It’s dark outside from the smoke that’s hanging over our island and all over the west coast. The corona virus is still with us, Trump is still President, black men get shot in the back, and on and on. Riots and mayhem and Qanon.
I was raised in the 50’s and, except for an occasional storm, grew up in a bubble. Pre-women’s rights, pre-black lives matter, pre-enlightenment. Ignorance is bliss only for the bubble dwellers.
We’re living in the real world now. A lot of folks don’t want to be real, they want to go back, back to the way things were. Except for the climate crisis, however, things weren’t great then for a lot of people. We were not exposed.
We’re exposed now and quite a few Americans don’t want to see it. No, no, no, they yell. No—take me back. Better to live in an old dystopia, rather than the current one.
We don’t get to do that. Time to open your eyes and see. What do you see? Fires burning, riots, violence, financial disparity, illness, and political ugliness.
And through it all, Trump provides the entertainment. He’s a reality denier, a liar.
What do I want for my children and their children? This is their world that they will have to fix. They will need to design their own future.
Impatience has always defined the American character. A strange naivete, enthusiasm and a can do anything spirit. Those qualities, if kept in check can lead to great things. If left in the hands of the greedy, immoral few who only want to fill their own pockets, it leads to a mess.
Do you remember the movie Elmer Gantry? He peddled religion like a snake oil salesman peddles fake remedies. He was very successful until, like the Wizard of Oz, he was exposed as a fake. America has always had a love affair with stories about exposing the “bad” guys. Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck and in recent times the movies– The Big Short, and Wolf of Wall Street. We love it and yet look who’s running our country.
It’s not only the Americans. This kind of thinking has spread all over the world. Grab what you can and win at any cost. Lie, steal, fuck your way to the top. It is a two year old mentality—me first. We teach our kids to share and then we unteach them in the real world.
The word greed comes from old English meaning voracious; always hungry for more. More money, more food, more sex, more, more, more. We celebrate more. Winners get more.
This is not just us and it’s not just recent. Jesus pulled down the temples, Saint Francis lived in a cave to escape the Church’s greed for power and glory and money. I am not arguing for us all to go live in caves, but, not to condemn people to live in tenements or out in the streets so that others can live in palaces. Equitable is the word I’m looking for. Fairness. Balance.
We can continue our crazy manner of living, or change. But that presupposes an educated electorate who can discern their best interest through the clouds of lies and fantasies spun by the folks in charge. When I use the word “their” I mean it in a collective, communal sense. “Their best interest” is not individualistic. It is not mine, but ours.
I looked out the window on this orange miasma and thought will the powerful hunker down in their air filtered universe and let the world burn down around them. Will they with their pots of gold, republican, democrat, old, young, brilliant and stupid simply let it burn while they hold on to their wealth.
This is the mandate for our children. Make this world work better. Base the change on mutuality. Make the world good enough for all.
Hello. Yes, this is Dog 