a beginning...to be continued

Can we use this opportunity to dialogue about how to maintain and create a just society that values and protects life?

Can we not get beyond using so much of our energy to fear death by c.v. and instead use that energy to make the changes we all know we need to make to ensure life continues after us???

I think we should all be taking this opportunity to REALLY question what it is we REALLY need in life. Think about all the things we are doing without - and we are still breathing, as long as we're not c.v. infected that is.

I know those of us who drive are saving tons of money on fuel - and our air quality reflects this. Even tho my daughter is still going to work, she doesn't have the extra miles of her child's school and after-school and weekend activities. I think we should think about how we can make this quality of air a priority over all the driving we choose to do to support our previous lifestyle that was willing to sacrifice clean air.

Think of all the other things you are living without now - maybe visits to the beauty parlor or nail salon or whatever extraneous - to life - things we're so used to indulging in. Think about how we can make the quality health of others a priority over all the chemicals we were willing to expose ourselves to briefly but the workers to many hours a day.

I think we should take this time and maybe make a list of all the things you did and just had to do pre-shutdow, like maybe all the shopping you did most likely daily or every few days and can't we be grateful for all the many 'things' we owned and maintained and now, for the sake of our children's children, can we do without shopping any more, without buying another thing, another item that is not 'essential' to life?

Can we not allow this 'shutdown' to continue indefinitely as we move over or move in and make the space for Mother Earth's creatures to expand their territory and basque in the sun and earth and air that we've been dominating for a few hundred years?

Can we not continue the moratorium on rents and mortgages and continue providing shelter for those that need shelter - remember there are 15 million vacancies in our country and 1.5 million people - pre c.v. of course. Who will fail if there's no more rent or mortgage? The fuckin banks, the fuckin ceo's of the fuckin banks - and so they should fail.

Can we not continue sharing with our neighbor, maybe speaking with our neighbor for the very first time, I mean really communicating - 6 feet now, but still face-to-face. Can we not relax and depend on others to care for us as we will care for others? Can we look around our homes and see the multitude of stuff we are hoarding, things we have in drawers or closets or under beds that we haven't seen let alone used in over a year, maybe longer? Can we commit ourselves to not buying another fuckin thing for the next five years? Not another fuckin thing that hurts someone, whether it is exploiting someone's labor, exposing someone to horrible chemicals in the process of manufacturing or growing food, forcing people into poverty by stealing their resources and ability to provide the 'essential' life-sustaining necessities.

We're already doing the beginning hard part, which is deciding - or in our present state, having this decision made for us - we 'want' to change and in our present state, to change to halt the spread of c.v. But we could instead morph that 'want', that change into a people who protect life, value life, love life: for it is the deciding we WANT something that is the first big hard part. Then the last other big hard part is working, committing, being determined to get what we want. And do we not want to survive, for our children to survive let alone the polar bear and the bees to survive? Can those of us who have experienced soooooo much more luxury - even while we're bemoaning our poverty status as we compare our lives with the richest around us instead of the poorest - sooooooo much more junk, soooooo much more convenience than most of the humans on our planet, can we please say ENOUGH!

I've been to other countries - well a few - and I've seen people spending a good part of their days hanging out together, sitting on a blanket maybe, in the shade or in the sun, sharing tea or a piece of fruit - or just being, maybe dozing, maybe chatting, maybe listening to the birds fluttering around the trees. And I've wondered if I could ever be happy having nothing I have to get done, nothing I need to finish or begin, nothing I have to rush off to do in order to maintain my lifestyle.

Let's together think about how we can maintain this unemployed/underemployed lifestyle. The economy has crashed/is crashing. What exactly does that mean? And mean to us, who are reading this right now? Poor people already know how to live with almost nothing. It is the wealthy that are/should/might be tumbling down. We do NOT need to build them back up again but we DO need to build a life that does no harm to any living creature, any living entity on this planet. No more excuses that we didn't know this plastic bag came to us thru war, thru destroying Mother Earth, thru greed - and will stay with our planet for eons after we've died. No more justifying the tortuous death by starvation of how many children a SECOND because we demand access to cheap and plentiful food. No more continuing to pay taxes to fund our military and the killing of people around the globe, disrupting and threatening their lives so severely they flee. No more turning a blind eye to those refugees fleeing our terror inflicted upon them and their homeland as we create horrific refugee camps along our border. No more being able to curl up and sleep contentedly at night knowing we have at least an empty room or maybe five that could provide safe shelter for a womon &/or a child at risk of male violence.

No more. No more. No more.

We have this great opportunity now. Let's keep embracing it, keeping it close to our consciousness, building upon it to create the country we really want to live in.