After two years teaching school, my then-husband was called back to his family’s farm near Goodland, Kansas.
The little country church the family attended had changed significantly during my husband’s years at college – it had become fundamentalist, John Birch Society territory.
I found myself saying, “No! No! No,” often returning from services in tears. It became imperative to figure out what I could say yes to.
We left the farm and spent six demanding years doing community development in villages in Taiwan and India; later, refugee resettlement in Dallas.
Naomi Klein’s recent book, No Is Not Enough presents similar challenges. Besides drawing lines in the sand, we must also chart our way to a different future, somewhere we have never been before. It will take vision and boldness.
Klein’s book concludes with the “Leap Manifesto” issued by a broad coalition of Canadian authors, artists, national leaders and activists during the 2015 Canadian federal election campaign. This contradicts incrementalism. Google it!
Climate change time is running out; we cannot stop the laws of physics as we continue polluting our one planet and unsustainably increasing population.
The planet will survive; we well may not, and we will take innumerable species down with us.
What are our values? Clean water, clean air? Public lands protections? People over corporations? Health care for all? Free college? Diversity celebration?
Dream big. There are ways to achieve our vision; the “Manifesto” details some possibilities. Overlay your values on 2018 elections candidates.
Marilyn McCord
Vallecito
