Fear continues to govern the vision of many of the world's leaders and they instill it in the people in order to further their own fear-based agendas.

Since the end of the Cold War, the world has spent more than $10 trillion on armaments. The United States alone spends approximately $100 million every day to keep its nuclear arsenal at ready. Other nations squander assets as well. Neither security nor our humanity is enhanced thereby. The nuclear arsenals are on the ready, just as they were at the height of the Cold War. Yet, the entire budget of the International Atomic Energy Agency, for all the inspections in the whole world last year was less than $90 million, which is less than the United States spends on one weapons system a day.

America is a nation founded on a vision of faith and hope in the capacity of people for self governance. Fear was not the model upon which America was founded. Even amid the crucible of real international threats and conflict, the founders of America were governed by profound insights into the human condition and the importance of having a sense of humility.

The Capitol was burned in Washington by the second decade of the 19th Century. Yet, curtailing civil liberties to create greater governmental efficiencies did not rule the day. Enough were informed by the intelligence of John Adams who had said that "jealousies and rivalries have been my theme, and checks and balances as their antidote, till I am ashamed to repeat the words." Inefficiencies were intended to check the quest for power and the hand guided by greed and not justice. The oversight of courts, the Congressional system of debate and protections for dissenters, and even the Supremacy of Treaties, as well as many other political mechanisms, were designed to ensure that the arrogance of power did not crush the experiment of freedom based on faith.

Although not particularly religious, many of the creators of America were men of faith in God. The importance of dissent and open discussion even arose from their faith. They were familiar with John Stewart Mill's analysis of the basis of freedom of speech where in his famous essay On Liberty he stated: "To refuse a hearing to an opinion, because they are sure that it is false, is to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty. All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility." The subtext is that only God is infallible. What does a man do when he places himself in the position of claiming to be infallible? I believe that such supreme arrogance is usually based on weakness of faith and a deep fear of differences that could present a challenge to a fragile faith. Real faith listens with an ear of compassion and responds with reason and kindness. Real faith knows that truth can come from the most common of sources and thus never discards anyone.

Fear is responsible for closing down dialogue and discussion and denying our interconnectedness. Fearful people can close their hearts and think they have all the answers. Religious and political fanaticism develop in that atmosphere. It also happens in each of us when we claim that the worldview that our mind develops is the actual, real world and from that point claim that our limited point of view is the singular and only correct point of view.

We have to learn to walk a little bit more softly on this earth. It doesn't belong to us. We are privileged to be here for a while and then we have to move on. We can't get angry. We can't give up. We can't answer real questions about complex issues with slogans. We have work to do.

The opposite of fear is love. The politics of love affirms human unity. Law based on this insight always promotes equity and justice. It is always consistent with conscience. Law is a living art, the social expression of our values. Laws of justice find structure to our longing for peace and security. Law is not just something that somebody wrote in Washington 200 years ago, in Mecca 1400 years ago, or in the desert of the Sinai thousands of years before. It's something that's alive now. It's something that humans create out of love and justice. It can, by demonstrating compassion, affirm our unity and connectedness.

The same Power that put the capacity of a nuclear holocaust in subatomic particles has put a great power in the core of each of our beings. We come from that Power and that Power has also given us the wisdom and the abilities to meet all challenges, even those that nuclear weapons pose. We do have the resources to find peace and security for all peoples. We do have the audacity to assert that all people have a right to peace and security. We do have a duty to work to help all obtain this right.