The global nature of our fragile human family is front stage this week as delegates at the Copenhagen Climate Change conference rush now to come up with a document that will find a pathway to stave off the carbon emissions that threaten the future of the planet.
President Obama will appear at the conference on its last day, hopefully to place his signature on a document that achieves this aim. It is hardly clear this critically necessary document will emerge in time from the conference.
Obama will then fly to Norway to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, just days after escalating the war in Afghanistan. The irony of a war president receiving a peace prize has not been lost on the pundits of the world. But these are not wars of his making.
He, along with the rest of us, has inherited them. In this sense, our president represents our own less than accomplished journeys. But he also carries our hopes and dreams and prayers for a livable planet and a peaceful or more just world.
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