use, we must use that technology to stop fighting and start uniting. We must start uniting around the ambitious goal of finally creating true peace on Earth and goodwill toward men. We need to go beyond Christmas card sentiments and heed President John F. Kennedy’s words to the United Nations in 1961: “Mankind must put an end to war or else war will put an end to mankind.”
There is a plan, a blueprint, for us to stop fighting and start uniting by achieving this new state for mankind. I recently published a book called Vision-2020: Be a Hero for Humanity that provides a pathway to that peace. We can end wars on our planet if we really, truly want to follow that path over the next two decades. But we need to start that journey now. That’s why I’m asking you to show the political courage to publicly support the movement and encourage your fellow Americans to join you in this audacious endeavor.
I ask you to tell your constituents: “Yes, I support the Vision-2020 movement. I support America leading the way to a world without war.” Believe me, it really shouldn’t take a lot of courage for you to say that as an elected leader, a public servant of America. It’s not that hard for to say that you truly desire a forever freedom from war. I have a hunch the vast majority of the people you represent – the men, women and children of your district or state — will truly appreciate you taking that action. Think of Vision-2020 as a matter of national defense. Think of Vision-2020 as a matter of saving not just America but maybe even the human race.
Believe me. We can come together as a people, as Americans, and stop fighting and start uniting. We just simply need to team up and take action to make Vision-2020 a reality. But you have to do your part as an elected official. You have to serve our people by supporting this movement. I’d love to see 100 percent of our members of Congress set aside their partisanship and do the right thing. Do the right thing and go beyond politics. Do the right thing and be leaders with courage to create a better world not just for the American people but for all people.
Kurt and Margarete Druckler in front of their Berlin tobacco shop in the 1930s.
As I end this message to you, to every single member of Congress, I want you to think about the German city of Berlin during the 1930s and early 1940s. Think about a little Berliner girl named Gisela Druckler. She saw the decline of democracy and the rise of fascism during that time. Her father, Kurt, in 1932 voted for Adolf Hitler. It was a vote he later regretted. His son, Gisela’s beloved brother, Gerhard, was later forced to join the German Army. He fought in North Africa. His body lies now somewhere in Libya.
Kurt and his wife, Margarete, joined another Lutheran couple and hid a family, a family of Jewish people, in a basement of Berlin to keep them from becoming victims of the death camps. Kurt and Margarete put their lives on the line. They showed courage. Their daughter, that little girl, grew up to come to America. She traveled to a small ranch town in Northern California and married a music teacher. A few years later, she gave birth to little baby boy. That baby was me. As I grew up, she told me stories about the war and what she saw in Berlin and how horrible war can be. Those stories she told planted seeds in my mind that I would like to one day see a world forever free of conflict between nations. Those stories are what is driving me to make Vision-2020 a real movement . . . maybe the most important movement in human history if it can save our species.
Members of Congress, let me ask you this question. Do you possess courage? Do you have the courage of my grandparents who put their lives on the line to save a family of fellow human beings during a time of evil? Honestly, I don’t have that courage. I am not a man of courage. But I am a man of conviction. I hope you will take time to show your own conviction that we need to join together in a spirit of agape and save America through Vision-2020.
I appreciate your taking time to listen to this plea. I pray that you do the right thing.
Please give your full support to the Vision-2020 movement.
