GREEN Reactor: The GREEN MILE-stones

 
 

As we reach the end of 2013, let’s do the “milestones” thing:GREEN Reactor

  • This is my 20th new GREEN Reactor column in The Blue Paper.
  • It’s also my 70th newspaper column or article (most of which involve GREEN issues) published continuously over the last few years in papers here in Key West.
  • A few weeks ago marked a year of daily postings to my Facebook GREEN Reactor page.
  • In a few weeks it’ll be a year since I stepped away from 5 years on the board of Last Stand.
  • In a few months I’ll reach 5 years as a charter member of the City’s Sustainability Advisory Board.

There are many who expend much more GREEN energy than I do (e.g., these people) but we all do what we can to work toward improving the planet and our quality of life.  I happen to be more out-front about my activities (what with being such a blow-hard in print) but I always try to give credit to those whose efforts get less fanfare.  There are toooo many such locals to name in this one small piece, but I’ll try to do more to spotlight them in the future.

So much good happens only behind the scenes in the Keys – I’d like to find ways to remedy that!  But not right now….  Indeed I’m at a point where I’m going to have to back off a bit — even from even THIS column.  I’ll come back to that in a minute, but first a few GREEN Reactions…..

1 ) Our life ain’t as bad as  some would like you to think

You really need to get away from the sensationalist so-called-news sourcesHell In A Handbasket (ESPECIALLY from Faux News) for a while.  You’ll soon realize that the nation is NOT going to hell in a hand basket.  Our Nation’s youth are NOT really running rampant, trying to knock you out as you walk down the street.  Young kids who get suspended for seemingly innocuous reasons (“kissing on the hand”) really DID warrant some action being taken (you did not get the whole story, only the sensational part that airhead “reporters” focused on).  People really ARE benefitting from health care reform (the horror stories you hear are isolated, often trumped-up by haters).

And for God’s sakes LAUGH at anyone decrying a claimed “War on Christmas”.  This tired topic is dragged out by the right-wingers every year to try to keep their “base” fired up.  Virtually NOBODY is against any religious people celebrating a religious holiday.   See? The H-word is a good thing, it comes from “Holy Day”.  Don’t get your knickers in a twist when you hear it.

2) Corporations really are evil!

Welllll, not ALL corporations, of course. .. But those behind the shady pressure group ALEC (primarily the Kochs and other Big Dirty Energy corporations) are about as evil as they come. Koch Brothers Flag They are INTENTIALLY selling out the middle class and the future of our planet to make bigger profits for themselves — by pressuring our leaders to enact harmful laws and regulations to THEIR benefit at OUR expense. Were an individual to wreak 1/10th of 1% of the havoc caused by the backroom meddling with good governance that these guys do, the person would be locked up for life.  But they hide behind shaky rulings of their unethical SCOTUS friends and have proceeded to drive the middle class into the ground.

The only thing that will put a dent into their clout is to toss out the ridiculous concept that “Corporations are People”.  This absolutely MUST be clearly codified by an amendment to the Constitution:  We have to abolish supposed corporate constitutional rights.  Please help out with the Move To Amend efforts to do so.

3) Liberals are NOT the problem

Most of my non-regressive colleagues are just too damn courteous to outwardly object when their greed-addled acquaintances launch into a “liberals are takers/conservatives are makers” tirade.  It  usually rises out of an observation of something from “1)” above, and before you know it Obama is brought in (often with racist undertones).  Hey LibtardsThen blame for everything they see as being wrong with the world is laid directly on the doorsteps of the “libtards”.

(An aside: They seem to think that public use of “Libtard” (their contraction for “Liberal Retard”) is a suitable response to the use of the non-derogatory “Teapublican” (accepted contraction for “Tea Party Republican”).  Of course many of them also saw little problem with using the N-word, so it’s not easy to make a point of the difference involved.)

Anyway, we (and I include myself) generally sit stoically while they spew their misguided hatred, because of the old “don’t talk politics with your friends” custom.  But of course, hearing no objection, they assume everyone agrees with their harangue.  And then they trundle off confident that America agrees that libtards are ruining the country.  I’ve run out of room here to discuss how insane that concept is, but suffice it to say that it’s important that we (us libtards, who’s population far exceeds that of the Teapublicans) stop being complicit in their misunderstandings.  Speak up!

And so….

Those are my final thoughts in this column for a while.  The pesky vicissitudes of MAKING A LIVING (which I had hoped would not be such an issue at this stage in my life) make it harder and harder to dedicate time to putting together GREEN Reactor stories.  Though I’ll be on hiatus here, I’ll continue to keep the GREEN Reactor page going, so please LIKE that page to keep in touch.  When I get the sustenance thing worked out, I’ll resume here.

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