Water is our most Precious Resource

Thursday, March 18, 2010

What Do Americans Really Know?

After talking to people at the library and the school and the supermarket and other general meeting places, I am coming to the conclusion that most people have zero idea about what's happening in the environment around them.

I compare this to when I was a kid in the '70s, and I think there was more awareness back then… and the education of the American citizens actually led to a big cleanup of rivers, parks, forests, etc.

But now, something different is going on. Maybe there's too much information, leading to an information overload. Maybe the chemical companies are doing a stellar job at advertising. Maybe people are numbed by what they're seeing on TV and in the movies. Life is hard right now, and I guess some people just don't want to expend energy on anything else aside from just surviving.

Compared to other first world countries around the world, Americans are not informed. The wool is being pulled over our collective eyes, and it's very hard to understand what the end game is. Our bodies are full of horrific toxins, we're addicted to a sedentary lifestyle, and what most people consider to be "news" is actually laser-crafted propaganda. Our country is completely fractured between the right and the left, and we're headed toward a bleak-looking future.

Corporate interests have taken over our government.

What does this mean? It means we have very little food choices compared to just 30 years ago. For those who pay attention and want to eat non-chemical food, the choices are almost nothing. For the rest, it means their bodies are being polluted by horrific chemicals without their knowledge. The head of the USDA, Tom Vilsack, is an advocate of industrial agriculture business, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), and has always supported big business over local farmers who have tried to protect their own crops from cross-pollination with GMOs.

It means that our health care system is completely corrupt, even with this "change" that seems to be happening right now. Whatever bill passes into law will be more for the benefit of the health insurance companies and pharmaceutical firms, than for the citizens, because they are so powerful in government. If there are 40 million citizens who are now without healthcare, how do you think big business will profit if those people are forced to pay monthly premiums??? 40 million X an off-the-cuff figure of $400 per month = $16 billion extra per month!

In New York right now we are dealing with the oil and gas industries, who want to come in, industrialize our landscape, poison our water, in order to make trillions of dollars in profits. There is no attention paid to the fact that our fresh water supply is extremely limited, and that in reality, our water is much more precious than any gas to be extracted. There is no thought to the future of our standard of living. There is about to be huge scale hydrofracking for oil in the Dakotas soon, so this is not just a NY issue. No concern for global warming or renewable energy.

Everything in this century is about corporate profit. Our government is owned by big business, and the president and congress are literally hog-tied because of the huge financial investment that big business has in the government.

In a way, it's pretty simple to see what has happened since Reagan. Regulations were removed, companies did whatever they wanted to do, and now we're dealing with these huge companies that are "too big to fail" which essentially means that they're too big to bust apart, and too big to say "No" to.

And yet, despite these realities, I continue to fight for non-toxic products for my family, for clean fresh water and air. I'm still an idealist who hopes that we can turn it around and gain back control of our future.

What are your thoughts?

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