Suicide By Profit

Well, Thanksgiving is upon us. For us, it means seeing family we don’t see nearly as often as we’d like. It means good food and drink and maybe a little too much of the latter.

We really hope that you enjoy your holiday and while you do that remember that most around the world, and around the block, might not have it so good.

Remember the people who are trying very hard to make the world a better place: the folks at the Peoples Climate March and the May Day Space in Brooklyn NY, who have a kickstarter offering up for much needed funds to keep their outreach and support activities going. What we are doing there is vitally important to social justice world wide. Be sure to read the description of the activities they are trying to fund.

Remember the people at the Sane Energy Project for working so hard to warn our friends in NYS about fracking pipelines headed their way with this awesome tool.

Remember people like Rev. Billy and his Stop Shopping Choir who are performing at Joe’s Pub in NYC every Sunday until Christmas. It’s a great show and one designed to make everyone think and everyone act in the best interests of our continued existence on this planet. Awesome show! Go see it!

Remember anyone who you can think of that is putting the welfare of their neighbor, their community, their world before their own interests. There are a lot of them and by God we need every last one of them.

Remember the type of world we want to pass on to our children and our children’s children and look for ways to make that happen.

You–the truly good people of Earth–are blessed with that holy objective. To love your neighbor as you love yourself, without any qualifications. To aid your neighbor when they are hungry, cold, homeless, alone.

And please remember us. We are in the process of pulling together a business plan for our climate change rock opera, The Nature of Man. The goal is to get it in front of people who can help us raise the money needed to bring the show to the stage where we can shift climate change to the red hot front burner of the American conversation. Where we can shame our political and business “leaders” into real action that will ensure we leave a survivable world to our children and grand children.

It’s a nerve wracking and expensive process (all out of our own pockets) but the result will be the wide spread discussion of our precarious situation. A discussion not spun with falsehoods but one that will shine a harsh and damning light on those who place their profit over our survival.

A friend of ours calls what we are doing our “ministry.” I chuckled the first time I heard it, but over the years I have come to embrace the label. He’s right. It is a ministry to us. One we have dedicated our lives to.

We are especially thankful that we can do this work because it is our passion and our contribution to the future of our children, our children’s children and all of mankind.

Happy thanksgiving to one and all.

God Speed.

MAD

Well, we’ve kind of been on a roller coaster the last few weeks. It started with the devastating IPCC report and moved on to the terrible beating the Democratic Party took at the polls which have the republicans control of key environmental committees in both the house and senate. Continued with Obama pulling a climate deal (non binding) out of his hat (much like a magician produces a rabbit), before going to the G20 conference in Australia where the Australian PM, Tony Abbott didn’t want climate on the agenda at all, but the rest of the world basically told him to piss off and put back on the agenda.

And then, back here in the US, the looming Republican majority in the House and Senate are promising to dismantle the EPA.

What to make of it all? Where do we go? What do we do? What can we do?

The Peoples Climate March showed that we (the people) are demanding change. That we understand that we’re in big trouble and something must be done about it. However, the Republican Party in this country really doesn’t give a damn about that nor do they give a damn about our future.

They care about the obscenely wealthy interests who put them in power.

So, overall, the game hasn’t changed very much.

Here’s what you can do: get involved. The home of the Peoples Climate March (PCM)-the MayDay Space in Brooklyn, NY, is one place you can get involved. There’s always something going on there. Check out their Facebook and website for more info.

The People’s Climate March website lists a whole pile of partner orgs who are working toward a sustainable future and are partners with the PCM. You can find one near you, that aligns with your own feelings on the matter and pitch in. World-wide.

And learn.

You see, it takes more than recycling or attending workshops and marching. It requires educating the public. The mainstream media puts out too many distractions and outright lies to confuse people and they are very good at it. We must clear away that confusion and lead people by supplying accurate information.

You’ll get a good basic working knowledge of what to do and say from orgs you decide to work with. They’ve been doing this for a long time and know the ropes.

And once you’ve learned enough, you can set up a chapter of your own, or maybe even a new org of your own.

Collectively, we can win. It takes more than a village. It takes all of us.

More soon. Godspeed

MAD

Ok. The climate didn’t fare very well in last nights elections. The republicans have captured the senate and now they are the majority in congress. You can be sure they will try to force the KXL pipeline through and threaten existing environmental legislation. New environmental legislation will be fought at every possible turn. Fracking will probably expand.

Where does that leave us? It must be with renewed commitment to the fight.

There are a variety of things we can do to make it more difficult to destroy any chances we have for a safe and healthy future for our children and grandchildren.

We can boycott products, services and businesses that support the destruction of the environment. We can introduce legislation in our home towns to prevent (or stop) dirty energy from being installed and/or used. We can partner with any and all environmental groups in the areas around where we live to organize and coordinate actions. We can join established groups such as 350.org, The Sierra Club, The Sane Energy Project, The MayDay Space in Brooklyn (home of the People’s Climate March), The Solutions Grass Roots Tour and The Solutions Project and get involved with actions they are planning.

I’ll be writing more about this in coming posts.

There are a lot of options and the elections showed that this battle didn’t end with The People’s Climate March, it’s only just begun in earnest.

For us, our climate change rock opera, The Nature of Man, is all the more important.

More soon.

MAD