By Abigail Opaku-Agyemang

The words, “United we stand, divided we fall” have resonated among Americans whenever we have been attacked. In 1942, when Japan sent a surprise force to attack Pearl Harbor we were united. On Sept.11th the attacks against the United States united us again in a way we will never forget. But in the wake of 9/11, how united are we with our course of action? It appears that the war in Iraq has split this nation in two. And if our nation is split in its opinion over our course of action, we need to wonder how US foreign policy has fractured the rest of the world. Is this how we should achieve our desired goal of global unity.

If I’ve learned anything in my 14 years of life, it’s that we have to work together to accomplish our goals. The United States of America may be the most powerful country in the world right now, but in the past year the U.S has had an impact (not necessarily favorable) on the whole world without regard or concern of the U.N or the rest of the world. This action has sorely inhibited global unity forcing other countries to feel that their views are worthless and don’t count. Certainly if one strong country does something drastic when the majority of the world is against that action, we will never have global unity.

Creating global unity is hard. The path is encumbered with lots of opinions on how to do it right. Not only that, ignorance is dangerous – so it’s important to have all the facts. Helping my peers and I to understand and develop an approach to creating global unity is an organization called Global Kids. This organization works with high school kids in New York City, educating them on different issues in the world. Every year Global kids has a conference where the high school students facilitate workshops on different issues. This year the topic is Global Unity. Clearly we will have a lot to talk about. As the most powerful and wealthiest country in the world -- the question at this conference will be - Are we facilitators or inhibitors of global unity?

To help promote global unity Global Kids is proactive. We attend protests, we fight against injustices against our peers and we work to keep students out of trouble. While tolerance and acceptance of all people is taught by Global Kids they also draw our attention to issues such as child labor, gang violence. At this year’s conference on March 25th over 500 youth and educators will explore the meaning of global unity and participate in workshops and activities created by a team of young people, including me. The role of the United Nations, religion, women’s rights, U.S. foreign policy, the Olympics, globalization, and international justice are just some of the topics we’ll address. But it won’t stop there… at Global kids, creating social change is a life-long process.