This ol whirled seems to be whirtling round n round still. Chicken Little and I are roasting on the fire, cookin away amung beans, and trading frosted chestnuts while nipping with ol Nat Cole....
People around the world are concerned about issues of food safety, control, genetic modification, and other "stuff." Here is something I wrote about the experience of "marching" with a few thousand folks, as well as video of the crowds, and photos of the event, where I was the first speaker. I'm curious if any of you's have any comments on the subjects.
On Saturday 5/25/13, Millions of people Marched "Against" Monsanto, around the world. WHY is that, and has anyone heard about it?
I participated and was the first speaker at the San Francisco March, where over 2000 folks gathered at Union Square and listened to speakers, had lunch, and then walked down Powell Street, past the tourists and the cable cars being turned around, and on down Market Street. The line stretched for about a quarter mile, filling the full width of one lane, plus some, while the police closed off the intersections for us. One can search online and find plenty of images of the millions of people around the world who participated, but, you are not likely to see any on television, for some reason. I believe (and hope) that the tide may be turning though. I have posted links (which you may need to cut and paste) to video and photos that I took of "our" march at the end of this piece. Feel free to share them, as you wish.
It made me cry as I stood on top of the newspaper racks, shooting video with one hand, and getting "fives' from folks walking past (including police) with the other hand. It made me cry, to have a little hope, experiencing the magnitude of the numbers of people and children peacefully marching by, and realizing I was not alone, and not just, not alone. There were A LOT of us. Writing this, I think of a youtube video of a cable car traveling down Market Street in 1905 (link at the bottom). Long-strided walkers, who are now ghosts, walked here long ago, and we walk past what they built, and left behind. I worry, as do many others, what, are we leaving behind, and how will genetic modifications affect the future? Are we leaving anything worthwhile, and what is stopping us from acting now, with caution, in the best interests of our children, or any/all future life?
One can go into and get lost in the politics of such a march, and the personalities involved in organizing, or disorganizing, and what it is supposed to be about, or look like, youths, "older" folks, hippies, anarchists, cops, housewives, and blech, you can start spinning like Linda Blair (google it folks) and get dizzy, or you can just realize that we are all doing the best we can with what we gots, and can we just be kind, and try to understand one another, as things come up, buttons get pushed. We gets hot, or hurt, or sad, and hey, it is the same ol same ol as the whole rest of the whirled and history, and what is the intention here, eh? Some want to march without a permit as is within our rights, and some want to enlist the help and support of the existent structures and protocols (thereby welcoming and changing them.) Firey youth with energy and less experience, older folks with more experience, lacking other things, and anarchists, who don't seem to want any constraints or limitations.
We are ALL crazy, on any, and all sides, of all differences, distinctions, and lines of belief, which cloud kindness. Poets, intellectuals, professionals, laborers, architects, and fools, engineering our own folly with the precision of our personalities, while reaching up [inside the elephant?] in our blindness and having no idea which end we are reaching into?. Hmm, and hrumph!
Perhaps, life is about dealing with all of the unintended consequences of our actions?
Perhaps Monsanto, etc., really do believe that "they" are doing good work(s) for humanity. I do not know for sure what their intentions are, however, I can and do witness the "unintended" consequences and the juggernaut of political power which is wielded with no regard for anything but dollar profits. How do we go slow, and ensure that there are less "oops, sorry's" in the future, is the concern of many.
Somehow though, despite all the jabberings of humanity, it would be nice to have working sewer systems to deal with our wastes, and working other systems, and to work within Nature, in such ways that we don't poop in our own nest; and to put out the fires which start between people, between nations, and [between all life?], and preserve the commons of Nature for everything’s future.
“Working” and “sane” policy and regulation are at the heart of, and pretty far from the corporate mass and mess we seem to be in currently. We need SOME rules and policy, to keep us from becoming both a "Randian" bunch of industrialists mistaking finite Natural systems for endless resources, and the demolicans and republicrats jabbering away, while padding their own empires. We would all be better off were the world run by 5th graders, or monkeys, rather than by the overly entitled and entrenched lunatics of our world, with too few exceptions.
Our world seems to be about frontal attacks. Frontal attacks of homeland insecurity. Frontal attacks of “mine,” or we want yours. Frontal attacks of fundemented rigidalists of any persuasion, which hijack any and all religions. Religions which ultimately are all, good, bad, or terrible, translations of the book of Nature. The "book" of Nature, which all life is supported by and built upon. Translations which would likely make the folks which spoke the original intentions shudder and cry with shame.
Frontal attacks of images and appearances, and the obfuscation of what is real or good. From what I can see, our frontal attacks have just about made this world uninhabitable. Perhaps there is another way, where we can skip the beliefs battling and belittling other(s) beliefs with the blunt knee jerking precision of ignorance, or the worthless "Trust Us" paper assurances of unrestrained smiling corporate psychopaths, and actually listen to and respond (appropriately) to the issues!!!!!
The reasons and purposes for marching are many fold, and it would take more space than a few lines here to do them any justice. People spoke (and you can certainly research more deeply with a click powered by some electrons,) about the "evils" of Monsanto, of Vietnam and Agent Orange, of herbicides such as Roundup, DDT, and worse, which poison the air, water, and soil. People spoke about GMO seeds, and patents and the ownership of life by corporate “persons,” whatever they are. People spoke about the thousands of farmers which have committed suicide after being enslaved and indebted to corporate thugs, such as Monsanto, which only see the bottom line. The bottom line, which is reducing all living Nature, to lifeless "buy" products, and toxic landfills of wasteland which will be unfit for living for thousands of years or longer. The bottom line, of psychopaths run amok, much as tantruming infants which need sane limits and regulation.
There were many speakers, on and off the stage, some with titles and degrees, and science, and some with stories, observations, and feelings. Some made you laugh, some made you angry, and some had you sobbing. Everyone there had lots of ideas, facts, and feelings to share. And, lots of heart.
I saw a photo on the Internet recently http://www.realfarmacy.com/hungary-destroys-all-monsanto-gmo-corn-fields/, of flames engulfing what was labeled as a field of Monsanto GMO corn which was burned by Hungary, a country in Europe which has policy/laws/rules against GMO’s. I passed the photo along and added, “may we kindle this wildfire, and help it to grow and spread, worldwide.
No, I do not wish to see actual flames and fire, but I do want to see the flames of determination, the flames of steadfastness, and the flames of LOVE, for all beings, engulf our world. We need to kindle the flames within each other, and not allow corporate or human greed to dictate policy which is destructive of the commons of Nature, which do not belong to us.
Millions of us marched. Millions and millions of us ARE concerned. Millions and millions of us are angry, and we are also concerned, and fearful. Fear of a future filled with unintended consequences, and genetic genii's unleashed forever, with only the worthless paper assurances of safety (trust us) from corrupt and psychotic corporate "persons" which have no accountability. Fear of leaving a planet, not worth living on, for anything's children.
We are angry with inept and self serving politicians, beholden to the corporate gods, and at a system which values dollar profits as the highest ideal, at the expense of the living systems which support all life.
We, the people of the earth, have had enough! Enough of the rip and shred. Enough of the Endless Wars. Enough of the Fukushimas and Chernobyls. Enough of the Fracking. Enough of the system which imperils workers in slave mills like Bangladeshi garment factories which collapse and kill thousands. Enough of the Keystone/Tarsands, etc, etc, etc. We have had enough of the rape and pillage of this earth, for greed and gluttony. We have had enough of the mistaken idea that money is an ultimate ideal. We have had enough of the idea that money is more valuable than community, or that money is more important than whole living ecosystems. We have had enough of mistakenly valuing egosystems, more than ecosystems.
The only real wealth, security, or profits, are to be found in healthy diverse community, and the ecosystems which support all life. Just as in an orchard, where we can live off the interest of nature, plant more trees, and harvest the fruit, or we can destroy the principal of Nature, poison the water and soil, use the tree branches for firewood and weapons, and have no fruit or trees, or anything else.
Where is, or are the regulations and policy, the governance, by and for all beings, as STEWARDS, of the commons of Nature, which belongs to itself, and to everybody? Not to the capitalists, anarchists, religionists, communists, or any ‘ists,” and not to humans, but to all life.
I realize that the concept that life, Nature, and the earth, are not here for us to reduce to dollar values, and to own and exploit for personal gain, is a difficult one for we humans to get. The commons of Nature, is a vast interrelated, diverse living system, and it supports all life, including our own. At this point we have mined, cut, fished, and altered it so much, that, well, our future is questionable.
We create our world with every waking dollar we spend, and invest, in whichever "buy" products, we consume. This march made me cry with hope, that, perhaps, we as a species, are finally realizing that the earth is a rather small and finite fish bowl, and that we need to take care of and protect the diverse living systems of Nature, and look at them not as something which belongs to us, but as something which belongs to itself. Perhaps there is a slim hope for us. Perhaps....
We marched, whirledwide, for many reasons, the main one being, I believe, that we wish to leave a world worth living on for anything's future, before, as one friend put it, before "the patterns of greed and gluttony, destroy anything worthwhile." The march was a shiny beacon of hope for folks who have had enough, and we "gots" work to do.
We are faced with a global choice, continue on into the environmental collapse of monetary profits are all that matters, and the fallacy that we can continue to poison the air, water, and soil with uncontainable toxins, or, begin the process of stewarding and supporting systems which work within the systems of Nature. Perhaps it is already too late, as the icecaps are melting rapidly, and carbon dioxide is over 400 parts per million, and no I don't give a rat weather you believe humans have caused it or not, BUT, it is time to rebuild, and repair the fabric of life, or tikkun (look it up, and then embody it folks) regardless of who or what is the cause. Can we retrain and restrain the beliefs of the consuming hoard of humanity, or are we going to continue along as jabbering humans on a sinking ship?
It is time to quit dreaming of Dr Kings world, and quit imagining Lennon’s lyrics, and quit thinking that we can not embody Gandhi’s spirit. We can change and fix this world, once we quit professing the ideals, and begin to embody them.
What we need is leadership, and hearts, and a willingness to face the present and the future without a bunch of B.S. and trips. It is time to share the milk and cookies folks, and to either retrain or restrain the bullies which are rapidly leading us into oblivion. There is no more room to treat this earths living systems as unlimited resources, for us to do with as we choose, with zero regard for how living systems work. We have tried that, and now we are here on the edge of oblivion. Enough already! Lets fix this mess while we can. The wall of Natural limits approaches rapidly.
What are we going to choose, for ourselves, our families, children, communities, and all life?
Pictures, my talk, and other bits of the premarch gathering. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CK3vKTP1s0
Here is a decent overview from CNN. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-aNUBNFsM6Y#!
and some videieio of folks marching down Powell and Market Streets. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2L1_vrhNHU
And the 1905 cable care ride where we walked. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqfwNzApies
