Global or World citizenship is the idea that one’s identity transcends geography or political borders and that responsibilities or rights are derived from membership in a broader class: “humanity”.

Stupid borders! Stupid countries!

The air you and I are breathing – is it Spanish air? Is it American air? Ridiculous isn’t it. You have eaten food grown in dozens of other countries. It has become your body. Our very bodies are world bodies.

What lags behind the reality of being world citizens, is our thought patterns. Habits of identifying as “Minnesotans” “Mississippians” “Missourians” “Americans” etc. These old, narrow and false identities are useless when it comes to solving problems that affect us all – like the heating up of the planet.

In the last two months, we first had neighbors from Western Canada, then a young Polish couple, then a Russian couple and now a couple from Quebec. It’s always like meeting family we hadn’t known about.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights proposes a World Passport. Where everyone has the right to travel anywhere and return. Americans don’t notice this issue much because they can go so many places. There are a lot more restrictions for people from many other places.

One of the realizations that comes with Global Citizenship is how we are all interconnected and taking responsibility for how our decisions and lifestyle impact everyone else.

About 30% of the world strongly identifies themselves as “world citizens”. In the USA it is less than that, about 20%.

There are deep roots of this global identity. Let me leave you with some quotes:

‘I am a citizen of the world (kosmopolitês)’ Diogenes 412 B.C. Greece

“To us all towns are one, all men our kin.” The Tamil poet Kaniyan Poongundran

“my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.” Thomas Payne

“Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.” Albert Einstein

“The Earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.” Bahai’s founder