I have written on my diary, in previous posts, how despondent, depressed and exasperated I become about the horrid state our country is in at this moment. This pro-longed, slow-motion, train wreck has been painful to watch. Mostly because I feel that we have not been allowed to conduct any kind of rescue, no triage, nothing to mitigate the stupidity and horror. We have been forced to live, to some degree by the rules of the GOP Fail Doctrine.
When I came here to the Kos, I noticed a lot of angry, but articulate people. It was comforting to see them expressing themselves with such precision and care about things that I also care about. And not just one or two people, but a lot of people, both diarists and commenters alike.
It was comforting because it was permission for me to let some of that anger go. It's still there, but it doesn't have to be my main wardrobe piece that everything else must go with. So oddly, as bad as things are right now, finding all these concerned, articulate individuals caused me to feel relief.
If I am but one of many people who care and who are willing to do things about that caring, then there is hope. Then something useful and meaningful might be accomplished. Then some of this stupidity might be sent packing. And barring that, at least I am not alone in this particular version of hell.
You know what they say, Misery loves company.
As I read more and more of the diaries here, I also realized that I didn't have to repeat myself any more. I didn't have to go back to the beginning and start with the 3 branches of government, or recite the preamble or the Bill of Rights, in order to explain how checks and balances work, what revolving door politics are, or Dog Whistle Politics for that matter.
People knew what a Theocracy is, what a Plutocracy is, or an Oligarchy. You have no idea what a relief that is, when it feels like, for the past decade, I have met more and more adults who apparently skipped their American Government classes in high school and college. You get upset, and they give you that look--like a cow at a passing train, a total lack of comprehension, with their glazed eyes, and their cud chewing.
It was like a nightmare that I couldn't wake myself from. I would be say, "Did you see that? They can't do that! This is extraordinarily bad!" [usually something to do with the Patriot Act, or Privacy Issues, or faith based initiatives].
And then whomever on the other side of this conversation would just look at me like, "What? ...Say, let's go shopping and then you will forget all about freedom and rights and privacy, come-on whaddya say? Walmart has a sale on Ice Picks!"
And then I would think to myself, "hmmmm an icepick to the brain would feel mighty good right now. Then I would fit in, and would be incapable of feeling alarm, disgust or indignation."
Don't get me wrong, I took and do still take great comfort in home schooling my children. Making sure that they spent adequate time outside in nature, that they read the good, banned books, and have the good, "subversive" conversations.
But I missed feeling morally supported by people who really understood me and accepted me politically. I missed feeling like I belonged to a community. And so it is easy in the absence of that, to forget what it is you are fighting for.
Being outside in nature, with my camera helps remind me. The act of being in nature transcends snark, and stoopid, and hate. It is so vast, so comforting, so beautiful and mesmerizing that against it, we see the true magnitude of these miniscule creatures we call politicians.
They do wield a tremendous amount of power in our world, and they can screw things up for us, and contribute to screwing up our habitat [the planet], but they are still not a tornado, or a flood, or an earthquake. They are not the miraculous song of bees, or unfolding flowers. They have no magic that can compete with those things. They are simply arrogant, hairless apes, posturing for other hairless apes. They have fooled themselves into thinking they are above nature or outside of it. They are silly and inconsequential and they do not even know it.
Even those who attempt to ride on the back of religion, fall woefully short of spirit or spiritual power. As if covering up their ridiculous genitals with expensive suits will make them *NOT ridiculous while they pound their chests and their bibles, pretending to be exclusively made in the image of some god, they claim to control, but obviously barely know [historically or otherwise]. [Sorry Christians, but this ball's in your court, and it's in play--silence means compliance].
So I am finding another way see the issues of the day, another way to fight the good fight, but not with just anger. I want to fight it with inescapable truths, with beauty, with depth of spirit, and all the strength of simply being here.
Sometimes I am sorry that these spiritually impoverished creatures have forgotten how to see the world. But that doesn't mean I have to forget, or that you do. We don't have to be completely sucked into their hell full of hungry ghosts and re-animated corps.
All change starts locally. Since I am focusing on environmental concerns, especially pollinator conservation and related issues, I want to give you ideas. I want to remind each and every one of you how powerful you are. I will show you through my lens if you need it, but know that this perspective can be viewed through other filters and other issues.
I will hunt for more recent stats, but in this Bloomberg piece, from 2006, there are some sobering statistics.
Lawn care in the U.S. at this time is a 40 billion dollar industry. It stated that the notion of the perfect lawn was really a product of the post WWII housing boom. The greatest generation was looking to create a bit of suburban heaven.
This 2006 story stated there were 26 million leaf blowers in the US. Think of all the gasoline and the exhaust created by those tools. And 16,000 golf courses. I wonder what the mass is for their pesticide, herbicide and fungicide runoff now? And you know there are more of both--6 years later.
It's estimated that in the process of refueling their lawn mowers, leaf blowers and other garden equipment that Americans spill about 17 million gallons of gasoline every summer, or more oil than marred the Alaskan coast during the notorious Exxon Valdez disaster.
According to another article:
The Dark Side of Lawn Care,
[The] ...U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that about 80 million U.S. households dump nearly 90 million pounds of herbicides and pesticides on lawns in a year. In fact, lawn care is as much of a danger to our health and the environment as conventional agriculture is.
This article was also written in 2006, that must have been when the last set of statistics came out.
We also waste water.
Perfect lawns are a water-guzzling institution, and this is a problem in the U.S., where we're finding that fresh water supplies are running scarce.
That is because according to the other article, The Dark Side of Lawn Care, that 40 to 60 percent of water usage is for lawn care. That is just staggering to comprehend. We will poison our own water supply with lawn-chemical runoff, and then deplete those contaminated stores just to keep the grass green.
Why do we do this to ourselves?
So how does this make you powerful? You are the consumer. You buy the equipment, you pay for the service, you do the maintenance; you have the power to choose to consume more green products, to use more green techniques, and to reject materials and methods that are harmful and high maintenance.
You have the power to choose NOT to buy pesticides, and herbicides that are killing our soil and polluting our waterways while killing our pollinators. Whether you are a homeowner or a farmer--you have a choice.
You can choose to utilize water wisely.
We always have a choice.
At the end of the day, the lobbyists can lobby all they want. BUT They Cannot Make You Buy One Damn Thing!
And if you think that the once or twice a year you purchase these poisons, that if you should abstain that it would make no difference. And I would tell you, that you would be wrong. If enough of us choose to abstain from purchasing these poisons, then it will hit these companies in the pocket book.
You can always tell when *THE People are winning. These companies respond with aggressive ad campaigns.
Just look at the HFCS ad campaign and the BP Gulf ad campaigns. Those companies have already lost and they don't even know it. The people have spoken, the people have voted with their pocket books. No high-priced, lie-campaigns are going to change that.
Look at all the Big Bank commercials that were intensified after Bank Transfer Day. Americans, World-citizens boycotted BP products, and it hit them hard enough, that franchise owners had to change companies. We--The People, made them loose money.
We only need to stick together as people. There is power in community. And it is the aggregate of our money that makes the profit for these companies and politicians, and we can choose to withhold that at any time, for any reason.
We have the power to win the day. It doesn't always feel like it, but we do. And one way to remind ourselves, is to put down that GOP Filter, stop looking at the world through that, and truly see the world for what it is, and to see them--for what they are--not.