Where I Stand -- Brian Greenspun: Peres envisions a world of peace that embraces chance

BRIAN GREENSPUN is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

WE MUST cherish our men of vision. We must also listen to them and hear their words.

I don't have much in the way of vision when it comes to understanding the path toward a brighter, more peaceful and more prosperous future for people across the world. I don't even have the ability to re-communicate that vision having heard it once or twice. But I am, just like the few hundred people I sat with Thursday night, fully capable of recognizing such a person when I see him and listen to his unassailable words.

Shimon Peres is one of those very rare people with a clear view of the future and the plan to get us there. His talent, wisdom and superior intellectual capacity have been well recognized the world over.

The people of Israel, who are celebrating their country's birth 50 years ago, have chosen him their prime minister more than once, and he is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. So while we in Las Vegas aren't the first to acknowledge his brilliance, we certainly were able to appreciate what it means as we heard him speak to members of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists and supporters of Opportunity Village.

If you can step back from the current political rhetoric -- in this and practically every other country in the world -- it is easier to understand the picture a man such as Peres is painting for relationships in the next century. In the 20th century and before, power, might and prosperity had a great deal to do with borders, land mass, natural resources and economic as well as political systems. Tomorrow's world will reject much of what we have known.

Like it or not, and there are many people who can't stand or understand the nature of such a change that says global is preferable to national, boundaries between countries will not determine prosperity or peace as much as what crosses over those demarcating lines. The borders of tomorrow cannot stop the exchange of knowledge, commerce, technology and understanding among people.

Where land mass and secure borders once inhibited military attacks by troops and tanks, today's missiles don't care about such trivial matters as distance, mountains or rivers.

And where political ideology was once revered as the power behind the most powerful, the fall of communism in the Soviet Union demonstrates that all the resources, people, and planning cannot hold together a system of government that might work in theory but is its own worst enemy in practice.

What Peres drew for the hundreds of Las Vegans and visiting editorial cartoonists last Thursday night was a picture of one-time enemies working together to produce lifestyle opportunities for all instead of jealousies for some. He talked of educational efforts to teach -- together -- the children of enemies who learned one thing at home but grew to understand something entirely different from their young peers in the schoolyard. He spoke of hospitals that saved lives of all children so that families no longer had to endure the pain of their children's death while those who lived across a river or a border survived the same diseases.

Yes, he spoke of the opportunities for peace in the Middle East and the great difficulties yet to overcome, but his was an optimistic approach to the problems that lie ahead. He is undeterred by what in the scope of history are momentary setbacks of a year or three.

His vision extends well into a future that he can see clearly and that those willing to open their eyes and ears can also comprehend. His is not a vision clouded by petty political considerations that draw upon people's fears of each other or of change in general. That is something time will take care of -- if we have that time left.

His message was very clear in his concern that we -- that any people looking to promote peace and prosperity rather than the status quo -- not squander the great opportunities that we have. Those of us in the United States possess a superpower status that must be used to further the cause of peace, and not to propel our enemies -- once and future -- backward into an environment of fear and distrust.

While he wasn't asked, I am certain he would have applauded President Bill Clinton's trip to China as an effort to continue a dialogue that will promote common goals rather than punish those who understand only from their own perspective that what they are doing is right for them.

In terms of the Middle East peace effort, he acknowledged that it is very easy to make a peace plan by yourself and convince yourself that it is right. It is far more difficult to invite the other side to the table and try your plan on them.

They, too, have a plan, one that encompasses beliefs and expectations that may differ from your own. It is through compromise, then, that actual peace is made.

That's when creativity and determination win the day. Whether it be in Eastern Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Ireland or any part of the world where bloodshed is known and peace has not yet taken hold, those people must understand how the world is changing. It will be through science, technology and a basic desire by people to be free and live in peace that old enmities will be overcome because that is the way to a better life.

That's just a small part of the message from the man who now heads the Peres Center for Peace. It is a noble effort by a noble man. We would do well in this country if we paid more attention to him and less to those who yearn for the good old days that will never come again.

For Shimon Peres, in the words of my friend Jim Wade, "is one of the really good guys in this world."

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