March 15, 2014

When Barack Obama was first inaugurated in January 2009, he clearly and firmly announced to the planet: “We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense.”

I’d say this is one promise the Pope of Hope has kept.

Wake-up Call: Our way of life is a way of death.

“Our way of life” is based on violence, expansion, consumption, domination, and predatory capitalism.

Our way of life means 1 in 31 American adults is in prison, on parole, or on probation, yet we live in Land of the Free™.

It means the U.S. military -- the planet’s worst polluter and recipient of more than 50 percent of U.S. tax dollars -- can launch predator drones at civilians, but somehow we dwell in the Home of the Brave™.

Our way of life means homelessness. It means sweatshops. It means “illegal” is a noun and “union” is an insult.

It means 150-200 animal and plant species go extinct… every single day.

Wake-up Call: Our way of life is a way of death.

Our way of life means there aren’t any cod in Cape Cod, and soon no ice at the North Pole.

It means strip malls; it means strip mining.

Our way of life means New Hampshire license plates read: “Live free or die.” It also means New Hampshire license plates are manufactured by prisoners.

Our way of life means Mumia abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier and Chelsea Manning remain in prison, while war criminals like Madeleine Albright and Dick Cheney walk free. Speaking of war criminals, our way of life also means President Obama can take time out from waging two wars to accept a Nobel Peace Prize.

Our way of life teaches us what to accept as “normal” and, as a result, normal means every 46 seconds, a woman is raped in America. It means depleted uranium and landmines. Normal means gay bashing and racial profiling; veal crates and vivisection; clear cutting and ocean trawling.

Wake-up Call: Our way of life is a way of death.

Normal will have you taking off your shoes at the airport, getting shot at by trigger-happy cops, but never having to walk more than two blocks to find the nearest Starbuck’s. (Did I say walk? I meant drive, of course. Walking… how Third World of me.)

Every square mile of ocean hosts 46,000 pieces of floating plastic? Women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man is paid? The global animal by-products industry murders 1 trillion animal per year for “food,” consumes and destroys one-third of the planet’s and surface, and is the top source of human-created greenhouse gases?

All normal. All part of our vaunted way of life -- the same way of life that has removed 80 percent of the world’s forests and 90 percent of the large fish in the ocean and will not stop until they’re all gone.

Wake-up Call: Our way of life is a way of death.

Make no mistake about it, our beloved way of life was built on a nearly exterminated indigenous population, an African slave trade, and all those killed in places like Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Southeast Asia, Central America, Middle East, etc. etc.

It was created on stolen land, using stolen oil.

Our way of life is built on terror and it is maintained by terror -- the terror of cops, prisons, military, and the psychological terror of propaganda.

The first step to end terrorism remains this simple: Stop practicing it yourself.

The precarious state of things on Planet Earth is not some preordained theology or an unstoppable force of nature. We’re in this mess thanks to human decisions. If different decisions had been made in the past, different outcomes would’ve likely occurred.

If different decisions are made and different actions are taken -- starting right now -- perhaps different outcomes can still transpire. I say we find out…

#shifthappens

Note: To continue conversations like this, come see Mickey Z. in person on March 15 at Bluestockings Bookstore in NYC.

Order Occupy this Book: Mickey Z. on Activism here.

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Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on a couple of obscure websites called Facebook and Twitter. Anyone wishing to support his activist efforts can do so by making a donation here

http://www.countercurrents.org/mickeyz150314.htm