[Think] Re: Save the World!

[Fen Labalme]

Pete's note got me to thinking.  Wow - "macabre" indeed, but a gruesome
hope for the continuation of life on the planet.

I, too, have recently been depressed about issues too big to easily
understand, though mine have generally been a bit smaller than those that
Peter has been grappling with, having to do with U.S. corporate-driven social
and political policies. Perhaps they are small enough that I can actually
still have some hope of seeing change happen in my lifetime, though I may be
deluding myself.

How is it that this country has become so like what Orwell predicted in the
book _1984_ <http://www.activism.net/pipermail/think/2002-August/000038.html>?

Why have We The People let the interests of lobbyists representing Big Money
set the course of our country?  Why, in this computer age, is not every
dollar that goes in and out of our government's hands publicly recorded?

How do we turn our backs to the tens of thousands of civilians killed as in
Afghanistan or the hundreds of thousands killed in Iraq that are barely
reported in our news papers as "collateral damage"?  All for access to the
dwindling oil supply (that will soon become of huge strategic importance).

When will it get to much for the American public to continue to allow
"business as usual" to destroy the environment of the only planet we have to
live on?

It's time to do something about it - but how?  All the organizations listed
at http://www.activism.net/ combined have less then one tenth the budget of
AT&T which has less that one-tenth the budget of IBM which has less than
one-tenth the budget of GE.

I used to organize civil disobedience actions and get arrested (and may do so
again).  With http://www.OpenPrivacy.org I tried to level the playing field
between corporations and consumers.  Now, I realize nothing is more important
than giving my son Steven love, respect, total honesty and every opportunity
to learn and grow and understand the world around him.  He may be able to
succeed where I have not (as yet).  Being a parent is a very powerful form of
activism - and looking at the world in its current state makes me realize
just how crucial it is that I do my job well.  There's no time to waste.

Peace,
Fen

      It would be easy for us, if we do not learn to understand the
      world and appreciate the rights, privileges and duties of all
      other countries and peoples, to represent in our power the same
      danger to the world that fascism did.
                                           -- Ernest Hemingway


PS: I forgot to include Pete's excellent .sig quote:

     The single most powerful faction in politics today is not
     liberalism or conservatism, but privilege and corruption.
                                           -- Paul Kienitz