As War Drums Around The World Beat Louder & Climate Disasters Grow Worse, There Are Lives In The Balance

“I want to know who the men in the shadows are,
I want to hear somebody asking them why,
They can’t be counted on to tell us
Who our enemies are,
But they’re never the ones to fight or to die.”

• Lyrics from Jackson Browne’s powerful antiwar song ‘Lives In The Balance’

A Commentary by Doug Draper at Niagara At Large

Posted October 3^rd, 2024

People are living in a complete state of denial if they don’t know that, between the climate crisis and the darkening clouds of war in the Middle East and elsewhere, we are living in truly dangerous times.

And if enough of us don’t face that fact, there is a real possibility that these dangerous and deadly threats to our lives will not be resolved. They will only grow worse.

There are at least a few things I have come to believe in my time on this planet and they are as follows -.

• We are never going to resolve the dangers we face by hiding our heads in the sand or by trading in misinformation or ‘alternative facts’.
• And in the case of war, in particular, we are never going to put an end to them by pitting one group of people against another – Israelis against Palestinians, Palestinians against Israelis, Russian citizens against Ukrainian citizens, Ukrainian citizens against Russian citizens, and on and on and on.

It is the political leaders who turn us against each other – who fan the flames of war or in the case of climate change, fail to take effective measures to address it, and it is all those merchants of death and destruction who profit off these disasters who we need to come together as people from all walks of life and use our power as citizens and voters to put out of business.

They are, what singer/songerwriter Jackson Browne calls in ‘Lives In The Balance’, arguably one of the most powerful antiwar songs of the past 50 years “the men in the shadows.”

To hear that song, click on the screen below –

Let’s Join Each Other In Standing Up For Peace and a Better Life for All on Our Planet – Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

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“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders