Today's world population is in excess of six-billion and increasing.   
Our Armenian world population, on the other hand, may be in excess of
10-million.   Percentage-wise, we Armenians make up only .001% of our
world's total population.  With this in mind, I submit the following
commentary with the hope that it might provoke more wisdom into our
thinking as it relates to our subliminal Armenian existence.

Teddy Roosevelt once referred to China as a "sleeping giant." 
He further forewarned the world against the probability of this giant
waking up.  Today, China's population is in excess of l.3 billion and
by her leap-frog appearance on the world market along with her booming
economy and massive burgeoning military, it would seem that this 
sleeping giant has at long last awakened.  For example, presently 
China has the capability of producing twenty-million automobiles a year.  
By 2020, she is projecting a capability of producing two-hundred-million.

Accordingly, in a few years, China will be the most powerful nation on
earth, both economically and militarily.

Looking into the not-to-distant future, it would also seem that if world
population keeps increasing and if our world's international policies 
remain one-sided, the nations of the world may never get to the point 
of giving their inhabitants "a chicken in every pot," as Alf Landon once
 promised in his failed 1936 campaign for the presidency.

If, God forbid, our world suddenly went to war, and the weaker nations
 started using  nuclear weapons to gain balance, our earth with all of
 its inhabitants may cease to exist.  And one doesn't have to be a 
Nostradamus to figure that one out.

If our world is to survive, it is imperative that we learn how to 
co-exist, both at home and abroad.  

Throughout history, man's ability to kill has always run parallel with
 his ability to heal.  The atomic bomb, however, instantly put the 
advantage on the side of the ability to kill.   One nuclear bomb, for
 instance, can destroy a city with all of its inhabitants at the blink
 of an eye.  Is there any among us that can foretell the outcome of a
 nuclear war?  I don't think so.  It will be safe to say, however, that
 if any one did come out alive after a nuclear war, it would not be worth
 living in the world that remains.  

Coexistence, therefore, is a must.  And with that the exploration of
 space must be our world's highest priority.  To survive without war
 inevitably means that we may have to find new planets to inhabit.  

We must start living by example and not allow fanatical religious and
 political crazies to steer our ships of state.  

Abortion?  Pro-choice and pro-life must remain the choice between
 the woman and her god.  It's not the government's responsibility.  

Gay marriage?  This should also be the choice of individuals involved
 and not the government.  

Pre-empted war?  Does it make sense for our government to decide when
 and who we should go to war with, while blocking research on stem cells.   
In short, does it make more sense to allow our youth to die in a 
manufactured war on one hand, while restricting the research of stem 
cells that may never see the light of day on the other?

Come on folks.  Let's get with it.  Our nation's  struggle today should
 not be on the present-day pre-empted war on terror but on whether or not
 our democracy is going to be around to see the dawn of the next century.  
And by the way, a coexisting world that sees the dawn of a new century, 
would be very good for stem cells, also.


                    Joseph Vosbikian