Courage To Change the Things I Can

So the weather is bleak one day, what do we do? We live with it and move on. We cannot change it. We can only adapt to it, accept it.

A problem arises in your day, what do you do? You assess whether you can do anything about it or not. If you can you take steps to make a difference. If you cannot, you leave it alone and move on with other life items.

Here are some quotes to make us think afresh on some old problems:

Hugo Chavez, now deceased leader of Venezuela, said:

            “If the climate were a bank, they would already have saved it.”

Because oil industry forces are pitted against cleaning up the environment because they fear restrictions on their industry, the world environmental crisis continues. To know this is true observe British Petroleum’s TV ads claiming their expenditures of over $20 billion to clean up the Gulf of Mexico shoreline in the American southeast. First, the $20 billion was imposed on them by the Obama Administration. Second, the rules to disburse the recovery fund became so complicated that nearly half the funds remain in the bank! Third, all independent sources report long-standing or permanent damage to the ecology of the region continues in spite of BP’s remediation efforts.  In short they did what they had to do because others were telling them so, and even then they didn't do all, or spend all. And they have gone on to do more damage to the globe’s ecology in other regions.

It is about time we got serious about solving this problem. It will disrupt some old and fusty industries. But new ones will replace them. In fact, if the old ones took the message seriously, they could reinvent themselves as the new industries: non-oil energy resources, ecology partners to solve common health problems, and others.

Long ago, Eleanor Roosevelt made this statement:

“I am opposed to ‘right to work’ legislation because it does nothing for working people, but instead gives employers the right to exploit labor.”

Those words have proven true over and over again. Yet the arguments persist. A balance of power between workers and employers is begged. Union power is not what it used to be. Nor should it be all-powerful. But neither should employer rights make slaves of the work force they depend on to make their products and services for the market.  Let’s get real!

Assassinated gay political leader Harvey Milk once made this statement:

            “Rights are won only by those who make their voices heard.”

Whether gay rights are the issue or women’s rights, or immigration justice…we have much to reckon with in the future. There are those who have been hurt, continue to be hurt, and in some cases outright murdered by those who oppose them. America is a democracy. Not a bully. Its people need to own up to this reality.  My people do.

This is our nation and our culture. We share it with everyone else. And our form of government is designed to make all of that sharing happen. Yet we live with so many mysteries that destroy rights.

What a shame.

September 25, 2013