Is it just me, or is it unbelievable that Sarah Palin and her like-minded cronies can do so much damage in this world? Please, just let me take a minute to vent here. I am so beyond frustrated that some of the most stupid people in this world get to have their voices heard so loudly, while the normal rational people sit by and go unheard.
I guess it’s our own fault for not staging crazy scenes and posting them on You Tube. Or for not having a cable news station on which to cry all day and night. But, I can’t help but wonder – aren’t the wrong people angry?
I feel the same way about health care. Why is it that the uninsured sit silently by, grateful for any care they receive, while the well-insured march around demanding to be heard? Similarly, why is that those of us who actually want to continue living and breathing on this planet are completely overshadowed by a few crazy people who would rather make more money now at the expense of all future generations. These same people run around crying about the amount of taxes their children will have to pay, but could care less about whether there are any fish in the oceans for their children to enjoy. Or maybe they just think the fish are as “unlucky” as the polar bears?
(Note: I am a CPA, and of course always work to minimize tax liability. But, some things are just more imporatant than taxes.)
It seems to me that we should be the angry ones. Those of us that don’t want our oceans to turn into an acidic, plastic soup. Those of us that don’t want to drink contaminated water. Those of us that don’t want to see all of our green spaces disappear. And yet, we never speak up. We never go all bat-shit crazy on You Tube, running and screaming and making the news. Because we are rational and believe in rational thought.
But, I think we are making the wrong choice. No one cares enough to read articles and get the whole story on anything anymore. All anyone wants are just news blips, tweets, and thirty-second videos. Rational thought certainly doesn’t make the news, and apparently, it doesn’t get anything done.
So, what can we do? We, who are rational thinkers, who like to read the whole story before making an opinion. We, who try our best to make informed decisions in a world where information is way to difficult to come by. My best thought it to start with your politicians. Unfortunately, they are the ones who are going to make these decisions for us. Even more unforutnately, the only people they seem to listen to are the ones who speak the loudest. So, we need to get louder.
I read here that the number of Americans who “believe in” global warming has dropped by 8% since 2008. I was so struck by the wording – “believe in” – in this article. I am sorry, but is the fact that polar bears are dying out written in an ancient text, or something we can physically measure today? How about the giant icebergs floating around New Zealand – were those a mirage? Was Hurricane Katrina a myth? I just don’t understand how one doesn’t “believe in” global warming. Do these same people also not “believe” in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Or maybe they just don’t believe that humans caused it. Maybe they believe that God delivered unto us all of that plastic.
The article mentioned above goes on to explain that this reduction of belief in global warming in America with leave President Obama unable to act against Congress. Now, this is why we need to get vocal. We need to let our senators and representatives know that we do care, we do believe, and we want to be heard, too. We need to write letters. Lots of letters. We need to vote. We need to let our senators and representatives know that we vote.
If everyone who cared about this issue wrote three letters (one to each of your senators and one to your reprsentative in the house), our voices would be impossible to ignore. There will always be people like Michael Pollan, Al Gore, and No Impact Man who will make louder statements than the rest of us. But, we cannot sit around and wait for them to do all of the talking. We need to show that we are the majority, not the minority. That the rational thinkers matter and count in this country.
I urge all of you to write those three letters, long or short. It will make a difference.
Filed under: Green Philosophy
