by Collette Kaplan
Gasoline is nearing five dollars a gallon, unemployment increased by 5% last month, and the dollar is trading at an all time low. We have spent over 561 billion, yes, that's correct, 561 billion of our tax dollars on a war in Iraq with no end in sight. There is no real solution for the Iraqi people that would be palatable to them coming from the US yet we push on and spend on.
Our levees are spilling over from torrential rainfall. New York skips spring and heads right into sweltering heat in the triple digits. Corn is no longer corn, it's fuel and is trading at more than forty dollars a bushel. To environmentalists, the idea of corn being used as an alternative fuel source is now someones shortsighted idea instead of a solution, as we now face grain shortages and higher food prices.
Adding fuel to the fire so to speak, is the Western drought. Farmers in the Central Valley already preparing for the worst, have topped all of their trees. The same is true for the avocado farmers in San Diego.
California has a budget crisis. No money for infrastructure or natural disasters like wild fires.
Schools are showing test scores at there lowest point in a decade. College Deans report that cheating is rampant and reading is becoming something old people did, way back in the day. Wikapedia is where it's at man, who needs books?
The housing market that many of us are now out of, has cast a shadow on the long held belief that owning a home is security. Still, most of us are leveraged to the hilt with equity lines of credit to cover the high cost of living for our excesses, for ourselves and for our kids.
This is our reality and it is not pretty but there is still plenty of time for change.
Changing the way we think is the paradigm shift that has to occur in order to accomplish the good things that we want for ourselves and the good we want to accomplish as a nation
I have long held the belief, that we need stronger connections between our actions as individuals and actions as citizens. If we can't run our own houses the way we would have our government run our nation then we are going to have problems. It ties into the philosophy that we have to actually "BE" the change we want to see around us.
If we care about issues such as global warming, oil dependence, education, fiscal responsibility, then it would seem that more of us would try to actually do something about it. Positive action steps make it happen.
The same is true on issues of political ideology and policy. If Washington hears from us, they are more likely to listen.
As an activist for Darfur and Human Rights in general, I really want my elected officials to score well on these issues. When they don't, I let them know. The same is true for environmental issues.
While discussing the complexities of African Affairs with a close friend, she remarked that while the situation in Darfur is tragic, there is not much we can do about it with all of the other problems we are faced with.
There is much we can do about everything if we only would.
We all have the tools to create change for the better.
One of the easiest things all of us can do is pick up the phone or send and email to our elected officials to tell them what matters.
This single, positive action, has the potential for dramatic payoff in our society. So why don't Americans adopt the thinking that we check in with our kids, so too should we check in with our leadership?
We allow ourselves to be consumed by issues instead of taking action.
To me, the urgency of Genocide requires action.
Understanding Gandhi's proverb that advice should be like soft falling snow, I asked my friend the following:
"Other than feeling bad about Darfur, have you actually tried to do something about it? It might make actually make you feel better."
Below is the link to send an email, sign a petition, or obtain a phone number to make that call.
It's the same one I gave to my friend.
www.savedarfur.org
