With our new regime in Washington, DC, Earth Day, April 22, 2017, seems even more critical, important, and necessary.
I must be getting old. I keep thinking…things like…when did people start believing scientist don’t actually know anything or distribute lies?
When did people start believing that a privilege, silver-spooned, inherited-riches, rich Bully knows what blue-collar (or even white-collar), middle-lower-class struggling Americans’ daily lives are like?
When did people start disregarding Democracy? Why is the government for the people and by the people now the Enemy of the People? When did that happen?
When did America stop being strong?
I guess I’m clueless. Or alone on a lonely planet.
I really don’t have any answers here. I apologize in advance. Just thoughts and my own suppositions.
I did consider that, perhaps, scientist are not as esteemed as they used to be because they are a part of that class of people who had the privilege of a higher education.
What I noticed in my brief time as a middle school theatre arts teacher, was an increasing separateness of the academically gifted students from the regular students. All the AG classes took place in one hallway of the school. Those kids rarely had to venture out beyond this hallway. They did. But they spent most of their school day within this one hallway.
The other focus included the annual testing of these kids, the pushing of the non-academic gifted students through and out, and pushing the AG students to the brink of their nerves. The teacher seemed to long only for their retirement and if possible to make some extra (much-needed) money because supposedly, no child was “left behind.” Very few were excited about bringing new thoughts, ideas, and information to the students. (Myself, eventually, included.)
These pushed-through, non-AG kids weren’t given any options for their future lives.
What I witnessed was an unequal education. An educational pathway for a separate group of students. It seemed to me what the American educational system was becoming was just another way to support the idea that “us” versus “them.” To separate and keep groups of Americans unequal.
Which is what politics has become, too. The fight between us and them is more important now than governing. Who ever is the “strongest” can continue to fight against the “weakest.” Instead of actually working for this country.
Instead of coming together (oh, god, now I sound like those damn hippies a decade older than me) as was the hope of young people in the 70s, we are tearing ourselves apart.
To me that means, we are choosing to weaken this great country. We are supporting bullies and separateness more than we ever have before. We are supporting hate.
We are choosing to believe that the facts are just made up by those we oppose. And it’s easier to believe the ridiculous because it somehow makes us feel “better” than the opposition. It’s a fantastical belief that the “I” is better (stronger) than the “we.”
For me, when my conscience bothers me, it’s because I’m NOT doing the right thing. It’s because I want to indulge the fantasy of separateness. I want to wallow in what feels easy and comfortable. I can’t stand to see what is truly before my eyes. It’s too painful.
Coming back down to Earth, is, for me, knowing I am a child of God. As are you. As is everyone on the (best) planet. No matter what kind of God you or I pray to.
This is my grounding belief. It’s my foundation to which I return whenever I start to feel like I’m alone on a lonely planet. And, then, I know I need to take an action. A right action.
