Restoring the middle class to what?

We are currently in the Red Zone of an Air Quality Alert. The Alert continues through 6 am Friday. This, and conditions like it, make me fuss and fret and fume about the kind of world my almost three year old granddaughter will inherit. Meanwhile, much of mainstream media and social media is agog over the federal indictment of a former president who should never have been nominated, let alone elected.

Current air quality conditions 6/14/23 ~4:30 pm

Locally, we’re back in a moderate drought. I’m glad I’m not a local farmer with corn in the field. Of course, if much of that corn is being raised as a feedstock for biofuels or animal feed, any sympathy I have is sorely tested. There’s a new farm bill being drafted. Any bets on whether it will have air or water quality mandates as prerequisites for any kind of federal subsidies?

President Biden and the Democrats are touting their successes at restoring the middle class and growing the economy. Have they done anything to educate the American public about the fact that we’re living on borrowed time (see preceding two paragraphs)? If politics is always a short term game won by pandering to US voters, where and when does a long game of preserving and restoring our home planet come into play? As those older and wiser than I have noted, “There are no jobs on a dead planet!” Meanwhile, The Guardian informs US that Shell drops target to cut oil production as CEO aims for higher profits.

I would suggest those of US with descendants, or who hope to have some, consider a flat out revolution that results in the only corporate entities allowed to exist have to be:

• certified B corps  
• fair trade certified
• compatible and consistent with Patagonia’s Supply Chain Environmental Responsibility Program
• if an extractive industry, a member of an operating in accord with the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance standards and audits.

What would you add to this list? The pieces of the puzzle of creating a sustainable world are here, we need to make sure those we elect and buy from support a thriving future for US. We’re not there yet, in part because we waste way too much time on trivia.

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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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.