Whew – what a year. I’ll refrain from my own personal observations of the passing year, and give this space for a few words from Stephen:
The events of this past year and especially of this past week have shown us not only how fragile is our existence on this planet, but also how great is the power of our coming together.
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There is so much promise in the air, and yet so many of us fall to war and famine, natural disaster and disease. Those few people who have had the good fortune to be in a position to make things better have an obligation, a duty, to extend as much of themselves as they can to do so. The future of our civilization depends not on how high the greatest of us soar but on how far the weakest of us fall. We are together, all of us, one, or not at all.
To all my friends around the world: Peace, and long life.
Peace and love, everyone; I’ll write to you again in 2005!