I would like to reply to Randy Ridgel”s letter to the editor in the Record-Bee on Sept. 25. There is an old saying “Think globally and Act locally”. We can debate the impact of mankind”s burning of billions of tons of fossil fuels over the last 150 years and science may not be able to quantify how much that event has added to the current warming of the earth; however that argument is beside the point.
The truth of the matter is that songbirds are disappearing at an accelerated rate due to habitat loss from mankind”s land conversion and we are losing forested landmass at an unsustainable rate and we are burning through the resources of our planet at a frightening rate. The emergence of China and India onto the first world level of mindless consumption of products which have nothing to do with the quality of life ? all are produced to serve the blind desire to consume for the forces of corporate profit, power, and security, cosmetics, clothing and appliances which we don”t really need. I think that the global warming issue is not the root of the problem but provides a handy “hook” on which to hang our collective fear.
The real issue is the unsustainability of an economic system which is open ended and totally relies on unlimited consumption for its survival. Oil and the end of oil is just the tip of the iceberg for an economic system that relies on constant growth to survive. As Edward Abby said “unlimited growth is the ideology of a cancer cell”.
The election of a progressive forward thinker such as Denise Rushing to our local board of supervisors has been a great breakthrough for the new forces of change that is sweeping the country at the grass roots level and reflects the feeling of a lot of ordinary people who are ready willing and able to change the direction of our society toward a sustainable, inclusive and just community that will move forward into the future to create a world that embraces all people and gives us the means to enjoy life without hurting others in any way.
We all have a responsibility to hope and dream and act toward a better world; a world in which we grow our food close to home, respect the land and cherish the natural world. Where we are working to build up the land and to bring up our children and infuse in them the core values that will produce an enlightened society. A world, in which we live lightly on the land and enjoy a community that has close knit values, cherishes each other, helps each other and loves each other.
This is a huge task; however I think that by starting to address the bigger issues of the world; we are also starting to address the connections to the local issues that are tied to the big issues. The universe is all tied together; and we cannot avoid these important concepts on a local level by ignoring each concept on the global level. We can see that the world is in a grain of sand.
The only way that this country can solve the myriad of problems that currently confront us is to begin at the local level.
From this ground up organization, there is the opportunity to restructure society and create a loving and responsive foundation from which we can build a new civilization and all else will flow from there.
Thank you Denise Rushing for stepping up to the plate and giving all of us a breath of fresh air and for changing the nature of the debate. You have already made a great difference and the nature of the conversation has been elevated. This is a good start and it gives me, personally, a feeling for the winds of changes. I am encouraged.
Tommy Gilliam is a resident of Lakeport. Guest columns are the opinions of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Lake County Record-Bee or its staff.
