I love a good dystopia and the AMC’s Walking Dead fills the bill. Not because I harbor any fantasies of keeping an AK47 under my bed to stop the zombie hordes. No, I could do without the gratuitous violence. But the show does speak to me about the destruction of the things we love, leaving us with soulless corpses, greedy mouths gaping, groping hands reaching out to grab and devour and perpetuate the soullessness. It’s about the hollowing out of life and goodness for the sake of money. Oops. Did I say money? Here is where I start equating the zombie virus with corporate greed. Where day after day, I read about corporations like Monsanto and their suicide seeds or the fracking rush, hell bent on destroying our landscapes and poisoning our water supply, and I think of the zombies of the Walking Dead and wonder how we will survive this constant onslaught of corporate insanity and greed. And just like the zombies in the show, while my eyes have been fixed on the zombie villains lumbering towards me, it’s the sleeper zombie lying seemingly harmless in the corner that grabs my leg at the last minute and takes a bite.
Startled by a Sleeper Zombie
Who would have thought that the Girl Scouts, the organization whose law teaches girls to be honest and fair, considerate and caring, and to respect others, had become so corporatized and top-heavy that they would ignore their major strengths, camping and the outdoors, and set off on a major bait and switch campaign? Not me. Of all the things I was worried about in our brave new world, I was not worried about the Girl Scouts. After all, they had faithfully carried out the vision of Juliette Gordon Lowe for the last 100 years. Thus, I was taken totally off-guard to read about the proposed sale of four camps in my home state of Iowa. How could this be happening? How could they sell off something that had had such an impact on me and my friends, growing up? Something that had provided leadership skills for countless girls. Something I still felt to be a valuable resource for future generations of girls?
more after the squiggle....
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