The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2004, Page 20

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 59 #1
of Ingolfur Arnason, first settler, who led
his fellows into a new era as well. Each of
them was the instrumental figure in bring-
ing his people out of a feudal society and
into a new democracy. Each was a man of
foresight, who could perceive a different
future, with new possibilities. Each was
willing to take on very real risks and strike
out into the unknown, rather than stay in a
situation that was, to him, grown unaccept-
able. The figure of the one now stands, still
seemingly farsighted, gazing out onto the
Pacific. The other, with much the same air
of seeing into the future as much as into the
distance, gazes out on the Atlantic.
No, whatever our differences appear to
be worldwide, and no matter how huge the
gulf seems between cultures and mentali-
ties, when it comes right down to it, we're
all one. We are much more alike than we
know, and eventually we have to come
together. It's true that in this troubled time
of terrorism and "pre-emptive" war,
nations and peoples seem sometimes to be
going in very different directions. But if we
persevere, I think we'll find that we're clos-
ing the gap, just as those ancient migrations
of men took them further and further apart
only to allow them to meet again on the
other side of the globe. There, after an epic
journey on a scale of tens of thousands of
years, they came face to face. The partici-
pants couldn't have realized the signifi-
cance of that meeting, but it was one of
long lost brothers, transformed from
north-east Africans into peoples as differ-
ent as Icelanders and Greenlanders.
Perhaps it's time for us to realize that we're
all just variations and improvisations on the
same theme, and give real meaning to the
term "United Nations." After all, we are
really just the various products of the same,
millennia old struggle for survival. Can we
really be so foolish as to threaten each oth-
ers'survival now, just when we have the
chance to finally recognize and greet each
other for what we are—family?