We are celebrating the birth of the United Nations, sixty years ago this October. The
delegates gathered in San Francisco to frame an alliance of nations in hopes of avoiding another calamitous conflagration like the one that had just ended – the Second World War. They knew that they had failed once before.

In August 1914, due to national pride and arrogance and interlocking treaties and obligations between countries and empires, the world had been thrown into chaos and
Slaughter. Fighting with twentieth century weapons and nineteenth century tactics and
Strategy, the loss of human life had gone into the tens of millions. Generals hurled
Thousands upon thousands of men into the meat grinder of machine guns, artillery,
Poison gas and other horrors at the Somme, the Marne, Gallipoli, and the many
Other no man’s lands. A generation of the best and brightest of Europe’s youth
Was wiped out for nothing. This was the war to end all wars. And President
Woodrow Wilson had 14 Points to ensure truth and justice to the world. And there
Was to be a League of Nations, and a World Court, and international organizations
Where nations could go to resolve their differences short of war.

The League of Nations was founded along with some of the other international organizations. It was a lovely concept – a beautiful attempt. The losing empires were broken up and nations such as Czechoslovakia and Jugoslavia were founded. A wonderful idea, but then things started to go wrong. Wilson became gravely ill and the conservatives in the Congress blocked the United States from joining the League. The League was weak and Terms imposed on the Germans were extremely harsh. As soon as a new generation was ready to be tossed into the cauldron – twenty years – the Second World War erupted. Again tens of millions were killed. With the opening of the atomic age in August 1945, the nations again were scared into gathering to form an international organization and with the United States joining it, it had a better chance of surviving and doing some good.

And it did some good. In 1946, Winston Churchill made his speech at Fulton, Missouri
Warning of an Iron Curtain descending across central Europe and the Cold War began in
Earnest in places like Greece, Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, and around the world. Two nuclear powers were at each others throats. Soviet Premier Khruschev promised to bury us and our presidents talked of the Evil Empire. Fingers were poised over the nuclear button in 1962 when President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khruschev stood eye ball to
Eye ball over Cuba. But I like to think that Khruschev got some of his aggression out when he took off his shoe and pounded with it at the United Nations. I think that if there had been no United Nations to provide a lightning rod, a place to squabble, a place to walk out of, a place to cast a veto, a place to hurl insults, and a place to make deals, we all might not be here today.

Like it or not, the United Nations is the best forum we have. We have the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the South East Asian Treaty Organization and other remnants of the Cold War. There are regional entities such as the European Union and the Organization of American States. But they have limited, mostly economic objectives. Our problems today are global: global warming, pandemics, saving our oceans and rain forests, borderless terrorism, and on and on and on. Since the days of Trygve Lie and Dag Hammerskjold when the UN sent peace keepers in the Congo and Angola, the world has turned to the UN for peace keepers around the world. And soldiers from UN member nations have gone into Liberia, Rwanda, Israel, Lebanon, the Balkans, and wherever they were needed. Most of the time they have been successful in securing stability.

Unitarian Universalists support the UN through the UU-UNO. This is a small office at the UN in New York which provides information on and encourages the work of the UN because we – as UU’s - feel that in supporting the UN we are supporting the UU principles. We respect the dignity and worth of all people and know that we must work with people wherever they might be on this earth. We must respect the world we live in and treat it as well as we can. We know the interdependent web of life includes all creatures from the sperm whale to the California condor and their protection takes international cooperation. One of the ways to further these principles is through the UN and its associated agencies – UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the International Labor Organization, and the many others.

The UN is made up of human beings and there has been waste, failure and abuse. But for every “Food for Oil” scandal there has been manifold good done. For every leader with a Nazi suspect past such as Kurt Waldheim, there have been thousands of people who have dedicated themselves to the concept of international cooperation . And though the United States is slow to fulfill its obligations to the UN and sends Ambassador Bolton, a man who does not necessarily have a high opinion of the UN, the United States does send an ambassador. Because we know that a global organization is an absolute necessity in this the Twenty-first Century. And that perhaps even, one day a true union of all of the nations of the world – one united world will come into existence And when that day comes to pass we can truly say – Amen and Blessed Be.