R.E. Turner Reflects on Working Toward Peace
As
a businessman who has spent the last quarter of the century
involved in creating television networks and producing and
airing programming, I have tremendous respect for the power
of the medium, and even greater interest in its future.
One of the measures that people of my generation use to
mark personal milestones and the passage of time is the
advent of television, its growth, and its increasing sophistication.
It amazes me to think that my children grew up-quite literally-with
global breaking news coverage provided by CNN, and that
their children will forever regard this remarkable window
on the world as a simple fact of life, like computers and
routine space travel. Just yesterday, it seems, our worldview
was shaped almost entirely by radio, Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
and the notion of American invincibility.
The more complex our world becomes, the more we rely on
that electronic window to help us process it all. And the
greater the responsibility we must shoulder to see that
it is used as fairly as it is fearlessly.
If we entertain, we must also enlighten. In reporting
the news, we must shed light on the conflicts that create
it. As our businesses grow, so must we grow as human beings.
We have a duty to embrace humanity with the same vision
and daring that we do technology.
I have experienced more professional success than any
man has a right to expect, and have enjoyed most every minute
of it. Yet nothing I have achieved in business is ultimately
as important as the smallest thing I can do to promote understanding
across our world. More and more people are concerned about
the environment, about resource conservation and population
growth, about poverty and pollution. More and more, people
see that squandering the planet's assets, which took billions
and billions of years to create, is not our birthright.
We are not entitled to greed or complacency when the future
of the world is at stake.
I believe television is a great tool for uniting people
behind the cause of our planet. Pictures and human stories
are always more compelling than numbers. The earth's population
is soon expected to reach six billion. Most demographers
agree that it could reach eight billion within the next
fifteen to twenty years. It is inconceivable that in my
lifetime, I will be part of a world that labors to support
a population of nearly ten billion people. Yet, as staggering
as those numbers are, they can never tell the story as immediately,
as indelibly, as one picture of a starving child, of one
ancient tree felled for building lumber, of one bird driven
to extinction. Television can open a dialogue. It can frighten,
outrage, and mobilize. It can quicken the pace of change.
It can, and it is up to us to see that it is given the opportunity.
What happens then is up to each of us. I have chosen to
support an organization that shares my concerns and is not
afraid to take up the challenges the world faces. The United
Nations has the reach, resources, and membership to effect
change in everything from landmine warfare and nuclear armament
to inoculating children and saving forests. It is my responsibility,
as someone with strong convictions, to be part of the solution,
whether through the United Nations or a grassroots neighborhood
group with a common interest.
We cannot expect anyone else to solve our problems. Now
is the time to set our minds to international cooperation
and communication. It is a difficult course, but it is the
right thing to do. The hour is late. The task may well be
beyond us. But I, for one, have always enjoyed a challenge.
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