| COMMUNICATION |
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| COMMITMENT |
| DIRECTION...........John
Denver |
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| The greatest
experience that I have of cooperation in
an on-going way is through my music.
Every time I sit down with my band and
work out an arrangement to a song - and
each time we go into the studio - there
is a great experience of gifted people
coming from different areas, whose
talents are expressed on different
musical instruments, who come together
with their own ideas, following the
vision of an individual (the producer
and/or writer). There is a commitment to
the project - which is to make a good
record. Everyone works on this together,
lending the very best of themselves to
the project. |
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| At times we go too
far. There are things which aren't
working that need to be cut out.
Nonetheless - with communication,
commitment and direction - there is a
great, great experience of cooperation.
Pretty soon, we've got a record. |
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| My most recent
experience of this happened with my
friends from Aspen, The Nitty Gritty Dirt
Band. They invited me to participate in
their "Let The Circle Be Unbroken,
Vol II" album. We went into the
studio in Nashville at noon. I had heard
the song they wanted to do a couple of
times on tape. They had heard it and been
working on it that morning. There were
some other musicians who had not heard
the song before, whom I did not know and
had just met that day. Over the course of
three hours, we were able to make a live
recording of one of the best country
songs I have heard in a long time. It was
a wonderful, wonderful experience. Again
- through communication, commitment and
direction - we were all able to work
together and to create some wonderful
music that I look forward to you hearing. |
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| It occurred to me from this
experience that really all of the things
that we most enjoy in our relationships
with one another are examples of
cooperation - whether in friendship,
business, education, the arts or sports.
Think of football teams that some of us
watch every Saturday and Sunday, and the
different individuals involved coming
together to make a team effort. This is
an expression of cooperation. |
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| It seems to me that we want
to cooperate, actually, and we look for
opportunities to do this. I think of what
great opportunities there are now in the
world for cooperation at a level that is
unprecedented. |
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| The saving of the two whales
this past fall off the coast of Alaska
was a media circus as far as I am
concerned. Two things did come out of the
rescue. We actually saved the whales, but
more importantly - and, in fact, I think
this was ultimately the purpose of the
whole exercise - we demonstrated that it
took both the Soviet Union and the United
States working together to accomplish
what neither one of us by ourselves could
do. |
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| I look at the incredible
outpouring of sympathy and support for
the people of Armenia in the aftermath of
the recent earthquake. It is wonderful to
see people from all over the world
helping the Soviet Union in ways that I
think are unprecedented. What this starts
to demonstrate again for me is that it is
going to take all of us working together
to deal with this kind of tragedy,
whenever and wherever it occurs. |
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| At the same time, it
disturbs me that we are not looking at an
ongoing crisis like hunger on this planet
- that sees the loss of 35,000
individuals every single day, days
without end - and responding in the same
kind of way. We need communication and a
world-wide commitment to the end of
hunger. Then, under the direction of the
experts already in place who are working
to accomplish this end, we can feasibly
and cooperatively put an end to hunger on
this planet. Hunger. No more. |
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| We are facing a future where
these types of problems are going to get
worse. The way to deal with these
problems is only through cooperation.
Consequently, rules and regulations - or
laws if necessary - need to be set,
communicated and agreed to by people who
are committed to living up to working
together. |
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| Take, for example, a city
like Los Angeles, where individuals are
going to have to begin thinking together
regionally. Approximately 157 individual
city governments operate in the Los
Angeles basin with a singular lack of
cooperation - in a way that has sewage
from Glendale ending up in Santa Monica
Bay; South Bay industrial emissions
throwing a pall over the San Gabriel
mountains; and a freeway system that has
outgrown itself. If the current trends in
Los Angeles do not change, commuter trip
hours will increase by 300%, with people
spending five times as much time in
traffic jams as they do now. We have to
start thinking in a way that creates new
jobs in areas where there are enough
resources and housing to handle this
additional workforce - instead of
continuing to add to an already
imbalanced situation like we find in the
greater Los Angeles area. |
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| We also have to think
cooperatively beyond our own national
boundaries. Industrial pollution from the
United States is creating acid rain - not
only in our forests, but in Canada as
well. What does this say about our
country's integrity? Is the Environmental
Protection Agency cooperating with our
desire for a safe and healthy planet?
What does it take for us to learn to
listen to one another and work
collectively to remedy the problems we
currently face? |
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| There is a great
opportunity, as we begin to move into the
last ten years of the Twentieth Century,
to express our desire for cooperation.
Secretary General Gorbachev, in a speech
at the United Nations, gave an articulate
perspective of a world view. What he
described - in regard to the environment,
economics, space, and the military - was
an invitation for all of us to begin
working together and cooperating to deal
with these global issues. |
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| It is going to take the same
kind of effort that is demonstrated by
any football team making a touchdown or
any business completing a successful
campaign. Cooperation is the concerted,
strategic effort that was displayed in
freeing the whales from the polar ice -
and it is the same kind of effort that is
now occurring globally to help the people
of Armenia. Cooperation is communication,
commitment and direction. These are the
ingredients that will take us peacefully
and progressively into the 21st Century. |
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