Happy Interdependence Day

As we approach yet another Independence Day, it may be wise to recall a wonderful quotation that Bill McKibben offered about 25 years ago:

The laws of Congress and the laws of physics have grown increasingly divergent, and the laws of physics are not likely to yield.

Bill McKibben

I offer his quotation because this morning I read an assessment that purports to explain why so much of the world is turning toward the right. A link is offered below in hopes you’ll consider following it and reading the article, not because I believe it’s entirely explanatory, but because so far it’s the only attempt I’ve seen that even tries to provide an explanation of what’s going on in our world. (I’m not including my theory of Martians hiding behind the moon with a ray that makes people even more stupid.) Here’s the link, courtesy of the good folks at Centre for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy: Democracy Trumped at the Limits to Growth. Our society is, and has been for a long time, based on the premise of perpetual growth to make things better. That’s inconsistent with living on a finite planet, as we’ve been experiencing the past few decades. Not only is there No Planet B, there is no “away” to which we can throw things. Perhaps it’s time for independence to be realized as interdependence day?

I am the People, the Mob

Carl Sandburg
1878 – 1967

I am the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the world's food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons come from me and the Lincolns. They die. And then I send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me. I forget. The best of me is sucked out and wasted. I forget. Everything but Death comes to me and makes me work and give up what I have. And I forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red drops for history to remember. Then—I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer forget who robbed me last year, who played me for a fool—then there will be no speaker in all the world say the name: "The People," with any fleck of a sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.
The mob—the crowd—the mass—will arrive then.

If at first, ....

I remember reading, some years ago, about an old lady who claimed "I don't vote. It just encourages them.” While her attitude is certainly understandable, it isn’t productive. There are beneficial responses to the current conditions we face. Some of them can be found here:

• Institute for Local Self-Reliance [ILSR]


• The Bioneers


• Institute for Humane Education


• Indigenous Ecology Lab


• Citizen Connect

There are other organizations also focused on healing rather than hatred; collaboration instead of division; and creation rather than destruction. Follow one or all of the above links as you keep in mind that “more of the same never solved a problem” and that “insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.” Also, from my Boston boyhood: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

what may emerge from behind our clouds?

Photo by J. Harrington

Just as nature abhors a monoculture, we have brought to a logical extreme two party democracy, oligarchical capitalistic monopoly and neoliberalism. I’m not sure whether to be encouraged that we are not alone in suffering outrageous stupidity and shortsightedness from our institutions and those who would lead US. Britain has gone through Brexit. France and others are seeing the rising of the Right. Contentiousness is growing. All that’s missing so far is the spaceship full of aliens, scheduled to arrive this Thursday.

There are no kings in America 

Aileen Cassinetto

we are not that kind of country.

We are sanctuary for the hungry,

the homeless, the huddled,

held together by an idea

our immigrant fathers believed in.

Rendered, it meant independence.

Pursued, it kindled war, ordinance,

a fighting chance. Forty thousand

musket balls, by themselves, did not

shape the boundaries on which we

map our days. To draw our borders,

we needed more than firecakes.

More than a pound of meat

with bone and gristle,

or salt fish and a gill of peas.

We needed the faith and grit of people

who were not yet Americans.

To be an American is to

recognize the sacrifice

of the widow and the orphan;

it is to understand the weft of tent

cities expecting caravans,

and the heft of a child in a camp

not meant for children, or sitting

before a judge awaiting judgement.

What do we say to the native

whose lands we now inhabit?

What do we say to our immigrant

fathers who held certain truths

to be self-evident?

Do we now still pledge to each

other our lives, our fortunes,

our sacred honor.

There are no kings in America.

Only gilded men we can topple

again and again.

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

All Hands: On Deck or Be Decked

1. Please find me in contempt of the Roberts’ SCOTUS.
2. Also, dismayed by POTUS performance at the recent “debate.”
3. Disgusted that our political parties have put our democracy in this position and condition.
4. Frustrated by the lack of a clear course of action to make things better.
5. Absolutely refusing to throw up (my hands) in despair.

Where does that leave US?

1. Make sure you’re registered to vote and mark November 5 on your calendar.
2. If you haven’t yet, please read Sarah Kendzior’s Hiding in Plain Sight and The View from Flyover Country.
3. Also read Heather Cox Richardson’s Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America and subscribe (free or paid) to her Letters from an American.
4. Remember that it won’t be enough for Democrats to have a trifecta if they don’t make necessary systemic changes to our systems of governance. The operative phrase is “No more Mr./Ms./Whatever Nice Guy/Gal/Other"
5. If you’re not worn out by the preceding, take a look at the idea of being a Solutionary and see if you can get your local school and government to include it.
6. Remember Kris Kristofferson’s great lyrics:

“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose
 Nothin' ain't worth nothin' but it's free"

If you have additional suggestions on how we can and should fix our longstanding governance problems, please feel free to leave a message.

Freedom

By Jill McDonough

I talk to the students in jail about freedom, how in America

we obsess over it, write it over flags on T-shirts, spread

it around under eagles. It has something to do with guns

and fireworks, Harley-Davidsons, New Hampshire, living free

until you’re dead. I tell the students I think the people

fetishizing freedom don’t mean it. That they really mean

look over here, away from all the slavery

we did, away from all the jail! I tell them they

are the experts, ask them to write what freedom means:

privacy is freedom and if  you feel held back, afraid

to do something, you’re not completely free.   No fear

of  loss. No fear of  hunger, no fear of  pain.   A body

to call my own, a voice driven by my own mind.

The security of a dry, warm place to sleep.   To own

my own time left here.   Being able to hold my son

at night.   Showering in private.   Freedom to me

is having the choice to walk away from a fight. Freedom

a work in progress. Everyday freedom, the real work for us all.

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