Bluster, threats endanger us all
The whole world is watching - and scared.
It's been a long time since nuclear war seemed like such a real possibility. Emergency management officials in Hawaii recently released guidelines for how to survive a nuclear blast.
What is desperately needed in these tense days is thoughtful and mature leadership and diplomacy, not bluster and threats. But Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump see each other as unguided missiles. Both are triggered by fear and domestic politics, by macho and arrogance. They talk louder and louder and make less and less sense, endangering the human race in their weaponized game of chicken.
It is hard to control or contain "fire and fury." A sudden shift in the wind can spread the flames to the house next door - to your house, my house, our house - sparking a conflagration "like the world has never seen."
Our nations are afraid of each other. We are afraid every time North Korea fires off another missile and its leader boasts of his nation's powers of destruction. They are afraid of what we are capable of. They and the rest of the world watched as we invaded and leveled Iraq based on the fake news that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
The United Nations must immediately convene North Korea and the United States, along with South Korea, China and Japan, around a common table to cool the rhetoric and lessen the tension.
We need to work toward reconciliation and not continue in this mad march to the edge of unimaginable destruction, of fire and fury.
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., Founder and President Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Chicago