I often wonder what people are concerned about, most especially young people. I wonder what we fear, and what we should fear that we’re not, and the many things that should deeply concern us as citizens vested in this country and this planet.
We need to evaluate our nation’s future and the hopes of our nation’s people, as well as those of all the world’s nations. Most importantly we need to be actively concerned about our planet’s health.
There are serious issues which affect our lives, our health, the creating of a viable economy for our nation, and the health of planet Earth, which sustains all of us. Without resolving all of these, none of us can survive. Any level of intellect demands that we care enough about all of these realities to involve ourselves, even inconvenience ourselves, and achieve permanent and equitable global solutions. No one should argue against resolving anything that endangers his/her our sustainability; it’s self-destructive.
Here at Chatterbox, we’ve talked about this before, but when will we mobilize ourselves enough to demand our leadership to legislate what we deserve and what we all need to survive? We seem to be so busy keeping ourselves sheltered and fed that most of us have little or no time to advocate for stability, especially where the legislation that controls us is concerned (they like it that way). As more and more of America’s business and, unfortunately, America’s legislation is corporatized, we the people find it harder, if not impossible, to catch up with, compete with, or even modify, the system in place. It’s shackling. It’s the way businesses choose for it to remain and, though we are victims of it every day, we have become nearly oblivious to it.
On the most basic level, we are seeing, already, in America that the economy of the people’s opportunity is gone. In those decades during which people could work for a fair salary with some benefits, average people were stable; many stayed at one job for the long haul. They could, if financially smart and frugal, prosper from their effort and sacrifice, own a home, invest a little, and improve their financial status. That climate of opportunity has disappeared. Right now, we are really beginning to feel the effects of actual legislation based on private profit, instead of public opportunities. Many of hard-earned employee perks as per working conditions, health care, full-time/long-term employment, overtime, regular pay raises and salaries commensurate with corporate profits, are gone.
Medical costs spiral upward as health care treatment and facilities fall prey to corporate control. Health care coverage limits have long been burying (literally) people in medical bills, also a result of increasing corporate control and profits. Access to, and the supply and quality of good water and food, quality education, as well as our national productivity and equitable taxes, are all controlled or influenced by detached and apathetic boards of billionaires. Such influence on our legislation threatens our nation’s worldwide position, as well as our people. Results could bring an economic depression unmanageable for most Americans.
We must also legislate to protect Earth as a singular entity of our universe and a part of true infinity. It also happens to be the only place we can live. We need to be ensuring our future and that of our children and all future generations. We must examine what we are doing and should be doing, to accomplish this. The fragile health of our planet is another victim being denied in the interest of profit. We must rise and demand solutions.
If the planet fails us before we fail ourselves, the end will be slow and hard. If we fail ourselves first, the end will be faster, but still hard. Despite all optimism, the beginning of the end has begun. The end may be sooner than most of us have planned on … unless we truncate the powers who sink us in the mistaken hopes of having more for themselves.
When people can no long survive through honest labor for honest wages, poverty brings a brand of instability that lends the whole nation vulnerable to implosion and, worse, invasion. Let’s add this to the threats we face already from world poverty, the instability of some governments, some government leaders and dictators around the world. It sounds like a movie script and is difficult to fathom, but the possibilities are real.
These are the things we should worry about, but better than worrying, we can acknowledge the solutions and work toward them.
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