DEFICIT SPENDING

We thought we had survived,
through the sacrifices of earlier generations,
two world wars and profound human loss.
We thought we had conquered
the frontiers of medicine and biology.
We thought peace, health, and good living
were our birthright.

Now we find,
an inkling dawns,
that far from having
the luxury of being selfish,
we face the ultimate challenge,
must make the biggest adjustments,
must alter fundamentally existing ways
of seeing, thinking, feeling, and wanting,
so that not only our children,
not only our nation and civilization,
but our planet and children’s children
may survive and thrive
their destinies linked
their well-being entwined
now and for all human time.