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The voters’ spring

March 16, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

There is no question that I complain a lot, and vociferously, I admit it, about the way the world is run. If there were a cosmic ditch, this world would certainly be heading right for it. It is the enforced alienation of everyone from everything from every country that confuses me so much – what are we doing? What is the point of it all?

Now, Putin, and what a mad man he is, is bragging about bigger, more effective nukes, stealthier, longer running: guess the red button on his desk is the biggest of them all, wouldn’t  you say?

So what? What is he going to do with them? Imagine the kind of money that has been spent on them? He his not going to chuck one at New York, North Korea (too close)  or London (also too close).

Who gains from keeping the world’s population so afraid all the time? When they were playing this game so close to reality in the 1960s, the reactions of the planet’s people was to sing for peace; to gather in nonviolent marches; to wear tie dye, put flowers in their hair and shake off the bad rap that making love had.

It’s almost funny but the gin is the liquor cabinet.

When you make a fire in the wood stove or the fireplace, and it has burned hotter from its  kindling stage, ready for real logs, to make the fire burn its best, the logs should be placed close to together, so that the flames and heat from each can work with the others to make the fire hotter and more efficient.

So it is with people getting things done: they work together moving toward to single or collective goal, people steering things and people volunteering, maybe, to contribute in big and small ways, elbow to elbow, getting the job done.

If Nations could be actually United, working genuinely elbow-to-elbow, it would take less time than anyone  could believe to make things better. The wars, causing millions of people to flea homes where they would rather stay; the terrible degradation of the planet: the water, the land, the air – creating weather refugees, just as frightened and reluctant to give up their homes as those others, all this and the rest, could be resolved if nations were not manipulated to be in constant opposition.

It doesn’t get a mention very often, but who can add up the damage to the environment those wars are inflicting? The human cost is always in the news as if the land and all its other inhabitants do not matter. They do, though, of course.

I get it; I do. It is all about money and power. Still, it is such a puzzle to think that,  in the final analysis of Why? it comes down to no more than the fantastic gains of the few in all this turmoil and ruin.

For me, the real nut of the puzzle is the children of those few. The fabulously wealthy, the kings of money, must tell themselves that money will buy their children safety from the wars, on which so much wealth is based, and the failing of Earth’s ability to sustain life.

A revolution is long overdue. As individuals, we have actual power to change things without violence at all. Money and democracy are our weapons. There are elections coming this year and it is paramount that every eligible person perform that civic duty. Vote for Mayor, vote for Premier; every vote does matter for it is truly the most significant way for the civilian voice to be effective.

When the science can finally be heard so that we understand and believe, then we have to vote in a way that our politicians will believe too and confront industry with laws and incentives to change how things are made and fuelled sooner, not later.

Our votes should warn those coming into office to behave like grown-ups, responsible, conscientious, eco-friendly. Warn them to see their new positions of trust as being about the community and the people who gave them that trust, not just locally but globally as well. The call for global unity must begin now, in the face of unending armed conflicts and global warming.

When we vote, we must do so by paying attention to the facts of behaviour and achievement and refuse to tolerate further excuses and bad management.

When we shop, there we hold the answers to many modern dilemmas. Demanding non-GMO foods or, at the least, labels identifying them. Insisting on sustainably raised meat and fish. Walking away from the counters that fail us. Choosing not to buy that which is not really food but edible junk and drink. Leaving sugar and sodium laden goods on the shelves.

We can change the world from the bottom up all the way to the top (and rescue our personal health). We just have to decide.

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