Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

HERD ABOUT IT?

by Ana Grarian

Election time is very difficult for an activist. Likely the candidate who comes out strongly for what you believe in will belong to a minority party with no chance of election. At that point you risk handing the election to the least compatible candidate. Mainstream candidates usually hesitate to make a stand on an issue because it narrows their base. Bland statements such as “I’m for better schools” (really? wow, what an unusual side to be on) or “I support the working class” (but I’m not going to say how) are passed via flyers and infomercials.

Often there is no candidate who cares about your cause. Though they might politely listen to you in their office, they are actually for whatever brings the most money into their coffers, or at least onto their district, or at least promises to bring money, jobs, trade into their district. In very few places can they run on the promise to make their district a better place for future generations though the immediate result will be hardship.

If you are a parent you know how hard it is to sell that line. Don’t buy that cheap toy you don’t need and will soon break. Save your money and eventually you’ll have enough to buy a bike. Delayed gratification is such a hard habit to learn.

In the meantime, little by little, the word gets out to more people, and you start to get asked questions.” I went to a meeting about what happened in PA. Do you think that could happen here?” “I heard they don’t want to do that here so are we safe?” Being informed puts you in place to answer some of those questions and to point out other questions they may not have thought of. Eventually a group of people are showing up at Town Board meetings asking questions. Hopefully it will do some good.

I read that a 20 year old today has witnessed the burning of 50% of the world’s oil. In my lifetime the US will have used 75% of it’s oil. The first oil well was drilled in 1859. Talk about imprudent use of a resource. And yet today our politicians are firmly in the pocket of the folks who say we can’t cut back, we must drill, frack, whatever to get more to GROW, because growth is the magic word, the symbol of progress. At the same time we’re having a hard time recognizing and getting our governments to recognize that we are wasting our water just as rapidly.

Take a breather. After the election results are in we have a lot of work to do.

By AFarmer

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RS Janes
13 years ago

It’s no accident that billionaires like T. Boone Pickens are investing heavily in water rights. Of course they’d like us to waste water to the point that they can ride in and sell it to us at an exorbitant price. In 20 years, water may be worth more than gold in certain parts of the country.

Just as a sidenote on how clueless our politicians are, many years ago a local, fairly liberal pol was out campaigning. With him were a black woman, an Hispanic woman, and a black man, all carrying signs supporting him. When the little band came up to me and the candidate shook my hand, I asked, as a silly joke, for his opinion of Vanilla Ice, the ‘rap’ star who was popular at the time. Instead of laughing or answering with a joke, or even ignoring the stupid question, he gave me a gobsmacked look and told me, in all seriousness, to talk to the black guy who was his ‘point man’ on musical issues. His ‘musical point man’ then proceeded to give me the most BS political answer I’ve ever heard in my life — “Of course the candidate supports the arts and music in all its forms and applauds those gifted American performers who create magical musical experiences, no matter what their race, color, ethnicity, social class or creed!” — even after I told him it was just a lame joke. I just shook my head as they moved on. Most candidates just repeat talking points, like human tape recorders, and have bullshitters like this guy on the staff to handle anything beyond that. Pathetic. But I voted for him anyway because his opponent was recruited from the ninth circle of Hell. Similar to today’s election.

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13 years ago

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