A new kind of warrior.

• Author: Williamson, Marianne
• Position: Editorial

We are living at an extraordinary--and extraordinarily dangerous--moment. Never before have the wages of our transgressions, against ach other and against the Earth itself, been so high. Should we fail to develop a more conscious orientation to our stewardship, our recklessness and irresponsibility could lead to global catastrophe. It is hard to imagine a more critical juncture in the history of the world.

To pray for a world without poverty or war or hunger or disease; to refuse to surrender to the chic complacency that has infused our popular culture; to continue to commit ourselves, as global citizens, to the transformation of ourselves and world conditions--such are the prerequisites for a new kind of warrior. A warrior not for war, but for peace. In the words of Albert Camus, "Peace is the only battle worth waging."

We should not assume that the relative quietude of this moment, in terms of social and political activism, is necessarily apathy or even denial. Many of us are not ignoring what's happening so much as grieving. We will cry and then we will begin again. We will pray to become new men and women, big enough and wise enough to give birth to new life within ourselves and the world around us.

A prodigal generation--one that has parried so hard and long we can't even remember when the party started--has suffered enough from our own primarily self-inflicted misery that at last we are turning our attention en masse to the suffering of the world. And for those of us who are American citizens, never has...