The time has come
To say fairs fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share...
How do we dance while our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning
Beds Are Burning lyrics; Midnight Oil
Recent polling suggusts that the majority of Americans believe that the response from our President over the horror in the Gulf has not been sufficient and do not feel confident in his abilities to handle a crisis situation. I cannot help but recall the children's book "The Seven Chinese Brothers" when I consider these poll numbers.
I'll admit the only thing that I remember about the book was that one of the brothers swallowed the sea for reasons that elude my memory. Do we expect that the President should "swallow the sea" as one of the brothers did in the book and then spit it back out minus the oil and dispersants? Can we be so simple of thought as to believe that one man can be held responsible for this disaster and that we as citizens bear no culpability for this calamity? I too have my frustrations, but realize that it is not me who must wrangle with the opposition day in and day out, and not me who must work within the confines of a broken system a long time in the making. It is easy for all of us to imagine that we could do better, but the reality would most certainly prove otherwise. I don't know how the man gets out of bed in the morning with all of the inherited and currently occuring events on his agenda.
The fact is that we as Americans are as responsible as the oil industry and the government (whom we have elected) for this impossible situation we find ouselves in. We have allowed these events to occur through indifference, selfishness and arrogance even though we have been warned of the error of our ways for decades. There is a price to pay for our relentless consumption and our political ambivalence. We have elected the leaders who have regarded regulation of the oil industry as a travesty of justice while we continued to purchase the largest, least efficient vehicles we could get our hands on, often for vanity's sake, all the while bemoaning the cost of fuel. We have allowed fear for our safety to justify the disregard for our privacy, rights as citizens to due process and violations of international law, while continuing to fund, through our excessive consumption, the insatiable appetities of those terrorists and industries who seek to do us harm and who have no regard for the future of their own offspring and descendants despite their assertions to the contrary. As Americans we must take a stand on our own behalf and provide more than lip service to future generations. We can behave humanely and spend money now to tackle these enormous environmental, security and economic problems we face as a nation and as members of the global community and leave our kids and grandkids with some debt, or we can continue on this path of destruction we are on and leave them nothing at all. The choice is up to us.
It is not only fossil fuels that we greedily consume, but food as well. We live as though the threat of famine is our greatest and most immediate concern. Food portions have grown to the point of absurdity. What used to be two or even three meals in now one giant meal, yet there has not been a decline in the number of meals we consume in a day. Human beings simply do not need so much food, especially while being so physically inactive. The raising, transport and rendering of meat products to the degree that we do has devastating consequences on our environment and health. The resources required to produce this food source cannot be sustained at our current level of consumption. If every American found one small way to cut their own consumption, whether fuel or food, the positive effects would be no less than profound.
If we don't determine our own future as citizens, by being aware of the events unfolding around us and rationally, without undue emotion, consider the consequences of the actions we take as a nation, then who will? Take your pick. There are plenty out there who salivate at the prospect of taking this choice away from you.
Are we nothing but hapless victims at the mercy of others, or are we a strong, capable, resilient people? I prefer to believe the latter.