2025 is coming in like 2024 went out. Earthquake in Tibet, fires around Los Angeles and Acra, are just a few of the calamities we’re facing. We, the human family. We, the ones who can learn from the past and develop strategies of coexistence on this miraculous planet – or we, the ones who succumb to division and greed. Who will we be?
A few years ago, the term “frontline communities” emerged. It referred to those who lived in proximity to dangerous environmental pollutant. Now, the term “sacrifice zone” is used to express a region that is offered up to the powers of corporate greed in the name of sustainability. But what is being sustained? The capitalist model of usury is the only thing I see that we’re sustaining. Clearly not the communities. Clearly not human beings.
We are willingly selling out our children’s future on earth – but wait – I heard today there might have been life on Mars. And the spin continued: previous life on Mars could indicate that a human family could possibly be sustained there. In the future. Your future? Hardly. Your grandchildren’s? Doubtful. But we are placing bets on these hypothetical futures while ignoring our present conditions.
We are rapidly going down the “unlikely to return” scenario, but not enough of us are noticing.
Oh, Jimmy Carter got it way back in the 70’s when he told us we would need to use less energy. I watched my friends ignore the warning and instead backed the slick talking money man Reagan. I shook my head then. I’m still shaking my head now.
We are all frontline people. The upheaval of the earth and the insidious and murderous violence perpetrated by human beings have made this so.
Some of us are just waiting our turn for our world to be upended. Some of us are preparing for the worst. But the wisest among us are working to restore the balance we have squandered – with one another and the earth. Who will we be?
May we rise to help one another. May we restore the dignity that is surely within us.
let kindness win 