The Global College of Democracy

No one ever started a war over a wind turbine.

The wind belongs to all of us, not to nations,

Nor to stockholders.

The wind, and the sun, would teach us to share,

Not to hoard;

Would teach us to learn from each other,

Not to stifle ingenuity.

The wind and the sun would

Bring our global children together

As together they master

The challenges of clean energy.

The wind and the sun do not call foreign children

"Collateral damage.”

The wind and the sun know no trade barriers,

No ethnic hatred.

The wind would give our spirits a genuine frontier,

Better than the moon,

For both the challenges and the blessings

Would belong to all of us.

The wind and the sun knock on all doors equally.

We quarrel over oil,

And claim to fight our wars for democracy.

What is more democratic than

The wind turning turbines for all, equally,

Providing electricity for all, equally,

And thus jobs and classrooms for all, equally?

Let us learn, equally and together, how to build

A clean and prosperous world.

No one ever fought a war over a wind turbine.

                                        John Slade