In the Prologue to his second memoir Dear World: A Global Odyssey, World Citizen Garry Davis wrote, “My favorite pursuit, my pastime, my obsession, my real and true love is… the world! For me it is a living being, ancient, majestic, terrible and awesome in power, not merely the natural world but the mystical, the conceptual inspiring wholeness, indeed, holiness of it. This is a love letter to our precious, vibrant, enduring, embraceable… One World.”
As a Citizen of One World, Garry spent his entire adult life, until his death at the age of 91, advocating for peace, justice, sustainability, world law, and world government. As a young man, Garry hadn’t yet developed a world perspective or learned to think holistically. He hadn’t come to the realization that humanity and the Earth’s survival depend upon us moving beyond our local identities to embrace our status as citizens of the world.
Garry was an actor, a song and dance comedian who just wanted to make people laugh. Then World War II awakened him from introspection to the harsh reality of violence and lawlessness of a divided world. Why did a decorated hero, a WWII bomber pilot, and Broadway star decide to give up his American citizenship in favor of world citizenship?
Garry’s journey to world citizenship started when his older brother, who he admired, was killed. A torpedo hit the battleship in Salerno in 1943 on which Meyer Davis Jr. was a naval reservist. Embittered and wanting revenge, Garry enlisted in the air corps to bomb Hitler’s war factories. Then, as a bomber pilot, he was ordered to attack Brandenburg, Germany. Dropping bombs from 25,000 feet in the air in a B-17 “Flying Fortress,” he began to question why his brother was killed, and why he was killing brothers, sisters, parents, and children. Returning from the mission, he saw the newsreels of the devastation. His desire for revenge quickly turned into humiliation, remorse, and anger toward the nation-state system that forced him to kill other humans.
