Dear friends,
What a year!
For me personally, 2006 had some great highs including...
- Watching "Confessions" complete its 59th week on the New York Times bestseller lists and knowing that it opened readers' eyes;
- Seeing movies like "Blood Diamond" expose the corporatocracy in such a riveting manner;
- Listening to people across the country become increasingly aware of the need to shapeshift ourselves;
- Walking down the aisle with my daughter and being graced with her husband, my new son, and a month later completing my next book "The Secret History of the American Empire" (out in June 2007) which carries a message of hope for shapeshifting the world our grandchildren will inherit.
And some lows including:
1. Talking to other economic hit men and jackals who emerged from the
shadows to share their own terrible confessions with me;
2. Witnessing my country become more deeply embroiled in exploiting people
in foreign lands;
3. Trying to purchase sweaters and other holiday gifts that people need and
finding that nearly all of them are made in "slave labor" sweatshops.
Then there were the in-between things, like the elections. They sent a strong message that we the people want change; but the rhetoric that followed demonstrated that too many of us believe that a new congress (or another president) will straighten everything out. The election brought home the sad reality that many of us are naïve enough to believe that elected officials will reign in the people who finance their campaigns.
It is time that we face the facts of our world. Only when we understand that we must change the corporations, will we create a place our children will want to inherit. We - you and I - must learn to vote through our purchases, insisting that those who run our biggest companies - and through them, our country - abide by principles of democracy and transparency. We must turn a dream that says a few rich people deserve to make all the decisions and most of the profits into a more equalitarian one, a reality that insists on the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.
LOOKING TO 2007
I enter 2007 with a renewed commitment to creating a stable, sustainable, and peaceful world, to shopping less and much more consciously, speaking out with a louder, clearer voice, and taking every action I can think of to wake myself and all those I come in contact with up. I commit to enjoying life in ways that will help all the children who will be born in 2007 - for I recognize that my child and her children cannot expect a good life unless every child born today in Indonesia, Nigeria, and Bolivia has the same expectations.
I commit to holding your hand, asking you to keep me on this path, and urging you to do the same. I look forward to marching with you into 2007.
John
John Perkins, author, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Visit the John Perkins Collection at the Global Dialogue Center
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