"At ever-increasing speed we shall be hurled toward greater insecurity, greater destruction, greater hatred, greater barbarism, greater miser, until we resolve to... establish a social order based on the sovereignty of the community as conceived by the founders of democracy and as it applies to the reality of today."
-- Emery Reves, Anatomy of Peace (1945)
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
-- R. Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller
"Whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends [life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness], it is the right of the people to... institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
-- US Declaration of Independence
Many remarkable people have spoken boldly and eloquently of the need for global governance. Why did we choose to purchase the rights and make a film about Garry's story? Because stories are not about words -- they are about actions. Garry stepped outside the antiquated box of nationalism and put his life on the line to ACT in the name of peace for all humanity.
In 1776, it was a bold new idea to cast a vote in a wooden box to send someone by horse and buggy to a distant city to engage in governing a nation. Today, concentrating so much power in the hands of 536 people makes them magnets for special-interest money -- so much so that they can no longer govern for the good of the whole.
That old system is now an anachronism. Every time we enter cyberspace, we enter world space, a place where we can be in interactive control with our fellow human beings around the planet, whether it's playing a game or updating an entry in Wikipedia. So why not rise above the obsolete system that concentrates power in 536 hands? Why don't we-the-people take back our power and wiki govern not just a nation, but the world? Then if special interests want their way they'll have to buy off all of us!
Like Thomas' Jefferson and Paine before him, Garry Davis is the architect of a whole new system for a people-powered world. And like them, he realizes that the way to create it is not to beg and plead the old system to reform itself, but to just go ahead and declare it. And the great thing is, we don't have to overthrow any government to create it. In the vacuum of world space, we the people have a terrific opportunity to just go ahead and do it! Visionary? You bet. But don't all great advances start with a vision? Yet Garry is not just a visionary.
In 1954, Garry founded the World Service Authority and invited people to register as World Citizens. Today, there are over a million registered World Citizens from almost every nation on the planet.
Garry developed his world passport into a human-rights tool, a tool of surprising power. 174 Nations - the vast majority have, on occasion, recognized the passport, mostly on a de facto basis by stamping it with visa, entry or exit stamps, but also a few on a de jure basis with official letters of recognition. For example, when I traveled to Venezuela, immigration had a button for Mundo in their passport-acceptance machine.
Chinese students in Japan used world passports to resist being forced to return home in the wake of Tiananmen Square. In Kuwait, where only the elite are citizens, members of the excluded majority turned to the World Passport for ID and travel papers. Paperless refugees around the world have used the documents issued by Garry's World Service Authority to live, work and obtain a livelihood.
Undocumented travelers wasted away in the hell-hole of Thailand until a priest came in, took pictures, and got everyone World Passports. Since 1960 the passport has emptied the detention center many times.
When Idi Amin ordered British Journalist Dennis Cecil to be put to death by firing squad for criticizing him, human rights groups around the world clamored for his release. Garry's World Court of Human Rights ordered that he be released on June 26, 1975. Amin released him!
Garry took the world mundialization movement to the World Conference of Mayors -- and, to date, more than 1000 cities have declared themselves World Cities including Boston, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Toronto, Hiroshima, Tokyo, Nivelles, and Konigswinter.
Garry walked in and out of embassies, jails, forbidden zones and mighty international assemblies -- never a supplicant, always sovereign.
As an actor committed to global change, Garry has created a dramatic challenge to the status quo. The Garry Davis story has it all: drama, adventure, humor, love, heroism and hope for a better future.
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Why the Garry Davis Story?
