November 4 and November 17—Two Days That I Hope Will Change the World—at Least a Little Bit
October 29, 2014
In less than one week we will have elections. I don’t expect the gubernatorial candidate I vote for on November 4 will win, because I can’t bring myself to vote for either the Republican Party’s candidate or the Democratic Party’s candidate. I will vote for the Green Party candidate, Howie Hawkins, and my hope is that he will get enough votes that it will show the major parties that environment and climate change is the issue of the twenty-first century. If we don’t have a planet to live on, nothing else matters.
But no matter who is in power, if we as individual citizens do not curb our appetites for fossil fuel, even what the most environmentally friendly government can do will not be enough – but if we can find a way to move to renewable energy, nothing that the most environmentally unfriendly government can do will stop us from building an economy that’s not dependent of fossil fuel – an economy that works for everyone.
On November 17, I will be at the 15th Street Quaker Meeting House in Manhattan, for a workshop on how neighborhoods and small communities, through a series of small group meetings, can learn to reduce their use of fossil fuel and become more resilient. I have more faith in what citizens can do than what the government can do, so for me I expect that November 17 will be the more important day in the process of preserving and renewing economic, social and environmental justice on this planet.
