First, there was September 11. And in the face of a real human tragedy, we let fear and anxiety cloud our collective judgement to the point that xenophobia became viral again. We learned (remembered?) to fear the other. This in turn led to frustration, further divisiveness and a sense of fracture in our nation.
Now, I worry (hey, it's what my people do) that too much hand-wringing over climate change and killer tomatoes might throw us off kilter again. We might get over-wrought and make bad decisions in haste. Like, say, banning all Mexican tomatoes (Paging Lou Dobbs) because they're foreign and dangerous (let's just skip the pesticide issue for this post--Google it if you want). Where I live, Mexican tomatoes are practically locally grown. So which do I choose for the betterment of humankind: a trucked in (or, worse, flown in) bunch of Romas from Georgia or the Mexican 'maters from just over the border? Just sayin'. It's a big ol' hunk a country, this America of ours. We need a number of solutions/strategies, not cookie-cutter stuff.
Yes, the tomato thing is an extreme (partly hypothetical) example...but I think you see my point. We need to work toward practical, feasible solutions with our food and fuel scarcity issues.
Playing Cassandra for a moment, I can foresee a Victory Garden revival attracting a fair number of Doomsday-types who'd rather scare the American public with prophesies of Apocalyptic destruction resulting from a veggie shortage. Yes, Mr. Cruise, I'm being glib. That's because I'm channeling my inner-Texas chick and our "you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" adage.
To my way of thinking, and I may be alone in this, I think these food/fuel/climate challenges are another teachable moment for us all. It's a great time to put on our thinking caps and come up with some real, viable solutions that everyday folks can wrap their' noggins 'round. Pointing our fingers at folks, decrying perfectly understandable everyday behaviors and getting judgemental on one another will just further rupture our spirit.
Enough with that, yes?
As I was headed out the door today, to drive my car several miles through blazing heat to get organic items (including cat food) because my micro-climate allows only limited amounts of gardening, I grabbed my cell phone. Suddenly it occurred to me that some brilliant soul is going to figure out how to make a biodegradable handheld that charges from body heat. Seriously. It'll happen. And it'll happen because some genius gets inspired from listening to intelligent discussions about climate change, the dangers of cell phone batteries, and so forth.
Heck, if I knew how to do it, I'd make that sucker myself. And move off the grid in a fabulous eco-friendly house and raise...tomatoes.
I just really believe that we have to create a positive, self-reliant-centered culture that fosters that kind of thinking. And we do that by getting together, not getting snippy and playing the blame game. We get to that by thinking "We Can Do It"...not "It's All Their Fault."
I'm not pooh-poohing good scientific research well presented (Yay, We Can Solve It!) that motivates people to take action. I'm just cautioning us to look to better, inclusive and bipartisan examples of self-sufficiency and commitment to protect our collective well-being.
And am also reminding us all (or just me, because I worry so much?) to be a bit wary of the Doomsday-ers. And to go right on doing positive things like, I dunno, planting pots of veggies to soak up the summer sun, and telling our friends great stories about America's gardening heritage.
Honey, flies, vinegar and all that.
Above image is from WWI and in the public domain.
It was downloaded from the Library of Congress.
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