While Rome Burns...

I'm very sad and dismayed about our country and the world as I prepare to hit the hay tonight. Why? Because, instead of CNN et al. covering an important, positive, substance-laden rally in Miami today, in which Al Gore and Hillary Clinton discussed, in depth, her plans for tackling climate change, which was really news and really would INFORM voters about what one of the candidates stands for and will do if elected, and provide a clear contrast to her opponent, what are they covering tonight? "Trump slams Clinton..." Personal attacks and slander from Trump against Hillary. And tapes, tapes, tapes galore containing vile things that Trump spews. On and on. But no coverage of the actual issues (although, the fact that Trump is completely unfit for office, a con man, and a dangerous would-be fascist are all important issues to consider in the election, I will definitely give the media that, but couldn't they ALSO bother to cover a little SUBSTANCE about the huge issues facing our country and the world?), the actual policy differences between the candidates.

All the media cares about are sensational stories, spin, and ugliness. Why not cover the actual platform, policies and priorities of each candidate? Well, in Trump's case, he has none, other than banning entire religions, building walls, jailing his opponents, and "taking our country back from those people".  He specifically includes me as one of "those people", as he specifically said many times that Bernie supporters are "bad, bad people, folks" and "we are going to take our country back from those people". He SPECIFICALLY and clearly stated that at several rallies, when he verbally attacked Sanders' protesters or anyone he *thought* was a Sanders' protester.  It's all on tape.

Hillary, meanwhile, actually has very specific plans for how to fix what ails us, and make our country and our environment healthy. But does the news media cover that? NO. If they had any intention of doing so, they should have covered the ENTIRE rally in Miami today (which they did NOT), replayed it in part or whole throughout the rest of today (which they have NOT), and had their little panel of talking heads discuss it. They covered many, many Trump rallies in the primary season from start to finish. That is, in fact, how I know that Trump plans to take his country back from ME, specifically, as I am a "those people" and a "bad, bad people". So why don't they cover the fact that Hillary has the best, most ambitious plans to tackle climate change of any candidate ever, and that Al Gore was standing by her side, singing the praises of her plans today? Climate change is only the biggest issue facing humankind.

I guess that isn't as newsworthy as taped outtakes of "The Apprentice".

Al Gore: It’s Time to Bern a Few Bridges

Just my passionate two cents: I think one of my heroes should definitely endorse the other one, right now. I think Al Gore should come out and endorse Bernie Sanders.

Come on, Al, what are you waiting for? Bernie is the strongest candidate on climate change by far. Bernie has the progressive agenda. He gives voice to, and fights for, what the base of the Democratic Party has held in our heart of hearts for so long, while we and our country endured decades of Reaganomics surrounding and drowning us.

Are you trying to stay out of it? Now is not the time in history for that. Now is the time to use your hard-won and much-deserved influence and gravitas to stand behind the person who will fight to save our country and our planet. The stakes are high. The time is now. And what has Hillary ever done for you? What has she ever done for us, really? Look at Bernie. Look at his record, look at his history. Look at our country and our world, and the crossroads both face. The choice is clear. Your endorsement matters.  Do it.

Gore and Meek Rally Rocked!

The traffic, the crowd, the hassles: it was all worth it!

I am so glad I went to the Kendrick Meek rally in Tampa yesterday. I think Kendrick is a good candidate and the only progressive choice in the Florida race for the US Senate, and it is critical that we turn out the vote to defeat both tea party Republican, Marco Rubio, and Charlie "windsock" Crist, who bows whichever way the political winds blow, but we all know he is a Republican at heart, even though he changed to Independent in a politically calculated move to win this race. Everything Crist does, in my observation of him over the years, is a politically calculated move. He is the quintessential politician. We don't need the quintessential politician! We need a leader, and I believe that is what Kendrick Meek has shown himself to be. For example, he has consistently opposed oil drilling off the coast of Florida, even when it wasn't a popular position (i.e., before the catastrophic recent BP oil spill). Crist, on the other hand, has done his usual Windsock Hop on that and other issues. Not only is Kendrick Meek the only US Senate candidate we can count on to protect our environment and tourist industry by opposing offshore drilling, he will also make it a priority to bring green jobs and initiatives to Florida, the Sunshine (i.e., potentially solar!) State. We must elect Kendrick to the US Senate to ensure we move both our economy and environment in a healthy new green direction.

As Al Gore (who I'll get to in a second and I can't believe I've gone this far in the blog without mentioning!) urged Democrats and Independents yesterday at the rally: don't split the US Senate vote between Meek and Crist, that will only hand the race to Rubio. He said "I've been through a few elections" and my heart just broke at that one. Boy, does the man know what he was talking about when he made that plea for us Democrats not to hand the election to a Republican by splitting the vote!

My fellow Florida Democrats out there reading this: as they also kept emphasizing at the rally, when Democrats vote, Democrats win. We have to vote and we have to vote solidly Democratic in this election. Unless we want the state budget cut so much that our schools, infrastructure, first responders, libraries, and all other services to actual human beings/citizens will suffer even more than they already are, while the rich will get richer due to tax breaks designed for them and corporations will have free reign to trash our environment, it is vitally important that we vote the entire Democratic ticket. The future of our state--and by "our state", I don't mean some vague, impersonal thing, I mean our children, our seniors, our lower and middle class, our teachers, our first responders, and last but not least, our environment--is at stake.

Now on to Al Gore!!!! Frankly, though I think Meek is a very good candidate and I voted for him in the primary, and I will vote for him in the general election, no WAY would I have braved Tampa during rush hour to go to some unfamiliar venue to rally for him or anyone...unless, you tell me that Al Gore will be there. Say the secret word and the duck drops down! Color me THERE! And I'm so glad I braved said Tampa traffic (it was as bad as I thought it would be and yet another argument for green rapid transit) to see him. I LOVE him! I just flat out love him. His speech was so great, and the fact that he took the time to be there for Kendrick, for the party, for Florida (it MUST bring back 2000 for him every time he comes here), says so much about him. When Gore and Meek were on stage together and Gore was showering Meek with glowing praise, Meek was just beaming and you could tell how much it genuinely meant to him to be receiving such praise from such a great leader.

The whole thing was wonderful--once I got through the harrowing traffic and parking situation (!) and standing in crazy, disorganized lines (you have to love my Democratic Party--if you want organized lines, go to a Republican rally) in the blazing Florida sun with, where I happened to be positioned in the line, a speaker blaring music into my ears the whole time at a hearing loss-inducing level, and finally making it into the hot union hall with only seats for a few physically-challenged folks, it was all SO WORTH IT. I work every day with a bunch of, as one friend of mine calls them "radcon fundies" and it was so refreshing to connect with a big crowd of Democrats! Packed in like lemmings as we were, and hot as it was in that room, I felt like I could breathe again, like I could relax and be ME. The crowd was very diverse, with African-Americans, Latino-Americans, seniors, young peeps (a lot of the organizers/volunteers there were VERY young, which was nice to see), union workers, environmentalists, etc. There was a lot of "etc." there. A good kind of etc.  The Democratic base kind of etc., of which I count myself a proud member.  There was a beautiful energy in the room.  I loved when one speaker said "If you want to move a car forward, you put it in D. If you want to go in reverse, you put it in R." Yeah/sing it!  That one never gets old. It was really good to be at a Democratic rally. Really good. It was very healing for me, personally, after feeling so alienated from my party in the 2008 primary season (due to the whole Rubio-induced delegate SITUATION--that's right, folks, it was Rubio's baby to move up Florida's 2008 Presidential primary election date in violation of both parties' rules, setting up the electoral chaos and horribly divisive primary season that followed--and this guy wants to be our US Senator? NOT JUST NO BUT HELL NO!), and frankly being so unhappy with the current administration. I really needed to remember that I love my party. Being at that rally reminded me. In a big way. It was like a giant bear hug...or a homecoming...or a family reunion. Make that all three.

I'm so glad to be a Democrat, even though I can't stand the current president, frankly. But as bad as I think he is, he's still FAR better than any Republican president we've had in my lifetime. My first memory of a Republican administration comes in the form of the televised Watergate Hearings.  I was just a kid.  Then I came of age just as the Reagan era came into being.  I think Reagan was a complete disaster for our country and is the nightmare gift that just keeps giving, because somehow people mistakenly think he was so great and the current tea party movement, for example, is, in my opinion, people trying to get back to Reagan Republicanism. Horrifying. Then we had Bush I and Bush II, the latter of which I can't even think about without recoiling in rage and disgust. Nope, like I said, I'm glad and proud to be a lifelong Democrat.

To recap, that rally really hit the Democratic spot.  Gore was, is and always will be great, and, any Florida Democratic and Independent voters out there reading this: please vote for Kendrick Meek (and the entire Democratic ticket, while you are at it) on November 2nd. Our state cannot take any more Republican "leadership". With "leadership" like that, who needs ruination? Please vote Democratic to vote for the health of our economy, children, seniors, middle class, and environment.



Kendrick Meek and Al Gore, at 9/30/2010 Rally for Meek



Hero ALERT: I'm Going to See Al Gore Today

Heroes are in short supply these days...or maybe it just seems that way. The media rewards bad behavior by splashing it all over Entertainment Tonight, TMZ, Extra, and the net. The quiet, non-dramatic sort of good guys don’t get as much attention. It’s curious that doing good isn’t seen as being as sexy as going off the rails. I mean, really, from a purely evolutionary standpoint, it is curious: wouldn’t you think we’d evolve to be attracted to good, healthy behavior? I’ll have to ponder that one in my peppermint mind sometime after I have at least one cup of kukicha green and peppermint tea, and/or some protein. For now, it’s too early and pre-tea-n-protein in the morning, so I’ll move right along.

I have a few heroes in this world, two of whom are dead: Martin Luther King, Jr. is a major hero of mine, and so is someone he modeled his creative, non-violent resistance approach after, Mahatma Gandhi. A third hero of mine is very much alive, and I am going to see him tonight at a political rally: Al Gore. Now, I know that, for many on the right, he is the butt of jokes, mostly based on erroneous disinformation and urban myths. He NEVER, for example, claimed that he invented the internet. Look it up on Snopes, I don’t have the time or inclination to debunk all the hurtful bunk that is out there on Al Gore. I find it interesting just how vitriolic the right is towards the very mention of his name. I think it is because he speaks the truth in a civil, respectful, eloquent way, no matter how much they attack him, and he never lets the attacks bring him down to their level. He remains, always, what I just said: eloquent, respectful and civil. This is one aspect of what I admire most about him:  in a world desperately starved for civility and respectfulness, he embodies it. The other aspect I admire so much, which goes hand in hand with his character, is his actions.

As I recall, Al Gore first came onto my radar screen back in 1988, when I was a young voter. He was in a field of presidential hopefuls that was crowded with quality and potential: Joe Biden, Dick Gephardt and Paul Simon, just to name the ones that I thought were excellent in addition to Al Gore (Jesse Jackson impressed me, too, but also scared me because I felt he was anti-Israel...but I digress). Even in that crowded field, though, Al Gore stood way out from the rest to me. I’m a total policy wonk and his positions on the issues exactly jibed with my own, as did his priorities, plus his aforementioned eloquence really stood out. In the years since 1988, I have grown to admire the man more and more for all the things I’ve mentioned--his positions and priorities on the issues I care about, and his civility, respectfulness and eloquence--plus his great leadership, vision, imagination, intelligence, honesty, knowledge, patriotism (how he conducted himself in the 2000 election horror show, for example, always keeping what was best for the country and the rule of law as a priority), diplomacy, integrity, steadfast commitment and adherence to speaking the truth, and tireless passion for the environment.  He also has demonstrated an amazing ability to, as the cliche goes, take the lemons that life hands out and make lemonade.  After the heartbreaking and soul-crushing election of 2000, he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and went on to do great things as private citizen Gore.  The awareness, education and sense of urgency that he has brought to the world about global climate change is profoundly impressive and important.  He has also provided us with concrete ideas on how to turn back from the brink of disaster and build a green, sustainable future that respects our mother earth.

Ever since the days (and no doubt before) when people didn’t want to hear that the earth was round and not flat, a majority of people always fear and, unfortunately, sometimes hate, the visionary, inconvenient-truth-telling leaders among us. But the ones who are truly great go on telling the truth despite all the fearful backlash that engenders, because they care passionately about doing the right thing, they are bright enough to see what that is, and they are brave enough to endure whatever comes their way in order to do it. This is why I love Al Gore and why he is, corny as this probably sounds, my hero.

He is sounding the warning on global climate change and the world needs to hear that and act on it now. This evening, he will be at a political rally for Senate candidate Kendrick Meek, here in Florida, and I will be braving driving in Tampa (!) to be there. I’ve seen him at a brief rally at the Sarasota airport in 2000 and that was a thrill. All of a sudden, Air Force Two appeared in the sky, made a brilliant landing as we all cheered wildly, and out popped Vice President Gore!  He gave a short but stirring speech to us, the party faithful, and then I forget if he got right back onto Air Force Two and flew off or got into a waiting car or what, but I didn’t get to actually meet him and I probably won’t this evening, either, which is probably just as well, as I am sure I’d be a complete and utter deer caught in headlights if it happened. That said, though, it would be a thrill to shake his hand. To meet a living hero up close and personal would be a very special thing. Perhaps it will happen tonight...or perhaps I’ll get lost in Tampa, never to resurface again. Most likely, though, I’ll just hear him speak live and rally the Democratic troops, and that will be exciting enough. I’ll love to tell him how much I admire his character and everything he’s done and continues to do for our country and the earth, both of which need as much help as they can get. I’d love to simply say, thank you, you are great, keep up the good work. That’s what heroes do: they keep up the good work. I just want to tell him I appreciate it. He’ll probably glean that from the WILD APPLAUSE AND SCREAMING I’ll be engaging in at various points in the going.

Releated link:  LA Times article, re: Gore to appear at Kendrick Meek rally

Choice: Oil Spills or New Collective Will?

It is hard to grasp for words to describe the feelings spreading throughout every nook and cranny of my being, saturating and suffocating me, just as the oil and chemical dispersant is insidiously infusing the Gulf of Mexico and suffocating the wildlife. When I see the oil-soaked birds, I want to cry out. I'm not sure exactly what I want to utter, but I want to make all of humanity hear it. It’s not just BP that did this and continues to do it, and it isn’t just Big Oil. It’s us, all of us, humankind. And for that, I feel such shame and sorrow. As Melissa Etheridge sang in the great song she wrote for Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”: we need to wake up! Actually, she said “I” need to wake up, and that is indeed the only place to start. All of us “I”s that make up humankind need to wake up, so that the waking up becomes a collective reality of the “we”.

Will we ever learn that whatever we do to the earth, to nature, we do to ourselves? If we disregard and disrespect it, we disregard and disrespect ourselves. If we destroy it, we destroy ourselves. If we choose to make a different choice, to RESPECT nature, then we choose to respect ourselves.

Every day, we make choices. Should I drive a Hummer or a Yaris? Should I drink out of the styrofoam cups freely provided by my employer, or should I go to the trouble of finding and buying a cup with the requisite lid and bringing it in? My city doesn’t have curbside recycling, should I throw out my recyclables or put in the effort to save and sort them, periodically load them into the car, schleppe them to the closest recycling collection site, and unload them in the hot Florida sun? And if I find that doing that becomes too much of a pain in the patootie and that my house is being taken over by two-liter seltzer water bottles, do I man up and say, okay, if I’m not willing or able to take these to the recycling site often enough to keep myself from being buried in plastic bottles, then I need to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for my waste creation from a different tack, and not buy the seltzer water (*GASP!*) in the first place. I need to give up my precious sparkly water and switch to TAP WATER. Because my choices matter. And my choices on the seltzer water front, as I see them, are either to: 1.) recycle my plastic bottles, or 2.) don’t buy plastic bottles. If I want to be a respectful citizen of this earth, those are my choices on the seltzer water front. So, since I recently concluded that I cannot get myself to the recycling site often enough to preclude having ten tons of plastic bottles in my house (which my puppy takes out of the area I try to corral them in and drags to his futon on the floor of the den, where he likes to collect them and teethe on them, resulting in about 20 seltzer water bottles on that futon alone every day when I get home from work), I have now switched to tap water. Too bad, so sad. As Kermit the Frog pointed out long ago, “It’s not easy being green.” But it is very important to me, and part of “the greening of me” process has been to realize that it is, indeed, a process and none of us are perfect, and no matter how committed we are and passionate we are about respecting the earth and taking responsibility for our actions, we are never going to be “perfectly green”.  But we have to keep trying.

Sometimes you find yourself using a styrofoam cup, or realizing that you just don’t have time in your life to get to the recycling site often enough, so you just have to be honest with yourself and admit that you can't keep up with it, jettison your seltzer water habit, and keep lobbying your elected municipal representatives for curbside recycling. But the point is to TRY, and if you realize one area where you aren’t respecting the earth, ask yourself, can I do better? If the answer is yes, then you have to make that different choice, even if it is hard. Yes, I’m admitting here on the worldwide web that I am just coming off a shamefully long spell of using the styrofoam cups at work, since my Thermos cracked and it took me this long (okay, months) until I FINALLY brought in a mug today, and in keeping with the truism “no good deed goes unpunished”, I’ve already been yelled at by a co-worker because it doesn’t have the requisite lid...so I won’t be walking past that person’s desk anymore with my tea. But I have finally jettisoned the styrofoam. And yes, I’m admitting here that it has become too much for me at this particular juncture in my life to schleppe my recyclables to the recycling site as often as I’d need to, in order to keep up with the plastic seltzer water bottles I was CHOOSING to buy, but okay: so now I am MAKING A DIFFERENT CHOICE, one that is still taking responsibility for the waste I create. No more of my beloved seltzer. Tap water with lemon is just fine for my staple beverage. And this way, I only have to go to the recycling site occasionally because I don’t have much glass or paper waste (and I can bring the paper waste in with me to work and dump it in the recycling bin here periodically, which is easier for me).

What I’m saying is, none of us are perfect. We don’t make perfectly green choices all the time, no matter how committed we are to it. I feel that there are very few folks on this orb more passionate about living green than myself, yet in the process of doing it, in the process of “going green”, you realize a lot of things about yourself, and you realize that it is a process and, just like gardening or community building, you are never “done”. You gotta keep weeding and seeding. You have to be honest and look at yourself and say, look, I can’t do this, but I can do that. I can’t go to the recycling site often enough to keep up with the seltzer water bottles, but I CAN give up the seltzer, much as I love it. I can’t seem to find a cup with a lid that I like but I CAN sneak around with my lawlessly lid-free mug at work, because I’d rather risk reprimand than continue to drink my peppermint-kukicha tea from styrofoam (and, God knows, I CANNOT give up my peppermint-kukicha tea at work—that’s just crazy talk!). Kermit was right, it ain’t easy being green, but it is a moral imperative that we TRY. Every day, in every choice we make, we need to infuse our decisions with respect for nature.

Going green is all about respect. Respect for all of nature. Living in harmony with nature instead of violating it. It sounds so simple, but it is very challenging in practice. We need to challenge ourselves daily and be honest with ourselves when our choices don’t jibe with our green ideals. We need to wake up, as Melissa sang. I like that she chose to say “I” instead of “We” because, like I said, it begins with “I”. It begins with each of us making little daily choices like me with the styrofoam and the seltzer water bottles. The big companies like BP will HAVE to change in response to US:  if we choose hybrids instead of Hummers, then they will really have to live up to their slogan and move “beyond petroleum”. We all need to move “beyond petroleum”! If we don't, then every time there is news of glacial melting, and every time there is a catastrophic example of our violent choices, such as the current Gulf oil spill, we will just have to sit and watch in horror as the oil spills, baby, spills, knowing that we didn’t do the best we could to change how our species treats the planet that sustains us, watching the oil we are addicted to smother and suffocate it...and, eventually, us.

That bird I saw this morning on the news, soaked in oil, is my fault. It’s your fault. It is the fault of all of us collectively as a consuming species. A species that can CHOOSE. And we MUST choose to change now. We must choose to move from violence to respect. Otherwise, we are all going to end up like the oil-soaked birds. Let some good come out of this horrific Gulf oil spill: let us finally, as the small yet powerful individuals we are, wake up and choose respect. Because when we do it, the corporations will have to follow. Tragically, it may be too late to save the Gulf of Mexico. But may this awful event serve as an awakening for us all, individuals and corporations, families and nations, all of us, all of humankind: let’s make different choices!

Instead of disregard and violence towards nature, let’s choose reverence and respect. From that choice, all good things will flow. If we keep behaving as we are, however, the toxic results of our violent choices will continue to flow and suffocate us all, as the oil is doing to the Gulf of Mexico. There is a beautiful and very profound line from a hymn (written by Jill Jackson in 1955) we used to sing often at the Unitarian-Universalist church I grew up in. The line is: “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” I realize that I do know what I want to cry out, after all: Let there be respect for nature on earth, and let it begin with me!