In 1988, my then Hyannis Port neighbor, the late Kurt Vonnegut, wrote a prescient letter to the Earth's planetary citizens of 2088 for Volkswagen's TIME magazine ad campaign. His seven points of advice are perhaps more relevant today than at any time in human history. We should keep this advice in mind this election year and adopt Vonnegut's recommendations while we still can.
Kick Kennedy, EcoWatch
Daniele Prati, via Flickr Commons
Jul 21, 2016 | Here's his letter:
Ladies & Gentlemen of A.D. 2088:
It has been suggested that you might welcome words of wisdom from the past, and that several of us in the twentieth century should send you some. Do you know this advice from Polonius in Shakespeare's Hamlet: 'This above all: to thine own self be true'? Or what about these instructions from St. John the Divine: 'Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment has come'? The best advice from my own era for you or for just about anybody anytime, I guess, is a prayer first used by alcoholics who hoped to never take a drink again: 'God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.'
Our century hasn't been as free with words of wisdom as some others, I think, because we were the first to get reliable information about the human situation: how many of us there were, how much food we could raise or gather, how fast we were reproducing, what made us sick, what made us die, how much damage we were doing to the air and water and topsoil on which most life forms depended, how violent and heartless nature can be, and on and on. Who could wax wise with so much bad news pouring in?
Kick Kennedy is a part-time writer for EcoWatch. ... Health · Adventure · Animals · Science · Business · Politics.
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Special Report | Managing Climate Change, Compiled by David Culver, Ed., Evergreene Digest
- Part 1: 31 scientific societies just told Congress to take their climate denial and shove it.
- The problem, though, is that it's unlikely to do anything to change the toxic dynamic on Capitol Hill or beyond.
- Part 2: Thanks to upcoming heat wave, July 2016 may become the hottest month on record in the U.S.
- Human-caused climate change makes it more likely that warm temperature records will be set.
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