Earth Day Distractions

Earth Day appears as an opportunity for people with caring hearts and the best intentions to do a little bit of good for our planet. Raising awareness is good; every little bit helps, right?

But when I look at the promo being generated by the Earth Day Network and their multitude of corporate partners, I find that it's what is not being said that is really the point.

Again, I see nothing wrong with pursuing alternative energy sources, recycling, or planting trees. But is it really so hard to see the lies and deception behind the PR?

The world's biggest corporate polluters and despoilers of the environment love to add green logos and put out warm-fuzzy commercials to let us know they are all for "going green," when their actual policies and activities prove the exact opposite.



This has been true for decades. The environmental movement has time and again been co-opted and hijacked by corporate PR green-washing machines, their clear aim to distract us from their culpability, and dump the responsibility onto us, the consumer.

Earth Day is every day for NASCAR industry
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/earth-day-every-day-nascar-120000760--nascar.html

I am all for each of us taking responsibility for what we can do. But as a wise man once said, "don't piss on my head and tell me it's rain." We should all be tired of mega-polluting industries telling us how responsible they are, when in fact every day they are doing their best to trample on not just the law but on any sense of decency and ethical responsibility. And expecting our government to provide any sort of effective control over this is useless.

Where, in any of the Earth Day promo, do you see any of the biggest industrial polluters being called to account for the horrific damage done to our land, air and water, at great cost to our economy, and our health? Where do we see any discussion of the environmental consequences of failed and damaged nuclear reactors? Does anyone want to talk about one of the biggest polluters in the world, the U.S. military? Anything at all about our dangerously misguided way of eating in this country, and the disastrous effect on the environment inflicted by industrial agriculture? The serious risks posed by the increasing presence of genetically modified foods?

No, I didn't think so. Here's a typical bit of fluff from CNN:

Hey Earthling, it's Earth Day; time for a quiz
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/22/world/earth-day/index.html

So by all means, do recycle, do plant a tree, do turn off the lights, do buy an electric car, but please look deeper. Stop buying the green-washing bullshit. Seek alternatives to the corporate-industrial paradigm that keeps a few thousand people incredibly wealthy while the rest of us are left barely hanging on.

If that sounds overblown and unrealistic, you owe it to yourself to look into this further. Fortunately I can recommend a great resource for you with lots of links and references to set you on the path.

Take Action

I am of course referring to The Queen's Table, the most comprehensive, informative and entertaining resource archive you could possibly ask for. This blog has many pages that cover a wide range of aspects relating to food and health. They are all good, but I urge you to spend some time on the "Action" page. She poses the question "What Can We Do?" and answers it on the intellectual, emotional and spiritual levels, all of which are critical before you can expect to make any lasting change in your physical world. And if you are ready for more practical information, try the Links page, with an abundance of references and links to info about organic food, best farming practices, nutrition, toxins and a lot more. If that's not enough, check out the GMO info page, the Rabbit Hole, and Inspiration to Begin. There is a lot to absorb, but as another wise man said...

The Slippery Slope Continues

What do you call it when law enforcement agents invade your home, terrorize your family and hold you captive for hours, for what turns out to be no cause? When you find that their actions were pre-approved by a judge? When they refuse to show you any evidence to justify this needless assault on your privacy, your property and your liberty?

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article318665/Evidence-for-search-of-Leawood-home-called-flimsy.html

This is the world we live in. The Harte's, a quiet upper-middle-class family from Leawood Kansas, buy hydroponic equipment so they can start growing organic vegetables indoors. But in this insane post-911 paradigm, law enforcement is given carte blanche to respond to minor offenses and even completely innocent behavior as if they were dealing with dangerous terrorists. Local police take notice of the family's activity. Buying hydroponic growing supplies is apparently enough cause to suspect them of growing marijuana. Their home is put under surveillance, their trash sifted. The police extract loose tea leaves from the garbage and wrongly identify them as marijuana. The police conclude that the Harte's are indeed growing the horrible weed. And so, as a result of a police investigation that can only be described as either inept or corrupt, a SWAT team is dispatched, the family's home is raided. The children are forced to watch as their house is torn apart for two hours as their father is forced to lie face down on the floor while an officer of the law stands over him with an AR-15 pointed at his head. The police find nothing illegal growing: only tomatoes and squash. It was just one of a series of raids on that day across two states that was declared a success at the time after police reported confiscating a total of 43 plants and one pound of pot.

http://gardnernews.com/joco-sheriff-participates-in-marijuana-raid-during-440/

The problems here are painfully obvious: they indicate a new paradigm of ever expanding secret surveillance, and militarization of law enforcement, that should make us all re-think what's going on in this country, how we got here and where we are headed. I wrote about this in an earlier blog post, "The Slippery Slope: Surveillance:"

The slippery slope has already become an avalanche. The issue of encroachment on the civil liberties of ordinary citizens is further compounded by the increasingly overt militarization of many police forces, again encouraged and supported by Dept. of Homeland Security, leading directly an increasing frequency of highly aggressive actions by police in response to non-terrorist, even non-criminal situations. Add to that the NSA's vast expansion of its domestic surveillance capacity and the government's insistence that it has the right to operate such programs in secret. This has led to a situation right out of Kafka, in which the Justice Department denies any challenge to the legality of being subjected to surveillance unless the subject can prove the government was spying on him, but that can't be proven because the government classifies that information as secret. 

If an ordinary family could have their life turned upside down by local police over something as trivial as marijuana, what do you think the CIA, FBI, NSA and the rest of the Dept. Homeland Security are capable of? Is there any reason to trust that any of us couldn't be put under surveillance, attacked or imprisoned, based on bogus evidence that more than likely will be politically motivated?

Of course, we live in a fair society. The victims have filed lawsuit against the police, and perhaps they will have their day in court. Justice is wonderful if you can afford it. But what of the many others who have been or will be victimized in similar fashion, but don't have the energy, resources or courage to go up against their own government?

UPDATES:

November 2013: Leawood couple files lawsuit filed over mistaken marijuana raid

December 2014: Leawood couple helps change search warrant law



COMMENT ANONYMOUSLY, 
or SIGN IN AND START A CONVERSATION!
Your thoughts and questions are are always welcome. Please leave a comment below. You can comment anonymously as a guest, but if you take a moment to register, you'll be able to exchange comments with TruthDots or others, and be notified when people respond to your comment.

SHARE!
Feel free to share this post using any of the buttons below.