The Near Horizon

Well, guess what?  It's a tight

little world we inhabit after all,

one comprised of a vast 

multitude of competing, often

very hostile interests and attitudes

reflective of the huge diversity

in human idiosyncrasies, 

tribal affiliations, religious

sects and their heresies,

political ideologies and, of

course, the heritage of geographical

cultural imperatives.  The world,

once so large, and its peoples

disconnected, now forms an

immense supertropolis with 

interconnected villages.

Complacency does not live here

any more for one cannot any

longer assume physical safety

through the separation of distance.

Threats and danger lurk wherever

we fail to suspect they exist.

The local has its international

flair, for the unstoppable tide of

human migration has brought

conflict to parts once foreign,

now infiltrated by stealth and

increasingly, my friends, at risk.