Move for reconsideration!

The longer I live, the more it becomes evident to me that the world in which we live is imperfect, as am I. Despite that growing awareness, or perhaps because of it, I continue to struggle with the question of how to live happily and effectively in such a world. The question has been compounded by the growing affects of climate weirding, diminishment of biodiversity, increasing levels and types of global pollution, viral pandemics, and continuing failures of human institutions to effectively respond to events that present existential threats to our future as a viable species.

Consideration of our foundational documents offers little help. On the one hand, we are seeing increasing fragmentation of the values which once bound US together as a nation. We also have laws against the overthrow of our government(s). And yet the Declaration of Independence unequivocally states

... Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness ...

SCOTUS has found that corporations should enjoy personhood and that money is speech. And yet, corporations are not subject to any death penalty, as are the rest of US persons, and corporate executives are heavily shielded from the consequences of wrong-doing in their jobs. As a result, we are faced with reports describing situations such as

a new study from Stockholm University reports the amount of PFAS in rainwater exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Lifetime Drinking Water Health Advisory levels. Researchers also found rainwater is often above Environmental Quality Standard for Inland European Union Surface Water. 

I’ve not yet seen criminal charges associated with such findings, have you? Doesn’t such a condition effect your “Safety and Happiness,” especially if you enjoy fishing and hope to be able to safely consume any success from your angling, only to learn

A new study by Environmental Working Group scientists finds that consumption of just a single serving of freshwater fish per year could be equal to a month of drinking water laced with the “forever chemical” PFOS at high levels that may be harmful.

Is it safe to eat fish from this stream? Are you sure?

Photo by J. Harrington

All of the preceding is before we begin to consider whether our taxing and policing systems are at all equitable, whether our education systems teach values of which we can be proud, and why  we  have one of the more expensive and less effective “health care” systems in the developed world. Finally, it seems as though the situation isn’t significantly improved no matter who we vote for. It’s not the economy, stupid, it’s the stupid systems and the more stupid people who continue to support them. If money only buys US polluted food and water, what good is it?

Once the World Was Perfect

By Joy Harjo

Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.

Then we took it for granted.

Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind.

Then Doubt pushed through with its spiked head.

And once Doubt ruptured the web,

All manner of demon thoughts

Jumped through—

We destroyed the world we had been given

For inspiration, for life—

Each stone of jealousy, each stone

Of fear, greed, envy, and hatred, put out the light.

No one was without a stone in his or her hand.

There we were,

Right back where we had started.

We were bumping into each other

In the dark.

And now we had no place to live, since we didn't know

How to live with each other.

Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another

And shared a blanket.

A spark of kindness made a light.

The light made an opening in the darkness.

Everyone worked together to make a ladder.

A Wind Clan person climbed out first into the next world,

And then the other clans, the children of those clans, their children,

And their children, all the way through time—

To now, into this morning light to you.

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