The high road is safer
Steps We Can Take
Everybody wants change and a better future. But, since we can't agree on how to get there or even on what a better world would look like, we can only take relatively small actions that everybody can agree on.
Here are some changes I'd like to see made or at least discussed:
+ unanimous commitment to immediately go full steam ahead to transition from fossil fuels. The longer we wait the even greater consequences - both international and environmental. In the opinion of some, already inevitable great tragedies are in the works because of our past actions and inactions. We may soon no longer have the ability to do anything.
+ expanded public transit between Hazelwood and Oakland
+ boarding stops made by the now-empty express buses inbound during the afternoon rush hour to pick up riders in Hazelwood
+ adoption of the hazelnut tree as emblematic of our desire to get to a greener future while recognizing the past. Hazelwood didn't originally have coal dust or diesel fumes or boarded up broken windows; it had hazelnut trees and and babbling brooks and fish jumping out of the water.
+honest and thorough public discussion of how twisted our legal system has become and concrete moves to improve it. There are many laws that allow people who are being destructive in one way or another to continue to do so. Pick your own examples of the law gone awry. I have my own favorite rants, from:
allowing illegal drug users to terrorize their neighorhoods and drive down property values and destroy the whole community's peace of mind in a vain quest to afford the perfect high;
to
allowing pharmaceutical companies to continue to market drugs which are just as dangerous or more so than some of the ones currently illegal;
to
corporations which allow their bottom lines to literally kill and torture people for profit - whether by pollution or monopolizing services or laws that allow planned obsolence and consequent massive waste - sacrificing quality to profit or so many other types of unethical behavior;
to
laws that allow business competition to be stifled in the name of "free trade" that's not really free.
Jim McCue
composter and biotech researcher
appropriatebiotech@yahoo.com
mccue@hillhouse.org
412/421-6496
Everybody wants change and a better future. But, since we can't agree on how to get there or even on what a better world would look like, we can only take relatively small actions that everybody can agree on.
Here are some changes I'd like to see made or at least discussed:
+ unanimous commitment to immediately go full steam ahead to transition from fossil fuels. The longer we wait the even greater consequences - both international and environmental. In the opinion of some, already inevitable great tragedies are in the works because of our past actions and inactions. We may soon no longer have the ability to do anything.
+ expanded public transit between Hazelwood and Oakland
+ boarding stops made by the now-empty express buses inbound during the afternoon rush hour to pick up riders in Hazelwood
+ adoption of the hazelnut tree as emblematic of our desire to get to a greener future while recognizing the past. Hazelwood didn't originally have coal dust or diesel fumes or boarded up broken windows; it had hazelnut trees and and babbling brooks and fish jumping out of the water.
+honest and thorough public discussion of how twisted our legal system has become and concrete moves to improve it. There are many laws that allow people who are being destructive in one way or another to continue to do so. Pick your own examples of the law gone awry. I have my own favorite rants, from:
allowing illegal drug users to terrorize their neighorhoods and drive down property values and destroy the whole community's peace of mind in a vain quest to afford the perfect high;
to
allowing pharmaceutical companies to continue to market drugs which are just as dangerous or more so than some of the ones currently illegal;
to
corporations which allow their bottom lines to literally kill and torture people for profit - whether by pollution or monopolizing services or laws that allow planned obsolence and consequent massive waste - sacrificing quality to profit or so many other types of unethical behavior;
to
laws that allow business competition to be stifled in the name of "free trade" that's not really free.
Jim McCue
composter and biotech researcher
appropriatebiotech@yahoo.com
mccue@hillhouse.org
412/421-6496
posted by St. Jim the Composter at 11:52 AM
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