By Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)
November 5, 1999
Next week, November 14-17, in Geneva, Switzerland, a thousand or more delegates from the six inhabited continents, Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Australia will meet at the World Congress of Families II, and I will be there doing interviews and writing articles. This will be the first time since 1962 I have traveled to Geneva, Switzerland. It was in April 1962 that another ad hoc group, women from all over the world, came together determined to stop the testing of Nuclear bombs in the atmosphere. Our concern then was our families. Nuclear testing was threatening the world's children not only with nuclear war, but leukemia and cancer from Strontium 90 from the fallout getting into the milk they drank.
Those of your who read my analyses daily (see http://www.originalsources.com/OS10-99MQC/10-15-1999.1.html) probably know that in 1962 I was one of the 52 women from America who attended the 17 Nation Disarmament Conference to petition all the nations for an end to bomb testing in the atmosphere. At the time, it seemed like an impossible dream. The world politicians were deadlocked and no progress had been made for many months. The U.S. Senate was opposed to the Test Ban Treaty in 1962 by 94-6. President John F. Kennedy was also opposed, insisting that he would not sign the treaty unless China's Mao Zedong signed it.
But we were determined. We met with the 17 ambassadors individually and were told by nearly all of them that the reason why the major nations, the United States and USSR, were deadlocked was their mutual distrust. We searched for, and we found, something that would lower the distrust and history shows that that was the point when "the Soviet government informed China of its mutual understandings reached with the United States in August 1962." (From: The Evolution of China's Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy by Mingquan Zhu)
We were determined and motivated to rid our children's lives of the constant threat of nuclear destruction and to do it we talked with other women - including key Communist women - from inside the Iron Curtain. We found that their concerns for their children's future were the same as ours.
At a reception held for us at the Soviet embassy in Geneva, I had an opportunity for a one-on-one chat with the Soviet Ambassador, Semyon Tzarapkin, and I asked him why he distrusted us Americans so much. Tsarapkin said:
"Oh, my dear, I know you don't want war and the American people don't want war but the American businessman makes money off of war and HE wants war."
I said to him,
"Mr. Tsarapkin, I'm married to an American businessman. He doesn't want war. His business associates don't want war. They are too busy trying to make a living to even THINK about these things."
At that point the Ambassador began to talk about the 34 American Missile bases around the Soviet Union, with missiles pointed at their cities. Yet, as he pointed out, President Kennedy had threatened to go to war over just ONE Soviet base in Cuba.
That sounded like a human reaction to the situation, so I said to Tsarapkin, with the world media now crowded around listening to our conversation,
"I understand that point. If we women went home and asked President Kennedy to close down a couple of missile bases, would that help make you less suspicious of us?"
Tsarpkin held up a finger and said,
"One! Just one would make all the difference!"
I responded,
"O.K. We'll go back home and ask President Kennedy to close down a missile base if that will help.
And, we did just that. Kennedy would not speak to us, so we picketed the White House until he sent out his brother, Attorney General Roberty Kennedy, to speak to us because our request for a missile base had become a major news item.
However, today I believe that the World Congress of Families II is taking place when the families of the world are threatened with another, and perhaps more pervasive threat than nuclear war - the social, political and economic annihilation of the family. The World Congress of Families II addresses that threat.
Next week's World Congress of Families II grew out of a gathering in May 1998, in Rome, Italy, where twenty-six men and women, meeting in a room dating from the first century before the birth of Jesus Christ, met to draft and issue "A Call from the Families of the World." That Call is an affirmation of the natural human family. "The Natural family is the fundamental social unit, inscribed in human nature, and centered around the voluntary union of a man and a woman in a lifelong covenant of marriage" the Call states.
Why state that which, for thousands of years, was obvious in human history? Because, the Call states,
"certain social, political and economic forces threaten the natural family, tearing the social fabric at local, national and international levels. Under slogans such as 'modernity,' 'globalization,' and 'progress,' and in the name of 'Civil Society,' these forces have weakened the bonds between husband and wife, parent and child, and the generations. These ideologies deny the natural origin and status of the family, the equal but complementary roles of men and women, the miracle of human fertility and procreation, the dignity and worth of every human person, and the autonomy of the family itself. The family, which develops and sustains not only individuals but all larger communities, has been subordinated to the agendas of pressure groups, ignored by economic decision-makers and subjected to social experimentation."
The Call from the Families of the World, which has been signed by more than a million people worldwide, will bring together well over a thousand people who are not being financed by governments or the United Nations, but mostly by private funds found through real sacrifice and commitment to their families. The Call for convening the World Congress II November 14-17 is for the purposes of:
* rallying organizations and individuals to protect and fortify the natural family.
*developing guidelines for the formulations and implementations of family-centered policies and laws;
*raising worldwide awareness of the objectives and results of the Congress through the dissemination of information to mass media, scholars, public officials, government bodies, religious leaders, family organizations, and the public at large and
*creating ongoing structures for mutual cooperation and support.
Is the threat to the family being exaggerated? No, not from the perspective of many in the under-twenty-five generation. Several months ago I heard a young women express what, to her generation, was the greatest threat: "One third of my generation were killed by their parents before they were born!" Looked at from that perspective, the under twenty-five generation's holocaust dwarfs the holocaust of World War II which resulted in over 17 million military deaths and approximately 30 million civilian deaths. . The United States, which lost 405,399 in battle in World War II, has lost more than 35 MILLION of its under twenty five generation through abortion. I've repeated that young woman's statement to a number of young friends and acquaintances and invariably the nod their heads and say, "That's right!" Many of the baby boomer generation, who rebelled against the teachings of their parents are finding their own children are often more hostile to them than they were to their World War II generation parents.
The sexual revolution, begun by the 1960's generation has led to the death of millions more through sexually transmitted diseases, of which AIDS is the worst. In fact, the death rate among the sexually promiscuous, both homosexual and heterosexual, has wiped out the longer life spans in some areas of the world. In 1991 Zimbabwe's average lifespan was age 60 for men and 64 for women. In 1999, due to the AIDS epidemic the male life expectancy is only 38.86 years and the female life expectancy is 38.94 years.
Birth control, abortion and "alternative lifestyles" such as homosexuality and oral sex, which do not produce babies nor need families, are being put forward in United Nations conferences as "protected human rights." Bachar Jamali, a 26-year-old from Syria, who is a Norwegian citizen, and attended the UN Conference on the Establishment of the International Criminal Court in Rome, Italy in 1998, wrote: "To my surprise the definition of the crimes against humanity provided a language in the English treaty text would criminalize municipal laws and religious values that prohibit abnormal sexual behavior."
Bachar, a Muslim, also attended the February 6, 1999 UN Conference involving more than 100 countries which was called to "examine achievements in carrying out the Programme of Action adopted by the 1994 International Conference on Populations Development (ICPD)." He found that "a huge amount of advance planning, money and time had gone into a conference which was intended to get around the 'religious proscriptions' of those in the Christian, Muslim and other nations, especially third world nations, which reject abortion and sodomy because they conflict with their religious principles." No pro-life youth had been invited to attend.
Most of the families of the world are totally unaware of these organized and publicly financed efforts to destroy the natural family. Many are beginning the realize that a rapid moral and cultural decline is taking place worldwide, and that it is threatening the family literally with extinction. Few know it is a decline that is being financed by their own tax dollars. In fact, in a recent UN Conference in Korea a delegate urged that marriage be abolished. Bachar noted a new expression - "sexual pleasure" is becoming the issue to be discussed - not marriage and family - at a UN meeting he attended. It didn't matter which sex one was having sexual pleasure with.
This stands in stark contrast to the Call from the Families of the World which declares:
"The natural family is the fundamental social unit, inscribed in human nature, and centered around the voluntary union of a man and a woman in a lifelong covenant of marriage for the purpose of:* satisfying the longings of the human heart to give and receive love
* welcoming and ensuring the full physical and emotional development of children
* sharing a home that serves as the center for social, educational, economic and spiritual life
* building strong bonds among the generations to pass on a way of life that has transcendent meaning; and
* extending a hand of compassion to individuals and households whose circumstances fall short of these ideals.
The goal of my organization, Original Sources, and Banner of Liberty, which is headed by CTR Publisher Gavin Grooms, is to inform the public. Banner of Liberty is the first American publishing Company to sponsor World Congress of Families II and will provide every delegate with a copy of its monthly news letter, Banner of Liberty News and Facts which is specifically designed to help people get the information they need to take meaningful and timely action. Banner of Liberty, is about six principles - Truth, Justice, Freedom, Honor, Courage and Morality - not political party membership or ideology (i.e. - Liberal or Conservative.)
Each Newsletter will provide facts on key issues, especially on politics, education, family issues, national and personal security, environment, foreign relations and health care. Co-Conveners of the Congress, Allan C.Carlson Director of the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society and Dr. Richard G. Wilkins, law professor at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University both have articles in the newsletter. Valuable UN language on the family, researched by Susan Roylance, contains "pro-family" language in UN documents and signed treaties.makes it easy to defend the family with language already approved in prior documents. Physics Professor B.Kent Harrison, Co-Author of Confonting Abusetalks about child abuse. Henry Kissinger explains his opposition to global nuclear "gun control and Rep. Ron Paul's talk on the "Managed Care Monster" are updates on those issues.
Those subscribing to Banner of Liberty News and Facts during the week of the World Congress of Family II .
Once you have accurate, timely information with telephone numbers or e-mail addresses to make it possible to spend 1-2 minutes writing or calling those making the decision - YOU can decide what you think about it. My website, Original Sources, (www.originalsources.com) provides hundreds of e-mail, fax and voice mail numbers, and daily action tips to make it possible to become a 2 minute a day activist.
Letting others know where they can find original source and accurate information is a major part of Banner of Liberty. For example, so far nine talk show hosts, radio stations or local newspapers want to receive my free daily reports from Geneva. Many of you have written asking what you can do to get the facts to others. On World Congress II, call or fax your favorite local talk show host, or news anchor or newspaper and ask them if they would like to receive reports daily from the World Congress of Families next week. All they, or organizations, or members of Congress or your State government or university need to do to get the reports daily is to send Original Sources their e-mail address. If the demand is there, we will provide a website with audio of the interviews that can be played live on radio.
Can we make a difference? You bet we can! In fact, many of you readers already have made a difference by e-mailing or faxing Original Sources analyses to friends, family, and members of congress. Minds have been changed. Original Sources material is being quoted in Congress. A lot more COULD be changed if those who want to save their families begin to network as effectively as have those who are determined to undermine families and parents.
The time is right, as it was in 1962, for a major change in direction. All it needs is people of hope with a willingness to spend a couple of minutes a day making the world a better place.
To comment or request World Congress of Family daily reports: mmostert@originalsources.com
To E-Mail Mary Mostert, Analyst - mmostert@bannerofliberty
Fax # (801) 426-8316