Building a Community: Revised Edition by Richard Frederick O'Dell, Jr.

How wealthy do we have to be?

How blind to our own manipulations are we

Before we open our eyes to see

That we have reached a state of constipation?

Have we not enough love and imagination

To live this life without degradation?

In others we won’t make love, not there!

With acceptance and affiliation

Far better off we’ll fare.

— from “War of Wills”   

    Poem by the author

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     Perhaps a day will come when we no longer harbor negative judgments, become defensive, or engage in unnecessary competition to satisfy our wants and needs. On this glorious day, we will have shed our fears and learned to accept each other not as enemies but as friends. 

     However, if we are ever to see such a day and for the sake of all humanity, it is imperative that we begin to build an interdependent world community that strives for happiness and a sustainable planet.

     It is a community we so desperately need, and this book provides a blueprint for its construction.