Adam's Rant

With both kids asleep, Adam gardening at my parents' house, and the house in somewhat decent shape I am able to post a new blog. There is a lot to write as my day is jammed packed with funny and trying moments, but I think the best thing to post at the moment is Adam's rant. This is a post that he wrote on a website. You know, when I was in college my friend amy and I made a list, yes another list, a list of all the qualities our future husbands' would have to have to be so lucky as to end up with one of us. My main things were: be a vegetarian, be super liberal and intelligent, be a great father, have a desire for traveling, hiking, outdoors stuff, and be a hippie. There was probably more to the list, but this is what I recall. Adam truly fits all of my criteria (and even recently became a vegetarian). He is so informed, intelligent, articulate, and is the most loving, devoted and playful parent. I am once again cutting and pasting to show off my husband's desire for a better world. It is long, but I assure you if you take the time to read it, you will be impressed and maybe even more educated.

"So here's the deal. I don't understand how anyone could look at the current state of our world and think things are honky dory. In this country and around the world people are hurting in ever growing numbers and no one seems to be doing anything about it.

We have a global food crisis where billions of people are on the brink or soon to be on the brink of starvation. Water supplies around the world are dwindling, which will only exacerbate the food shortage. Global warming, man made or not, will eviscerate much of our farming land and nothing is being done. Meanwhile, Americans are fat. We eat an enormous amount of mean, especially beef, the most energy intensive and ecologically disastrous kind of food, but we blame India and China for the problems.

Our economy is teetering. Many people are struggling to make ends meet. Most of our disposable income is paid on food, shelter, health care, and fuel with whatever else left over barely stretching to cover the rest, if at all. Americans and our country are in massive debt to the point where it is becoming impossible to ignore the writing on the wall that our country is in danger of becoming an ex-superpower. The solution from our government, a few hundred bucks to pay off a fraction of the debt most people have, not including their mortgages.

We continue to fight endless wars with ever-changing goals while our politicians continue to chant we are making "progress". I fail to see any such progress other than the continued weakening of our country and the countries we are occupying. Iraq is a mess, the Taliban are just as strong as they always were, Bin Laden is still free as a bird, our soldiers are dying in ever increasing numbers and we are getting ready to send another $170 Billion to the waste basket that these misadventures are. But we need to "stay the course"?

We seem to think it is more important to incarcerate people than to educate them. No Child Left Behid is a disaster and yet we still think we can educate our children through testing. Our teachers are treated like second-class citizens while our prisons swell. We now have the highest rates of incarceration in the world and our educational system continues to deteriorate. People are coming out of college have on average $20,000 in debt, forcing them into jobs as indentured-servants. Most of these jobs are temporary with no benefits or job security and we expect them to boost our economy by taking on more debt?

We somehow think it is okay for our government to spy on its citizens, to pass a national ID that will track everyone in this country through ever increasing technology. We used to shudder when totalitarian states required people to carry "papers" everywhere they went and show them on demand, but now we are going to do the same thing?

Torture is acceptable in the new US of A? We can waterboard, beat, maim, brutalize people without charge? Hold them indefinitely and ignore rights to habeas corpus? We know of many people who have died under such torture and yet we continue to defend these acts. We know that these heinous acts reveal nothing of importance and actually weaken our ability to fight the war on terror as any evidence gained by torture is unacceptable in any legitimate court of law. For example the "20th Hijacker" from 9-11 has recently been released and all charges dropped. Another failure of our government to bring real justice to the families of 9-11.

This country is looking more and more like a totalitarian state. Of course the rhetoric and propaganda pumped 24-7 by the talking-heads and spin miesters of the corporate-military-media-industrial complex would have you believe that we are still a glowing beacon of the hill, the greatest country to ever grace the earth with its presence and that if we all just keep the status quo going we will soon be back on top of it all. Many of us know differently and more and more people are beginning to wake up to the face that there are some major, fundamental problems in this country that need to be addressed quickly if we are going to maintain the kind of nation we have become used to.

Action is needed and simply voting in a new president is not going to do it. We need to change our lifestyles, or philosophies and our governmental institutions drastically in order to right this ship. It is well within our power to do so if we unite on a local level and demand and effect the change in our community and personal lives so that we can bring about the global change that is needed. Decentralized solutions are the key to the future. Many people are on board and I urge everyone to take stock of what you can do to be a part of the solution and to no longer be a part of the problem.

So that's the deal and the end of my rant. Thanks for reading, if you did, and thanks to those who will rip me apart as well!