It’s all well and good to call for a social revolution – but when it comes right down to it what can you or I, as a single individual, do to really inspire change? It is not a simple question to answer. I often feel powerless against what seem like irreversible forces that wield power and have their own agendas. There’s no way I can talk to George W. Bush directly, much less the ultra-powerful heads of private industry who are even less transparent than our politicians. It feels like I’m in a card game playing with twos and threes while the dealer is playing with all the face cards and aces.
But revolution can start with each of us if we’re willing to take some small steps. Myself I have become a proponent of radical de-centralization of power. The closer we can keep our tax dollars to home the more likely we are to get accurate representation from our elected officials. Here are a few ideas.
You are What You Eat
One of the easiest and most essential things you can do is start paying careful attention to what and where you eat and drink. Make a point of frequenting locally owned eateries. Better yet eat at locally owned restaurants that get their food from local growers and suppliers. There is a growing slow food movement and we could not live in a better place to eat local produce. Everything grows here in this rich river loam!
Go Veggie!
I gave up eating meat a few years ago for a variety of reasons. First and foremost I feel badly for the animals that spend their lives living in squalor only to be slaughtered. But secondly I am skeptical about the safety of our national meat industries. Scathing books and exposes have been written on the subject but there is so much commotion that they are easily dismissed. But consider for a moment what has to happen with thousands upon thousands of animals living in impacted quarters. Antibiotics and steroids are used in tremendous quantities in order to keep the animals growing fast enough, large enough, and to keep them “healthy” enough to get from birth to slaughter. The antibiotics are what scare me. Without them diseases would decimate these herds and flocks of caged animals. It isn’t a natural way for animals to live and the common sense part of my brain tells me that cannot be healthy down the line for those of us who consume this industry –created product.
Think About It!
Sometimes we have to put on our blinders to deal with a society that is increasingly ethically out of whack. We have enough to worry about in our day to day life without having to ponder how the kid who sewed our underpants together lives or where the hamburger we just ate really came from. We don’t want to recognize that rain forest is being cut down to the tune of 80,000 acres per day in order to make grazing land for cattle. But this “necessity” to not think about things is just plain and simple avoidance. Think about how you live, make sacrifices where you can, and lead a more integrated and ethical lifestyle. Small changes will create a greater sense of well-being and balance.
Drive Less
We can talk bio-fuels and hybrids and carbon emission capturing until the cows come home but in the mean-time a very simple thing we can almost all do is drive less. Also keep your car tuned up and the oil changed. This increases mileage.
Cash is King
Buy locally and trade whenever you can. Deal in cash. I’m not saying you should avoid paying your taxes; that would be illegal. But our taxes are financing a dubious war and a renegade Federal Government. Now if only we could convince the Feds to stop spending money they don’t have.
Write Your Congressperson!
I write to Congressman Wally Herger on a regular basis and have also written to assemblyman Rick Keene, as well as Senators Barbara Boxer, John McCain, and Nancy Pelosi. I don’t even count the e-mails I’ve fired off to the White House – they don’t even pretend to care. But our local representatives have been very good about getting back to me in a timely manner. I don’t always agree with what they have to say but I appreciate that someone on their staff actually reads and takes the time to respond to my letters.
They’ll never hear you if you don’t make some noise!
Got any ideas? E-mail madbob@madbob.com
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