From the editor's desk

"Watchman, what of the night?" the old poem goes. What of the century, for that matter? What of the new century that's coming? What, indeed?

We asked some of our photographer friends to ponder this question: Do you have an image of what we will remember from the last 100 years, or a vision that will guide us toward the next? Several brave souls took us up on our offer. So look at the pictures. They are very beautiful, and unbearably sad. They are also images of great strength, testament to the enduring human spirit. The photographs are not "illustrations" for whatever article they appear near, but are sometimes commentaries on it, mirrors, echoes, reminders of other events, symbols of common impulses. As it happens, we know our friend Ellen Shub's archive best, and her work is particularly well represented. We're grateful to her.

This being Peacework, there are, of course, words--lots of them. James Matlack of AFSC's Washington office takes a broad view of the large issues and draws an imperative from the lessons he sees: that, despite stunning advances, we have not yet learned to "do equity." The rest flows from this. For instance, there are a lot of us--probably too many. Professor Bandarage's population analysis moves us beyond "we" and "they." And just as there has been First World privileging in conventional thinking about population issues, we are reminded that the very notion of a "millennium" privileges Western culture and the Christian calendar. Two teachers provide us with brief outlines of two different methods and customs for organizing our thoughts about the passage of time.

Then there's the big one--the intractable problem, enduring throughout the last thousand years, dogging us as we enter the next--the construct of race. We only scratch the surface here. But read closely. Racism is the sub-text of every agenda, from organizing and economic justice, through control of global corporations and Iraq sanctions, to uranium mining and the use of nuclear weapons.

What to do? Dave McReynolds, as the capstone of his distinguished career of trouble-making, offers us a platform for sensible governance. Will it happen tomorrow? Of course not. But piece by piece...

"Whose world? Our world. Whose streets? Our streets," chanted the demonstrators in Seattle blocking the World Trade Organization's meeting to plan its "millennium round." There was no business as usual. Well informed, well organized, and the overwhelming majority of them nonviolent, a new generation of protesters did their planning on the internet, and forged alliances that bode well. "Teamsters and Turtles--Together at Last" isn't simply a catchy phrase. It just might symbolize people ready to reach across differences. If that truly happens and goes on happening, it's reason to welcome Y2K.