1987 -The One Percent Option

@JDHealingTimeOnEarth
Last winter in the Windstar Journal, I wrote to you about my idea of the "One Percent Option."  If you recall, my idea was to take one percent of our defense budget (close to three billion dollars per year) and invest in what our dear friend Buckminster Fuller called "livingry" as opposed to weaponry. 

Half of one percent, or one and a half billion dollars, would be invested in our own country, to help the hungry and homeless, the poverty stricken, the small family farmer and the Native American Indian.

The other half would be invested into the world to strengthen already existing programs in the fight to end world hunger.  I also proposed that the Soviet Union do the same. 

Since that time, I have had the opportunity to discuss the idea with a great many people: concert audiences, senators and congressmen, businessmen, family and friends.  I sent the idea to President Reagan, Secretary General Gorbachev, Deng Xiaoping, and Pope John Paul II, along with a copy of my video "Let Us Begin (What Are We Making Weapons For?)" I have not heard from Gorbachev or Deng Xiaoping.  However, I did receive a reply from President Reagan stating basically that the "One Percent Option" is what SDI is all about.  

John Denver - Pope John Paul II circa 1978

Pope John Paul II sent blessings for my work and acknowledged the necessity of working together to end hunger and rid the world of nuclear weapons.  Other responses ranged from ridicule to genuine interest and the beginnings of how to articulate and execute the program.

Obviously, the "One Percent Option" is a pretty far-fetched notion, but that doesn't make it impossible, and even though some might think it is impossible, that doesn't mean it can't be done. 

I would like to share my most recent thoughts on the subject, what I propose to do about it and in the process see if I can gain your support.  It occurs to me that we are facing unprecedented challenge in human history and therefore an unprecedented opportunity for human society.  It all lies in the realization that we share common problems of major significance, all of us, everywhere, and that solutions can only be achieved if we work together, all of us, everywhere.

My primary goal has been and continues to be the recognition that we are a human family, that we are here for each other, not against each other, and that any expression of "you or me" consciousness is a denial of the truth about humanity and negates the possibility of what can be achieved by "you and me" working together. Certainly the principal expression of the old paradigm ("you or me") is our continued investment in the tools of separation, the weapons of war, and an environment of fear and insecurity.

• It is in this environment that hunger persists. 
• It is in this environment that we face a seemingly insurmountable world economic crisis. 
• It is in this environment that we cannot adequately deal with our ecological and societal problems on any level effectively.  
• Why is this?

In the end:

• It will take all of us to create an environment of trust and cooperation which will allow us to rid the world of nuclear weapons.  
• It will take all of us working together to end hunger. 
• It will take all of us to express the willingness to cooperate, which is necessary if we are to obtain a balance in production and consumption economically, ecologically and technologically.  
• In my opinion, that balance is critical for the continued advancement of human society on this planet Earth.

"All of us" means every aspect of human society in all its forms: individuals, institutions, businesses, corporations, governments.  It is obvious that sacrifices are going to have to be made; to the degree that sacrifices can be shared, they are easier to bear.  What is accomplished then, becomes the accomplishment of all.  Furthermore, shared sacrifice is the seed, shared commitment the nutrient, and shared achievement the flower of mutual trust and understanding.  Consequently, the product of our joint effort, much more than any specific accomplishment, is the experience of ourselves as a human family and a world community.

I propose that in our country our government give one percent of its defense budget; defense contractors, corporations and businesses give one percent of their profit; and individuals given an extra one percent of their income taxes.  Socialist and communist governments can create a comparable arrangement.  In all cases, the funds created would be used in two ways.  One half, managed by a non-governmental body, would be invested at home finding solutions and implementing strategies to affect the more serious economic problems with which we are forced to negotiate.  The other half, managed by an international body, would be used to end hunger, resolve the debt of developing nations and get them on equal footing economically and technologically with the developed nations.

What I envision is a coordinated world-wide effort based on a shared world-wide commitment, and a shared world-wide vision of peace on Earth and goodwill among all humankind.

As I am able to continue spreading this idea around the world, I propose to gather a group of global citizens, such as former U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, Jacques Cousteau, Norman Borlaug, Ted Turner, Armand Hammer and others to join me in an effort to meet with Secretary General Gorbachev, Deng Xiaoping, President Reagan and other heads of state, corporate chief executive officers and world leaders.  

Jacques Cousteau with John Denver 

Perhaps they will find some merit in this simple idea.  It may not be the one that works, but it may be a catalyst for finding one that will.  


In any case, it is guaranteed to begin a new conversation on the possibility and plausibility of people working together to achieve common ends on a world-wide scale.  

John Lennon said, "Give peace a chance."  We are the family of humankind.  It's time we start acting like it consciously with compassion and integrity.

One Percent.  That's not asking too much!  You and me.  That's the way it is!  Peace.

By John Denver - Windstar Journal - Winter 1987

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Education tips the balance in favor of fair use."

1986- It's A Possibility Part 2 - John Denver

George Leonard has observed that our existence has always tempted the human race with extremes.  (I like to substitute the word "choices".)

Today, we are a world culture standing on a razor's edge, between catastrophe and transformation.  How's that for a choice?  Catastrophe - not just a loss of life, but the potential for the end of all life on this planet - or transformation - peace throughout the world, and the end of hunger, the end of world terrorism, security and posterity for everyone.

"Of course", you might say, "but it's not that easy.  There are so many problems, what can I do?" In my mind there are not so many problems.  There are, however, many symptoms which are expressions of one major problem, the life I mentioned earlier.  And the solution is not really so complex or difficult.  It's in the choices that you and I make every moment of our lives.  The way we live, how we treat our neighbors, how we spend our money, whether or not we truly take responsibility for ourselves and our society and our country and our world.  It is possible to recognize that the products of fear and separation in all their forms and with all the problems and difficulties they present, seen from different perspectives are the perfect set of circumstances, the perfect opportunity, the perfect steps within which we can begin to express in real terms connectedness and wholeness, and if you will, Oneness.  Let's experiment, let's take a risk.  It would seem a much safer bet than the risk we're taking now. 

We live in a world that already has enough nuclear weapons to create six thousand World War II's, and we're still spending close to a trillion dollars a year on armaments. We live in a world which allows thirteen to eighteen million of us to starve every year, thirty-five thousand every day.  

We live in a world in which young people feel there is no future, no opportunity to live a full, productive and gratifying life.  Consequently, they turn away from their homes and families, education and responsibility, and move more to alcohol and drugs and violence and the mindless crap that fills most of our television and movie screens.  These are not the problems, these are the symptoms of a greater problem.  We're more interested in entertaining ourselves than in educating ourselves.  We're more interested in defending ourselves than in learning more about each other.   

We live in a country representing a free, democratic and capitalist system, where  less than half of those qualified take time  to vote, where over one-eighth of our population lives in poverty, where we are losing over forty thousand small family businesses every year, where our government is incapable of operating without a deficit, and is unable to pay the interest on the deficit that now exists, where we cannot assist a small number of our farmers through one year of drought (pray it doesn't last three or four years...) and where our highest elected officials lie to us and condone illegal activities to affect their policies.  

Does any of this sound like an expression of Wholeness?  Connectedness?   Of Harmony and Balance? 

Not to me it doesn't! It sounds sick.  It sounds like a cancer that is eating us alive, that if not caught and turned around, will inevitably consume us, not only destroy us, but all of human history in the process:  Our art and technology, our knowledge and understanding, our dreams and our visions, our brilliant success and our dismal failures, our past and our future. 

What can be done? What kind of preventative measures can be undertaken to not only heal this cancer, but begin to draw out the poison of fear and distrust, of insecurity and separations which are its source?

Here's one idea. Our old and dear friend and Grandfather, Buckminster Fuller, talked about investing in livingry rather than weaponry.  

The Presidential Commission on World and Domestic Hunger set up by President Carter, and on which I was privileged to serve, said in our financial report that we not only have the where-with-all to end hunger on our planet, but that in doing so we would accomplish more in the service of peace in the world, and national security for our country, than is possible with all the weapons you can imagine.

This is what I suggest.  Let's take one percent of our defense budget, ...and invest in livingry.  Let's take half of that and invest it in jobs for the poverty stricken, our Native Americans!  Let's help those farmers all across our great land and those small family businesses.  Give them a year's grace from foreclosure, give them another chance. 

Let's create a real "Hands Across America", not just a symbolic gesture but something of on-going value that comes out of our on-going commitment to make a fundamental difference and achieve real results, even it it's only cleaning up the litter that lines our trails, sidewalks, and roadways everywhere.  I'm sure there are millions of good ideas that could be implemented with a billion and a half dollars invested here at home.

Now then, let's take half of one percent and invest it out there in the world.  Let's make some real headway on getting children immunized against the six basic diseases, which still afflict so many. 

Let's strengthen some of the projects  already under way in Africa which are transforming that continent, making even the most cynical eye begin to see the possibility of feeding not only itself, but all of western Europe.  Let's assist our neighbors south of the border and all over the world in creating an environment where it's more valuable to invest in their future by investing their time and energy in their own country, and not by becoming illegal aliens somewhere else.  Again, there must be millions of good ideas that reflect living as a world community (which is what we are) and which would be furthered by the judicious investment of a billion and a half dollars.

Now this is the kicker.  I believe that if we in the United States could take that kind of initiative, demonstrate that kind of leadership and our commitment as people to see it through, [that others]... would be willing to do the same thing.  We are no longer talking about three billion dollars, but six billion.  I am convinced that one year's investment would bring about such incredible results, the second year it would be possible to delegate two percent of our defense budget, and then year after year it would increase to five and ten percent. 

In this way working together and achieving real results, the focus - now directed on the machinery of war and the necessity of keeping alive the sense of separation, fear and insecurity in our lives - would begin to soften.  A new bond would be created involving all people and all nations.  

• We CAN end hunger.  
• We CAN rid the world of nuclear weapons and the rhetoric of war.  
• We CAN begin to live the reality of the family of humankind on this planet.  
• It's a possibility.  

We must remember that we have created some extraordinary tools to work with.  Technologies and systems and artifacts that are there to serve us, not to ruin our lives.  We must take responsibility for making them work for all of us, with a global consciousness that reflects our humanity and not our insanity.  It's a possibility!

You and me. It's a possibility!

One world. It's a possibility!

Peace on Earth. It's a possibility!

The following song, "It's a Possibility", was written for and is dedicated to all the people who make up the community of Private Voluntary Organizations.  

John Denver, Windstar Journal, Winter 1986

1986- It's a Possibility Part 1 - John Denver

"I am one who believes in preventative measures, whether it has to do with health care or crime or war.  I would like to share with you a poem about prevention that I found in my chiropractor's office.  This is the story of "An Ambulance Down in the Valley."

T'was a dangerous cliff as they freely confessed
though to walk near its edge was so pleasant.

But over its edge had slipped a Duke,

and it fooled many a peasant.

The people said something would have to be done

but their projects did not at all tally.

Some said, "put a fence around the edge of the cliff,"

others, "an ambulance down in the valley."

The lament of the crowd was profound and loud

as their hearts overflowed with pity.

But the ambulance carried the cry of the day

as it spread to the neighboring cities.

So a collection was made to accumulate aid

and dwellers in highway and alley,

gave dollars and cents not to furnish a fence,

but an ambulance down in the valley.

For the cliff is alright if you're careful they said,

and if folks ever slip and are falling;

it's not the slipping and falling that hurts them

so much as the shock down below when they're stopping.

And so for years as these mishaps occurred

quick forth would the rescuers sally,

to pick up the victims who fell from the cliff

with the ambulance down in the valley.

Said one in his plea, it's a marvel to me

that you'd give so much greater attention

to repairing results than to curing the cause, why

you'd much better aim at prevention.

For the mischief of course should be stopped at its source;

come friends and neighbors let us rally.

It makes far better sense to rely on a fence

than an ambulance down in the valley.

He's wrong in his head the majority said.

He would end all our earnest endeavors.

He's the kind of a man that would shrink his responsible work,

but we will support it forever.

Aren't we picking up all just as fast as they fall,

and giving them care liberally.

Why a superfluous fence is of no consequence,

if the ambulance works in the valley.

Now this story seems queer as I've given it here,

but things oft occur which are stranger.

More humane we assert to repair the hurt,

than the plan of removing the danger.

The best possible course would be to safeguard the source,

and to attend to things rationally.

Yes, build up the fence and let us dispense

with this ambulance down in the valley.

I love that little story.  I wish I had written it.  For me, the poem illustrates our approach to life in this second half of the 20th century, not only as individuals, but as societal and/or political entities.  It points out that increased technological capability and scientific understanding does not necessarily (in all circumstances) improve on common sense.  Just because we can do it, doesn't mean it has to be done.  Bigger is not necessarily better, etc. 

It also brings up, for me at least, the seeming inability of our rational, scientific and technological minds to understand the lessons that nature teaches us with each passing day and every changing season; 
that in the polarity between darkness and light, there is the balance; 
that in the cycles of life and death, there is harmony; 
that in the incredible diversity of life, there is equilibrium; 
that even as there is a way, there is not one way.  
There are, in fact, many roads to Mecca.

Nature has taught us over and over again that as different as things are, they are not, and never have been, and never can be, separate.  While philosophers throughout the ages have speculated on a wholeness that religion espouses as absolute (constantly contradicting themselves in the process, I might add - the supreme being - intelligence - consciousness - has many names,) our greatest scientific minds are only beginning to fathom the connections and relationships that permeate both the physical and the metaphysical universe.

Correspondingly, we simple folks lose ourselves in the deluge of the noise created by the above discussion, taking advantage of every excuse we can to separate ourselves one from the other (whether we are American or Russian, capitalist or communist, Christian or Jew or Muslim, black or white, young or old, man or woman, conservationist or developer, rich or poor, ad nauseum), in which separation we create the rationale to negate another's experience, emotions, thought processes and ultimately their lives.  

"Anyone who tells me that my emotions or desires don't exist is in effect telling me that I don't exist," says Abraham Maslow. 
To say that what anyone of us thinks or feels is wrong or not worth thinking and feeling implies perhaps that one's life may not be worth living or at least that one is a threat to my way of thinking and feeling and living.  So say the politicians and preachers of separatism.

We forget that we are all first human beings.  
How else could we go on killing each other?  

How else can we go on living in a way which denies any other human being, man, woman or child, their life?  
How else can we go on feeding our fear, ignorance and insecurity while starving our spirit and denying our dreams and our visions?

We cannot live a lie!  
We can no longer exist in the contradiction between what we say in our words and deeds as an expression of our fear and separation, and what we hear in the cry of our hearts expressing connectedness and wholeness and the recognition that we are One.  

....to be continued.....

John Denver, Windstar Journal, Winter 1986

1984- Heart of Man's a Palace (Magi)

@JDHealingTimeOnEarth. --While originally recorded as a Christmas song, John’s version is like an anthem for our times we are living in now.  Listen closely and take it to heart.  This song affirms our strengths, and the power we have to make a difference, to make changes that are significant and lasting.

The Heart of Man’s a Palace (Magi)

Oh, the magi were the prophets

And they wandered through the desert

They saw the star above them

And they knew they'd find their way

Through the valley of the shadow

With the hope of human kindness

They were strengthened by the vision

Of a new and brighter day.

Chorus:

And the wisemen spoke of peace on earth,

Of harmony and struggle

Know you now a cycle's gone and a new one is revealed.

In the weaving of your fingers

In the whisper of a love that's born again

(In the dreaming something lingers) In the weaving of your fingers

(In the promise of a love that never ends) In a promise that we made that never ends.

Well now each man is a pilgrim,

Yes, we all must make the journey

And it seems that time is telling us to be all that we can

(We reach within the circle, let us celebrate the moment) To help lift up the fallen, we must sow the seeds of goodness

The torch is passed among us (all) now to light the way of man.

For the heart of man's a palace

And his dreams are as the sunlight

They burn away the darkness, as they warm the freezing cold

As an eagle flying (climbing) higher, as a river through a canyon

The diamond star shines down upon, (the rising of the soul )  the pathway to the soul

Chorus:

And the wisemen spoke of peace on earth,

Of harmony and struggle

Know you now a cycle's gone and a new one is revealed.

In the weaving of your fingers

In the whisper of a love that's born again

(In the dreaming something lingers) In the weaving of your fingers

In a promise (of a love that never ends) that we made that never ends.

Chorus:

And the wisemen spoke of peace on earth,

Of harmony and struggle

Know you now a cycle's gone and a new one is revealed.

In the weaving of your fingers

In the whisper of a love that's born again

(In the dreaming something lingers) In the weaving of your fingers

In a promise (of a love that has no end) that we made that  never ends.  

In a promise (of a love that never ends) that we made that never ends.

In a promise (of a love that never ends) that we made that never ends.

Original lyrics by Joe Henry and Peter Yarrow

Italicized lyrics are the changes made by John Denver for his recording of the song.

Shared for inspirational and educational purposes only.

Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research.