Great achievements arise only with our great challenges. As a nation and as individuals, we are going to be challenged greatly. How well we do de?pends on our willingness to "dare to be great"; to take the challenges and run with them, rather than be overwhelmed by them. Some pessimists think that we have reached our breaking point -- that America's finest hour has long since pass'ed. I reject this notion completely. This nation of free people hasn't begun to show its true greatness. This may well be our time.

It may be the time when we will be great enough to leave behind a destructive war and win a just and lasting peace.

It may be the time when we devote enough of our resources and sacrifice to the poor, the downtrodden, the handicapped and the retarded.

It may be the time when we stop thinking bigger and faster and begin to think better and cleaner -- about the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we inhabit, the thoughts we think.

It may be the time when we make life so pleasant, so creative, so fulfilling that no one has to turn on with drugs and turn off with violence.

It may be the time when black and white, old and young, rich and poor, Arab and Jew, East and West, decide that success is within their reach ---- if they use the power of love, not the power of arms.

The problems we all face demand greatness. My wish is that everyone looks within them self and finds the greatness that God put there and use it to build a better world.

This was an article written ahead of it's time, and yet it is ageless. Because as these conditions existed in 1971 with the war in Vietnam, they exist today we have the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sadly the prejudice still exists the only thing that has changed is the direction in which it points.

By changing one mind at a time for a more positive and loving world we can be taking a step in the right direction. Are you ready to start with that step?