I Should Do Something --- but What?

I find myself, for the first time, thinking about protesting.  With each day's headlines, I wonder if I should make some sort of grand gesture, even if it's futile.The evidence that we're heading down a bad road continues to pile up and I am seeing no signs of an imminent change of course.

1.  During Republican debates, the audience cheers at the prospect of letting people die.  And executing people.

2.  The US supports the Arab Spring everywhere but in Palestine.

3.  General Electric paid no taxes in  2010.  In fact, we paid THEM to keep making profits.

4.  During the recession, the largest banks have made a massive profit; but Moody's is now downgrading them because of the possibility that if their speculative investments begin to crash, it's possible the US government won't bail them out.  And that could create the very bank crisis scenario the pundits are dreading.

5.  The London riots got front page, first block coverage for days on every news station.  Protesters occupying Wall Street are being ignored by most press outlets.  But not by the NYPD.

6.  Our president will not sacrifice his ambition to the greater good. He made it clear from day one he wanted two terms.  Now, when nothing has made much of an impact on the recession, he will continue to play it safe to ensure his campaign coffers are full for his re-election campaign.

7.   There is no press but the Internet.  Rick Perry didn't win the Florida primary.  Neither did Mitt Romney.  Or anyone else I'd ever heard of.  But I still can tell you nothing about the man who won because the nightly news (NBC, in this instance) simply mentioned what a stunning upset it was, then did another story on the two candidates they already had stories on:  Mitt and Rick.
  Nice, Lester Holt.  Are you executive producer when you're at that fancy desk?

8.  College students can't find jobs.  So they're racking up more students loans to stay in school, hoping things will improve in a year or two.

9.  8.8 million people worked part time in August because it's the only work they could find.  16.1 percent of American workers are underemployed.  31% of the workforce was underemployed at some point in 2009.

10.  Desperation for cash is a major part of the conversation as states consider hydraulic fracturing, the effects of which were illustrated so pointedly in "Gasland".

There is fast money to be made.  The long term environmental impacts may be far more expensive to deal with.  How much does it cost to import enough drinking water for an entire state?  Several states?

That's just ten items off the top of my head.  The actual list is far longer.  I haven't even mentioned our multiple wars, the fortunes being made by hired mercenaries, our unhealthy mass produced food, our continued discrimination against people who don't look like us.

It's feeling like last days of the Roman Empire to me.  And the thought that keeps crossing my mind is that I should just start walking.  Walk from New York to California and back to Washington.  Criss cross the country, bring a recorder and document what I find along the way.  I know I'm a speck in the ocean, but if I did it long enough, maybe it might get some notice.  Maybe it'll force a conversation.  Or maybe I'm mixing up political activism with Forrest Gump.


 

Maybe a hunger strike?  I suspect I would starve to death before any real change occurred.

And so I feel helpless.  For now.  But if there were enough people like me, who are tired of emotional toddlers running the world, maybe there is something we could accomplish together.

Just Because You Think Everyone's Out to Get You...

The birds and fish mysteriously dying all over the world have really got me thinking. And not just wondering what's going on. I'm finding my own reaction to my questions pretty odd. Maybe you're experiencing the same thing.

Thousands of birds are dead. We're told it might be fireworks. Millions of fish and crabs are dead. It might be a temperature phenomenon.

I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty weak to me. And yet, the minute I start to question whether we're being told the truth, a part of me steps aside and starts to shake her head.

"You're becoming a conspiracy theorist," she says sadly. "Wack job territory lies ahead. Beware."

How have we been conditioned to so blindly accept everything we're told by those "in the know"? Hasn't it been proven time and again that the official reaction to a potential problem is not unvarnished truth but, instead, a bland and comforting message to keep reaction to a minimum?

I understand that. If there is a serious problem, there is some incentive to try to avoid a mass panic. But that breeds mistrust. Far better, in my opinion, to honestly say "We just don't know. We're trying to figure it out." Treat people like adults. Act like adults.

And if there is something going on that might lead to a problem and the link is made, tell people. There's nothing like public pressure to speed up reform and change.

This country was built on rebellion (along with some other traits which I'm not proud of). The settlers who arrived were misfits and outcasts who would not conform. They, of course, then tried to impose their own rules on the new land but eventually the freedom of a wild country won - and the mistrust of authority finally led to our independence from Britain.

The sixties, a time of intense turmoil and upheaval, were a time of intense questioning of authority. It seemed like everything was changing and, perhaps, the harsh light of day might burn away the worst of what had accumulated on this experiment in democracy.

But we've been tamed. We're told we must work within The System. Connecting the dots of motive and corruption is called conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theory is a synonym for paranoia.

We've bought it. We're the sheep we never believed we would be. We sit through ten minutes of commercials for drugs, makeup and useless garbage for five minutes of reality entertainment again and again without any action.

We spend hours telling people what we're having for lunch on Facebook. We escape into mindless computer games. Our kids frantically text each other in an effort to prove they're interested in each other's lives.

We are watching life happen instead of living it.

Our food is mass produced junk full of chemicals that is contributing to not only to our obesity and declining health, but animal cruelty and pollution. But say something and you're a crackpot.

Our climate is having wild mood swings that would seem a logical extension of the massive changes we've imposed on the environment. But that's crazy talk.

We glance disapprovingly as Pennsylvania dumps chemically polluted water from its horizontal gas wells into its streams and pure water all over the world is increasingly scarce. Investors are buying up water futures. We know it. And to say we're heading to a global drought is paranoia.

What is wrong here? Why, when you connect the dots, is it crazy? Why aren't we demanding things change? Why do we doubt ourselves?

Conditioning, apparently, has been successful. I'm not convinced there's a single person or group responsible. I think it's our philosophy that's doing it.

Capitalism, the great god Profit, is a master at protecting Its interests.

And even as I write all this, and believe it to be truth, I wonder if I'm just another fruitcake.

The World's Gone Crazy - Or Is It Just Me?

What the hell is going on, people? Seriously.

We've got a long-term oil problem in the Gulf, and suspicions that that shiny cap may lead to gas blowing out from other unstable areas of the sea bed, while BP spins the story to be, "Hey, if you want us to open it up and let it start spewing again, then it's on your head." Nobody willing to step up and say, "Do THIS." And then take responsibility.

The drug companies are trying to get the FDA to approve cholesterol-lowering medicine for kids. It's so much easier to give the kids a pill along with their vitamin, because everyone's working multiple jobs, nobody's able to be home to boot them out from in front of the television or the computer, take away the chips and say, "Go out. Play. Come home when it's dinner time." So the next generation sits on their widening little butts, not even knowing what they're missing. Besides - if they went out to play, there's probably no one else out there to play with.

A science blog actually agreed to let PepsiCo. host a page called "Food Frontiers."
Pepsi knows a lot about good, wholesome food, I'm sure we all agree.

Not surprisingly, they got slammed.


http://scienceblogs.com/seed/2010/07/transparency_regarding_food_fr.php

They took it down after their scientists starting leaving en masse in protest.\

http://scienceblogs.com/seed/2010/07/food_frontiers.php

Now that I'm a corporate type I realize that I'm totally losing touch with the natural world. I wake up, dress, drive to work, spend the day in an office, drive home, and spend my evening inside working on my book, my show, playing Freecell and trying to stay awake until 11. I am a hothouse flower and that is not me at all. But it is who many of us are.

It's unnatural. And it's dangerous. You could almost begin to forget that our lives rely on that world outside our windows.

There is one bright spot. A couple of years back I stumbled upon a small blurb about a proposal to lease drilling rights all over my area of New York for horizontal gas drilling. I did a series of stories and the news started to spread, thanks to some of the environmental groups I spoke with.

The movie "Gasland" is doing the rest. It was shown at a school auditorium nearby this past weekend and suddenly the entire region is mobilizing with online activists who are emailing, writing, calling and visiting their legislators, concerned that the hazards that Pennsylvania, Texas, West Virginia and other states which are already allowing hydrofracking are facing will be coming soon to a flaming sink near them.

I am impressed with the power of film. Similarly, our friends at Tribe of Heart are opening hearts and minds with their film, "Peaceable Kingdom". It's an attempt to reconnect that mental schism between our love for animals and how we get the food on our plates. They're winning awards all over the country and audiences are reacting thoughtfully, starting conversations, starting to talk - just as they'd hoped.

It's a Mad Mad World, my friends. But I don't think it's hopeless yet.