A CLIMATE OF CHANGE

"The only thing that is constant is change."

~ Hiraclitus ~

You may think this entry is going to be about change.  And you're right..... sort of.  But to "change" things up on you a bit, this is really more about thinking.  Or thinking about change.  Or more importantly, changing how you think.  To be even more succinct, think for yourself!

When I was a kid, my dad taught me lots of stuff.  And as it turns out, some of it was useful.  But a pretty high percentage of it simply wasn't true.  "The world will be ruled by a small race of yellow people.  Says so in the Bible."  Turns out that's more Masonic than biblical.  He told me I was part Cherokee Indian.  Not true.  I'm French and English.  But that's not really the point.

"So what IS your point?" you might ask.  The point is, as I got older, I started learning things for myself.  I started to question the status quo.  I listened less to "experts" who may or may not have an agenda and started digging for myself.  It changed how I view religion, politics, people, and our environment.  It "changed" everything.  It turned a world of black and white in to a world of beautiful grays.  There's more than one side to EVERY story and there is more than one answer to EVERY question.  Truth?  Well, that's for another time. 

Let's talk about some examples:

GLOBAL WARMING, AKA CLIMATE CHANGE:

This is a fairly popular topic these days, wouldn't you say?  And it certainly is an important one.  Tree-hugging, socially liberal, environmentalists (of which I am proudly a member) are screaming from the rooftops that our climate is warming and we're all going to die.  Conservative, gun-toting,  NON-enviromentalists are screaming that global warming is a hoax created by those that, blah blah blah blah blah blahbiddy blah blah.  You know the story.

Here is what I know as fact.  The climate is changing.  In fact, the climate is warming.  And how do I know that?  I didn't learn it from Al Gore.  I know it for fact because geological science proves a glacier covered most of North America as little as 10,000 years ago.  Where'd all that ice go?  It melted.  Duh.  Climate is cyclical.  It changes.  As soon as it gets really hot, it'll start down the path to a new Ice Age.  The earth is perfectly capable of taking care of herself.  But fear not, you and I won't be around to see it.

What bothers me about the whole debate, is that it's all centered around who is right and whether or not we can actually change it.  We can't.  Be serious.  And even if we could, we won't.  Humans are too lazy.  If you think you can get nearly a billion people, just in the U.S. alone, to suddenly give up electricity and cars, and practically any other modern convenience for the sake of reducing carbon emissions, well, then you really haven't been paying attention have you?  Do people have an impact on our environment?  Of course we do.  So do cow farts.  Should we abandon caring and just keep poisoning our home?  Of course not.  That's completely disrespectful.  

But believe me when I tell you, whether we make changes or not, the earth will survive our stupidity. Mankind may not.  (Ok, lets face it, WILL not).  But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be faithful stewards of the planet where we live.  It always surprises me that people somehow continue to believe that mankind will somehow live on forever.  The dinosaurs didn't.  Thousands of species big and small become extinct every day.  You really think we're excluded?  Not a chance.  It's not if.  It's when. 

POLITICS:

I actually considered dividing this in to several subcategories.  But you're smart.  I think I can make my point by summing it all up in one big ball of political goo.  You know, like the politicians do.

Politics is a poisoned stream of extremism.  Democrats think one way.  Republicans think another way.  And no one meets in the middle.  Or do they?  First of all, the Founding Fathers set it up that way.  Far-sided extremism keeps things in the middle, and that's not really a bad thing.  What we have to be mindful of, is the fact that neither side is completely right about anything.  They are both at least partly wrong 100% of the time.  I think Rush Limbaugh is an idiot, but he's an idiot with a business plan that works quite well for him.  I don't really know if Obama is a "good" president or "bad."  History will tell that story, and it'll be a fabrication also.  But I can tell you this.  Obama isn't some soldier-hating, socialist any more than a Republican is a war-mongering, terrorist.  Don't you see?  BOTH sides play that game and it absolutely makes NO difference who the president is.  Know why?

It makes no difference because 1) he's not really running things and 2) you didn't really elect him.  Your vote counts at the school board.  "Voting is a privilege of the free" is nothing more than smoke and mirrors to make you think you have something to do with the national political process.  You don't.  How do I know?  Because I read between the lines occasionally.  

For starters, our president isn't even elected by popular vote.  Theoretically, (and I know this is a stretch), a vast majority of our population could vote for one person or the other, and he'd still lose because of the distribution of the votes.  Large populous states carry more weight.  You know the process.  And secondly, the dream of a kid growing up to be president without very strong business and political connections is long gone.  Every candidate you see is put there by people that WANT him/her there.  Your vote doesn't matter.  Not at that level, it doesn't.

So how about the extreme info about this congressman or that senator voting against this bill or for that bill, or whatever.  I, too, have gasped that someone might vote against military benefits or feeding the hungry, etc.  But look deeper.  These bills are sometimes hundreds or thousands of pages long.  In political maneuvering, "riders" are attached to bills. Joe needs his military spending bill passed, but Martha won't vote for it in committee unless she can attach her homeless shelter agenda, etc etc etc.  So when you hear someone has voted for or against something that looks important, dig deeper.  It could be they just couldn't swallow the whole pill.  Think.

So how do we fix this political mess?  Well, we can't.  Or again, we won't.  Until nearly a billion people (I know, same analogy) are willing to stand up to corporations like Walmart and GM and Monsanto, and whoever.... level the playing field and take things back, you're "pissing up a rope."  It won't happen unless we try.  And the big boys aren't gonna let you try without a fight.  It's the things revolutions are made of.  Humans are lazy.  It might change, but it won't.  My life didn't change under Bush OR Obama.  It won't change under the next one either.

EBOLA:

I realize this topic is more specific than general, but I hope to drive home my point one last time with an event in America that just made me laugh.  Don't get me wrong.  Ebola is a serious illness.  So is the flu, AIDS, malaria, etc.  I want you to think about the information we received via our local and national news.  These were the very first cases of Ebola in the U.S.  An epidemic was at large, and we needed to act fast.  And we did.  Disaster averted.  Or was it?

I want you to think about this veeeeeery carefully.  This isn't based on fact.  It's based on common sense.  Ebola has been an identifiable virus since the 1970's.  Americans, be they doctors, nurses, missionaries, or Peace Corp volunteers, have been traveling to Africa and treating this virus that entire time.  Oh, AND they've returned to the United States.  Do you honestly think, (for the love of God, tell me you don't think this), these were the first cases of Ebola in America?  Of course they weren't.  Think, people.  Think.

RELIGION:

OK, I'm not even going to TOUCH this topic until you've at least read the manual that your religion is based on.  If you're a war-mongering, gun-toting, "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" kinda person, and consider yourself Christian (or Muslim, or Buddhist, or whatever), then you've clearly not read the book that spells it out for you and you've just showed up to a gun fight with a knife.  Read it, and then we'll talk.  

This is undoubtedly my longest blog ever.  I needed to vomit.  All I'm really asking is that you take your life, your thoughts, and your beliefs into your own hands.  Stop believing everything you hear, see, or read.  Question everything.  Ask questions.  Hold people's feet to the fire.  I know it won't change.  But it could.  And how can I be so bold as to think you need to question everything?  Because I'm a photographer.......

......And you can turn a slice of pizza in to a blonde supermodel in a red bikini.

PRESS 1 FOR HUMAN

"It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences."

      ~ Audre Lorde ~

I see signs like the ones you see above almost every day.  I see them on social media, billboards, websites, etc.  I hear it at the fire station or from the person down the street.  Well, I gotta tell you, I'm tired of it.  If your only problem is that you have to press 1 for English, then you certainly have first world problems, indeed.  Millions of people on this planet are starving.  They don't have enough to eat.  They don't have fresh water, or modern sewage systems.  And what food they DO have is suspect in quality.  In fact, often the donations you make to feed the hungry are actually stolen by the government of the starving nation.  Press 1 for English.  You fuckin' kidding me?

For those of you that adhere to this short-sighted, selfish, asinine, philosophy, let me share a bit of a history lesson with you.  You're standing on stolen soil.  Had you forgotten?  Oh right, "America" wasn't ours to begin with.  And once we stole it, we "won" our independence from England, the country we CAME from!!  

You want to know why you and I are Americans and speak English?  Well, I'll tell you.  We got lucky.  We just happened to be born here and it just so happens that's the language most people speak here.  You're an english-speaking, Christian (or not), American because HERE is where you were born and THIS is what your parents taught you. Here's a surprise.  If you'd been born in Mexico, you'd speak Spanish.  China? Mandarin.  Iraq?  Farsi or something like it.  You live where you live, speak the language you speak, and follow the religion of your choice, simply. because. this. is. where. you. were. born.

When exactly did we lose sight of the Land of the Free and become the Land of "Fuck you! It's mine and you can't have it!!!"?  Seriously.  When?  Oh, and you're ok with immigrants as long as they show up legally like your great-grandfather?  Your great-grandfather stepped off a boat, signed a paper, and got an inoculation.  It's hardly that simple today.  And if you think you wouldn't swim a river in the middle of the night to make a better life for your family, then you're either lying or you're a weasel.  Get serious. 

Tell me.  Please tell me.  Exactly what difference does it make what language we speak?  Who cares?  You're using language as just one more barrier to helping us come together as humans.  YOUR country, MY country.   MY state, YOUR state.  YOUR language, MY language.... skin, religion, ad infinitum.

Oh wait, but you're concerned many of our "illegal" immigrants are terrorists or drug dealers?  That just makes me laugh.  A FRACTION!  A fraaaaaaaction of the dealers, thieves, murderers, and terrorists we have here already.  You must mean you don't want any more.  And don't even get me started on the taxes they don't pay or the jobs they steal.  Stop listening to the hype on CNN.  Pull your head out of your ass and think for yourself.

So while we're trying to think for ourselves, lets address terrorism.  I'm completely against it.... from ANY place on the planet and that includes the good ole USA.  You think other parts of the world don't see our military actions in the name of freedom acts of terror?  Gee, that's funny.  That's exactly what "terrorist" states are doing.  Their military actions in the name of (place your cause here) are seen as terror.  Ours are seen as "defending freedom."  You know how many innocent civilians are killed by all these terrorist acts?  Not nearly as many as we've killed in the name of freedom.  We've even increased the death toll from 911 from around 3,000 to tens of thousands.  

Look, can't we be civil?  Can't we be humans?  Not far in the future, perhaps even in our lifetime, water is going to be a serious issue.  You think oil is a problem?  Wait until we start killing each other over having enough to drink.  You won't care if there's enough gas to get to the store for food.  You'll be defending your home from terrorists who want your water.  I'd love to think we'd share, but I'm losing hope.

I would LOVE to get into Climate Change, the whole "Democrat vs Republican", the smoke and mirrors of our Republic, etc., but now that you're thinking for yourself, maybe you'll figure it out.  One can only hope.  This isn't OUR country.  It's OUR planet, and we'd better start acting like it and work together or there won't be people to wage war on each other.  Maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Press 1 for English?  You bet your ass.  I'm happy to do it.  

Welcome to America.