By Monday, snowplows had cleared out most of the Midwest's blizzard accumulations. The snowbound O.U.T.R.A.G.E. volunteers were on their way home after sobriety set in and they cleaned up the mess they'd made of Jil's bar. Down south in St. Kitts, O.U.T.R.A.G.E. think tanks kept thinking about how to revitalize American society.
In the spring of 2007, a 43-year-old California investor named Mohnish Parbral had bid a record-setting $650,100.00 at a charity auction for the opportunity to have lunch with billionaire investor Warren Buffett. "He has had a major influence on the way I invest," said Pabral, "and also in the way I give back." Having modeled his own investment strategies after Buffett's, Pabral continued, "To the extent societal rules or the wiring of your brains make it easy to acquire a lot of assets, then to the extent you can, you should try to improve the world." This simplistic philosophy was becoming a key component in the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. theory of "Equilateralism". For too many years, Americans (and much of the rest of the contemporary world) had squandered much of their wealth on themselves with little regard for those underdog nations and civilizations. Those who had accumulated massive mountains of money thought of themselves as industrious, hard-working, smart, savvy businesspeople; in their minds, those images of poor African children with flies buzzing around them were proof-positive of the third world's lack of ambition, motivation and enterprise. Why help them when they don't help themselves? In the late 1990's, Kiwanis International had stepped up to the plate and sponsored a worldwide effort to combat what was a little-known fact of life in underdeveloped countries. It was not that these people were inherently lazy, it was that they lacked sufficient iodine in their diets! Americans had, for decades, been blessed with a simple solution to this problem: iodized salt. In the early part of the twentieth century, even poor rural Americans often suffered from goiters, lethargy. and other health problems that were practically erradicated once iodine was added to table salt. The human body requires an infintesimal amount of iodine, but without it, the immune system breaks down. The Kiwanis organization had initiated a monumental effort that would add iodine to salt in remote villages throughout the world. The results were astonishing, as incidents of cretinism, physical and mental abnormalities and severe thyroid deficiencies were virtually eliminated in communities all over Africa, China and the poorer parts of Asia. People who had previously been seen as lazy, unmotivated and stupid were now able to lead more productive lives. "All because of a little bit of iodine being added to their deficient diets," said Ron Oetting, who - as a Lt. Governor of a Kiwanis regional division, had participated in the project. Instead of giving the money to state or local governments (where it could be stolen, squandered, or misused), Kiwanis built inexpensive salt processing factories in villages and towns so that the money was poured directly into the community. Not only did it provide direct aid to those who suffered iodine deficiencies, it also provided jobs in each community. Due to inadequate international publicity, the Kiwanis objective of $40 million fell short until the world's richest man, Bill Gates, offered to make up the difference. His infusion of millions of dollars made it possible for Kiwanians around the world to achieve their goal and make the world a better place.
A similar project was based out of Little Rock, Arkansas, where a non-profit organization with the unlikely name of Heifer International provided animals to individual families in poor communities. With the donation of a goat, a heifer, a pig or a few chickens, a poverty-stricken family in some unknown African village would be able to have milk or eggs, and often had enough left over to sell to, or share with, others. Heifer International had been making small differences in the world for years, yet few Americans even knew about the organization.
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. saw such outreach projects as imperative to its own mission. If the American psyche could be revived; if the average American millionaire could be persuaded to stop squandering his wealth on himself and start 'giving back' to those with less; if American attitudes toward the weak, the sick, the aged, the hungry, the underprivileged, the poor, the disabled, the disadvantaged, and the homeless could be changed, the concept of "Equilateralism" could successfully work to change the spirit of a nation. Bringing compassion, generosity, cooperation, spirituality, and - yes - even "love" into the forefront of a nation's standard was certainly one way to eliminate prejudice, bias, hatred, bigotry, poverty, and - yes - even 'war'.
The Kingdom of Brunei and the tiny nation of Bhutan seemed to have made such standards workable for their citizens. The charitable works of Heifer International and the world's 8,800 Kiwanis clubs seemed to have made such standards workable around the world. Why couldn't the United States of America become a new kind of world super power by offering fairness, equality, and love to all people everywhere??