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For over 20 years, my husband has worked for defense contractors which has left him a bit jaded and questioning any "authority." Five years ago he announced to me that he no longer votes saying, "Why should I give my decision making power over to idiots"? He then added, "It's time for people to grab their pitchforks, file down the tines and head to the streets."
Ouch! Back then that seemed a bit harsh even for me, but today I'm seeing "pitchforks" popping up everywhere, even on NPR and in such conservative holdings as Saddleback Church. They all are saying the same thing, it's time to take climate change/poverty/food/whatever... matters out of politics and back into our own hands.
Safe, nutritional food production
This weekend Lynne Rossetto Kasper, show host of the Splendid Table on NPR interviewed Marion Nestle a nutritionist and author of What to Eat. Marion was commenting on how little Washington does to protect our food sources and the futility of expecting a new administration to change a flawed system which is completely influenced by power and money. She compared the amount of cash that goes into consumer education/protection against the billions that goes into the promotion of, say, sugary cereal. Money always wins -first lobbyists buy legislative votes, then the marketing departments buy our mindshare.
To fight back she suggests we don't have to get aggressive, we can transform our salad forks into pitchforks by sinking them into organic and locally grown food we get from a Farmer's Market. After that, we can turn that simple dinner into a blog post and we inspire others to turn into climate change agents.
Ok, maybe I'm a little jaded as well.
If politics as usual worked, we would have eliminated obesity/starvation and maybe half of the problems that require expensive healthcare. Food is the most important need followed by clothing and shelter. There is a direct relationship between living and dying without it, however it gets buried in importance. Given that, what chance does Climate Change action have in DC? It took a court order for the White to release the Climate Change Report. After years of denying it, the Bush White House report admits that Climate Change is a man-made issue that needs man-made corrections and yet politics keep getting in the way of policies.
The tail is now wagging the dog.
Even Rick Warren, the leader of Saddleback Church the Christian mega church and recent TIME cover boy is questioning authority and is putting on his own forum this Thursday to do just that.
Warren has been a big republican supporter in the last two elections, but this time he's changing the support game, rather than taking sides on divisive issues (gay marriage, abortion), he wants both parties to focus on Saddleback's higher calling of uniting issues such as "poverty, HIV/AIDS, Climate Change and human rights." He also wants to address civics-class topics like the candidate's understanding of the role of the Constitution.
I'm not a Christian, at best I'm a Pantheist, but I'll be listening to the streamed debate on August 16th to hear what resonates with the conservative, republican Orange County crowd when the goal is to learn who will be better at working on global solutions for the world of hurt that we're in.
What's your pitchfork issue?
I'd be very curious to hear what issues would drive you to the streets with your pitchfork in hand. What revolutionary event has to take place?
Sustainable Product Standards is what I'm taking to the streets. We have to combat Climate Change using the biggest lever we can find. That lever is the global economy. Even China respects profit. The problem is, without a scorecard/standard for comparison, Wall Street or China can't compare green apples to green apples and that stalls investments, unravels good intentions and works against all the energy saving efforts we do as individuals. If Wall Street doesn't get their trillions behind something, it won't matter how many cloth grocery bags we use.
Push back or push forward?
For me, I'll always err on the side of trying and hope that my trying will inspire others. Come November I'll still vote, but this year I'm also going to hedge my bet and keep my pitchfork polished.
