It is no coincidence that the Clinton Global Initiative was the lead-up to Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
Jews around the world celebrated the beginning of the new year, 5767, this past weekend, beginning at sundown on Friday. The CGI ended Friday afternoon, in just enough time for those who celebrated the new year to get to their homes and synagogues. The major difference, of course, between the Clinton initiative and the Jewish holiday is that the former president's most impressive gathering was global, the people who attended represented every race, creed, color, religion, social status, financial position, political persuasion and any other differentiation that you can imagine. Those celebrating Rosh Hashanah were, I suspect, almost all Jewish.
Rosh Hashanah is a time for us to reflect on the past, rededicate ourselves to the future and ask to be written in the Book of Life for another year. The CGI, now in its second year, was also a time for people to reflect on the past, rededicate themselves to the future and ask - not for themselves but for millions of others on this planet - that they also be inscribed in a book that provides all who are living and not yet alive the kind of opportunities for healthy and productive lives wherever and to whomever they are born. They are both the most noble of pursuits.
A friend of mine wrote about Rosh Hashanah as the celebration of the creation. It was on the first of Tishrei that the universe began; so it would make sense that on Rosh Hashanah the synagogues would be beaming from the recounting of that most majestic opening of the Torah: And God said, let there be and there was. But that is not done. Instead, we read about the birth of Yitzhak to Abraham and Sara after many years of waiting. We also read the story of Channa, whose prayers for a child were finally answered.
It should not be lost on anyone that on this holy day for Jewish people we read not of the act of God's creation but our own creations; not about the vast wonders of our universe but the wondrousness of the human condition and the joy and responsibility we have bringing new life into this world.
In this regard, what a ballroom full of some of the most accomplished people on the planet did this past week at CGI was live the story of Rosh Hashanah. Whether it was the awe-inspiring words of Bishop Desmond Tutu when he talked about the power of religion to slice bread or to slice human hands, or the politically unimaginable coming together of Barbra Streisand and Rupert Murdoch to do something now about climate change before it is too late, the CGI was the story of human beings, God's creations, creating their own areas of responsibility to others and getting far more enjoyment for doing so.
There is much that needs to be fixed on this planet, almost all of which is the result of human failing. Rosh Hashanah teaches that life is always about renewal, about learning and about doing what is right for ourselves and our neighbors and for those we do not even know. Whether it is trying to bring clean water and modern medicines to the poorest of people on the planet, or the seemingly impossible task of finding reconciliation among people of different races and religious backgrounds, or bringing opportunity to places where hope is nonexistent and success is measured in dollars per month, not per hour, the challenges that people like Colin Powell, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, King Abdullah of Jordan, first lady Laura Bush and Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson talked about, cry out for each of us, in our own way, to do something.
Perhaps the single most compelling problem the world faces today is that of global climate change. That was made absolutely clear through Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and was reconfirmed - to a person - by the hundreds and hundreds of participants at the CGI. It is no longer a question, regardless of the political fringes that reside in the halls of government power that still refuse to believe it exists, of whether man has exacerbated climate change. The science is in, it is compelling and it is enough to scare anyone who thinks about the next generation or, as those of us who are grandparents think, the next batch of little ones.
What just a few years ago was science that led us to believe we had until the middle of the century to fix the global warming problem is now a compelling case that says we may have to the middle of the next decade before we reach the tipping point at which there is little or nothing we can do to reverse the overheating of the planet. That means we all have to do something right now. No more talk, no more politics, no more big oil trying to preserve its carbon-based future at the expense of the future itself.
There were many ideas advanced that already have been proved to work. At another time I will discuss better urban planning - a must because more than 700 million people in just India and China will move into cities in the next 10 years, making all the polluting, overcrowded cities of America look like child's play - and London Mayor Ken Livingstone's controversial congestion tax that the people hated but now love. I will discuss them because Las Vegas could learn before we continue to build in ways that are carbon-stupid and not sustainable. The words penny-wise and pound-foolish come to mind.
The blowing of the Shofar - the ram's horn - on Rosh Hashanah reminds us that we are just one more generation among the generations that were here at the beginning of time and will be here long after we are gone, but that while we are here we have a responsibility not only to ourselves but to all people, everywhere.
That has been the message of Rosh Hashanah since the creation and that was the very clear message of former President Bill Clinton's Global Initiative this past week.
Good people, willing to do good work for the benefit of people of goodwill. Simple message. Simple truth.
L'Shana Tovah.
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