When will it all end?

I'm very nervous, caffeinated, etc. The longest election in American history is about to end, and it's been a very long day for me. I voted early, and so today was mostly just me thinking a lot about what might happen. I will probably cry if McCain wins. After eight years of being frustrated with Bush/Cheney, I don't think I could handle another fiasco without shedding a few tears.

I think I've probably said before that I don't think either candidate could feasibly change anything. The entire system is built against change. Neither of the candidates is radical enough for me--I liked Kucinich even if he does believe he saw aliens. A lot of people believe stranger things. But I sucked it up and backed Obama. Because he's different. Because he's intelligent. Because he's...black. Yes, you heard me, I voted for Obama partially because he's black.

If I were black I would vote Obama simply because he's black. It's about freaking time. The white house has been white for far too long in such a diverse nation. There's no excuse except for racism, and I like to think that a vote for black is innately a vote for change. Maybe Obama will be so mired in all the crap that the Bush administration has created that he won't accomplish much of anything except for some stable cleaning. But raking up poop isn't menial or bad or worthless--believe me, I've done way too much of that myself. But then, maybe he really will change some things for the better. Maybe I'm just too cynical and naive at the same time to realize that there is still some hope for the American system in spite of the wear and tear of a couple of centuries of bad policies Here's to you, Barack.

Waste not...?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the food crisis. I went home a few weeks ago, and, as usual, my family’s food consumption and food waste appalled me, but this time I had Haitians in mind—eating dirt, not being able to afford rice when just three decades ago they were rice producers themselves. And then there was my family, throwing rice away because they don’t want to eat leftovers and so food goes bad constantly.

When I go to a restaurant I’ve stopped letting any food go to waste—to-go boxes are in vogue for me.

I try to buy all my food locally and just avoid the big brands altogether in my, perhaps naïve, hope that I am not supporting the forces that have brought the food crisis to light.

But what can we do about this? That always seems to be the unanswerable question. There are forces larger than us that we have no control over, and we end up being frustrated and disillusioned. This is particularly problematic for those of us who live in states where, no matter how many letters we send to our representatives and senators, they just don’s listen and send back generic letters about how they’re doing the right thing and other such nonsense.

The conclusion I’ve reached is that all we can do is live our lives the best we can, keep writing letters and signing petitions and attending town hall meetings, and make changes to our lifestyles that may not have a direct impact on the state of the world, but that may influence others to change. There’s no point in feeling powerless and defeated—life is still beautiful. We just have to adapt. You know, hang your clothes out to dry instead of using the dryer. Take fewer, shorter showers (trust me, even working on a goat farm I only need to take, at most, two showers a week—and that’s mostly for the sake of decorum). Keep the thermostat at a responsible temperature. Watch your water consumption. Reduce, reuse, and then if you’ve done that, recycle. We are only as powerless as we want to be. We can wallow in the shit that the media feeds us or we can remember that we are human beings—we are not capable of superhuman feats, but we are capable of practicality, love, generosity, and happiness among many other things.

So, the food crisis rages, but what we can do about this is more than cry and worry. We can learn to garden (it’s harder than it looks, but really rewarding when things turn out the way they’re supposed to), preserve food (easier than it looks), buy locally, and, very important, be thankful for what we have and not abuse our wealth. It also wouldn’t hurt to donate something, whether locally, to a reputable food bank (and they need your volunteer hours as well), or internationally to a relief organization. But above all, feeling hopeless isn’t going to help anyone. So get up off your depressed ass and do something.

Turning Off the Lights

Lately I have taken to turning off the lights in the bathrooms on campus after leaving. Of course, only when no one else is in there. And yet, even though I know I am doing something essentially good, economical, I feel somewhat akin to a fanatic. Perhaps I am. I feel that somehow I have to do the environmental good deeds for myself and my family as they are still not convinced that global warming is a scientific fact. I spent the whole of my winter break trying to convert them. I watched nature documentaries in the living room. I recycled everything I could get my hands on that was recyclable. I even stuck my neck out a little and spoke directly on the subject of the causes and effects of global climate change. And yet, they are unfased.

I know my family does not take me for a fool. I am the first on my father's side of the family to attend a four-year university and the second on my mother's side. I have made the chancellor's list every semester as I am a perfectionist by nature. My grandparents especially are thrilled with my success thus far and never cease to tell me how smart I am. Ok, so I'm smart on most issues but have been completely deluded by environmentalists?

I think the thing that most frustrates me is that, in my opinion, environmentalism is not a party-line issue. The left-wing branch of politics has taken up environmental awareness to a much larger extent than the right-wing, but this does not mean that it's a radical, leftist idea. We are all inhabitants of this planet. We will all live with the consequences of the environment we create. So what's the problem? Environmentalists are not going to get anything out of the bargain. There is no bargain. All we want is to be able to go hiking in twenty, thirty years and see thriving wildlife, a great view at the top, perhaps...We want our children to have this same honor: to be gracious stewards of the planet with all the benefits thereof. We too will have to make sacrifices to reduce our carbon footprints. Environmentalists demand action, but they do not demand that action only of others. They are often the first to make changes in their own lives, and often much more radical changes than others.

What really gets to me is the apathy that pervades my family and, so far as I can tell, most of America. Watching Planet Earth is enough to bring tears to my eyes--the earth is so beautiful, diverse, incredible. Did you know that there are species of cichlids so specialized that they eat only the scales off other fish? Did you know that the gizzard of a wild turkey can crush a hickory nut? The mating dances of some of the birds of paradise are at once so bizarre and so unspeakably graceful that I am agog at humanity's efforts at destroying all of this. We have reached a point where our excesses are so great that I would consider the species as trying to destroy the planet. Perhaps most people do not think in the same way I do.

In any event, if there is anything worth fighting for on this earth, it is the earth itself.