Author: Kelli

Today the world was supposed to end, again. But the evangelical Christian group counting on the end of days (an end in which they would naturally be spared) will just have to pick another date on the calendar. The world will go on, in its messy brilliance, and all the complex and terrifying problems that we don’t want to think about will still be there and waiting for the solutions that we, and only we, must come up with. And I almost feel for these souls, for I sense they are indeed lost and bewildered by the world. Some of these people, like all reactionaries, pine for a past that never actually existed. And others have been fed on a steady diet of hate and fear fed to them by a complicit media powered by corporations all too happy to cash in on that hate and fear. Do they have a choice? Sure, but coming to terms with the fact that the media and powers-that-be most certainly don’t have your best interests at heart is a painful passage.

It is so much easier to blame the other, and convenient to fixate on a group. When I was a kid it was welfare queens and Russians. Now it’s undocumented immigrants and Muslims. Women, poor people, gay people and communities of color also have had their turns as the outsider, leaving a ridiculously small population of privileged white males as “normal.” And that’s a distraction, and not fair to them either. Our man made problems are so formidable that an all-hands-on-deck approach is needed to fix them.

One made-made disaster I cannot get out of my head is the entrenched presence of guns in this country. A fresh and horrifying shooting always brings this out in me and I find myself not feeling so much numb, as the president said, but more radicalized. The death sticks gotta go.  I grew up in suburban Western New York where guns were around, but not part of the culture wars like they are now. I recall a friend with older brothers who hunted deer, but their shotguns were kept far away from every day family life. A kid from school’s dad may have shot himself after his business failed, shocking the community, but that kind of violence was rare. But if a neighborhood mother bought her troubled shut-in son guns (plural) as a form of therapy, condemnation from the local moms would be swift and harsh.

I think somewhere in the last couple of decades a meanness and paranoia crept into our collective consciousness, because why else would you even want to have weapons around? Fetishizing products made to deliver death is a terrible symbol for kids, who are just learning about conflict resolution. And the dangers requiring “protection” from are overstated. Even the cities have gotten inexplicably and dramatically safer, yet many of these 2nd amendment dead enders fantasize about protecting themselves and their property from intruders. And if that is your way of thinking, are you really comfortable with delivering a death penalty for someone who wants to steal your television? A women actually shot up a Home Depot this week trying to stop two shoplifters. Did she really think she could get past the guilt of  killing a man for stealing? I’ll take my chances with calling 911.

But as heated up about guns as I am right now, I also feel like it is a symptom. And even the kind of gun reform I wholeheartedly support wouldn’t fix the root, which is a kind of epidemic of alienation. We are alienated from our neighbors, communities and especially ourselves. And only by healing that wound do we even stand a chance.

How does that happen? I have no idea, but I am inspired by the words of the great Grace Lee Boggs, who recently died after 100 years on this earth. A committed activist, she did the work, but she also saw the big picture. She said, “The only way to survive is by taking care of one another.” And I am taking that to heart.

So are ya scared yet? Well, you should be. If the Ebola does not get you, the ISIL most certainly will. These latest DEFCON 1 threats to western civilization sure have managed to suck all the oxygen out of the room in spite of their limited scope. Never mind that malaria kills over half a million people annually and doesn’t get its own czar. Or that the Saudi Arabian government has publicly beheaded 59 people so far this year under their interpretation of sharia law for offenses such “apostasy, adultery and sorcery.”  That is not to say that the tactics of the Islamic State are not scary as hell. Of course they are! That is why it is called terrorism. And the faulty response to the first US case of Ebola certainly should give pause and make you wonder what other corners get cut in our unwieldy, profit-based healthcare system. But the biggest threats to our health and sanity are much closer to home.

Sometimes its too depressing to contemplate, when money is considered free speech, and you realize that the tear gas used on the streets of Ferguson was likely first tested on the people of Gaza. And the fact that you discover this while reading from a miraculous device that was most likely assembled by teenagers working in near slave labor conditions at the behest of one of the richest corporations on earth is enough to make you want to check out of the reality-based world, even if for a little while. But please don’t.

Because those in power already do think they can create their own reality. Want to change some environmental regulations so that your family company can make more profits? Then invest big money in politicians and think tanks to ensure that your environmental-destroying practices will be simply regarded as free enterprise and job creation. Want to convince an entire country that overthrowing a government and occupy a country posing no threat to the US just had to be done? Then concoct a gripping story for the rubes (all of us), and chide those who dare to call them on their bullshit as unpatriotic–even when it becomes clear that your plan was, all along, to secure record profits for the oil and defense industries.

But what can we do?

To start with, let’s ask ourselves what kind of world we would like to see and go backwards from there. Want intelligent citizens engaged in the political process? Invest in education and make pre-school through college free. How about less violence? End the failed war on drugs and address the abuse of legal and illegal drugs as a public health issue. It won’t be easy, but maybe those millions spent on prisons can be repurposed for treatment, counseling and public education. And stop letting the gun lobby call the shots. Regulate firearms stringently and put sensible plans into place to have fewer, not more, guns in the country. Because stockpiling weapons is not a symbol of “freedom,” it is a reaction to fear.

Let’s make stewardship of the planet a national project. It is still where we all have to live, and conserving and maintaining it shouldn’t be a left vs. right political game. We have to invest heavily in renewable energy, and encourage universities and businesses to seek sustainability.

Gross economic inequality? Tax wealth, not labor, and put policies into place that help everyone, not just the 1%. That can range from a liveable minimum wage to strengthening labor movements to building a single payer health system so that no one goes bankrupt when their kid gets sick. And think about what a basic income could really mean for the nation.

The others, the ones currently calling the shots are creating their own reality and they have been for a long time. They can, and will, push back against any sensible reform that will in any way empower regular people, the 99%, to have greater power over their own lives. This power threatens them and their wildly out-of-balance gilded lives. And they are scared, too. But the ruthless, bordering-on-sociopathic self-interest that has flourished in the boardrooms and backrooms where rich white men congregate is reaching its sell-by date. And something will need to take its place.

So start small. Become engaged in local politics. Find that one cool issue that resonates with you, and learn everything you can about it. Talk to your neighbors. Listen. And participate in something, anything. Just don’t do nothing. That’s what the powers that be are already counting on.