The Nov. 18 Dennis Gregory’s “Feeling down in the Trumps” column has been on my mind. He recommended becoming an “ostrich” and sticking our heads in the sand the next four years.
Do we really want to wake up four years from now to find second-class health care for women, powerless employees, state-controlled wombs, marriage equality denied, private “public” schools, lost-forever public lands, privatized Social Security, more expensive health insurance with less coverage, Medicare vouchers, stripped-down Medicaid, loss of consumer protection and Native American rights, and a rapidly warming polluted planet desperately trying to sustain life?
The answer is no. We cannot be afraid to speak and act to ensure the future we want for our children and grandchildren.
The top 1 percent, Wall Street and the fossil fuel corporations are now running the country. The 1 percent aren’t like the rest of us. The ultra-rich share few of the priorities of most Americans, but their access to policymakers is greater. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/22/opinion/la-oe-page-wealth-and-politics-20130322
President-elect Donald Trump has appointed five Goldman Sachs alums and the prospective cabinet’s collective wealth exceeds that of the combined 43 million of the least wealthy Americans, or one third of U.S. households. Nearly a third of Trump’s transition team has ties to Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who own Koch Industries. Many appointees do not support the stated mission of the agencies they have been tapped to run. We will have a climate denier as head of the EPA and an education secretary whose children went to private school!
Consider these PEW Research Center facts:
• 61 percent of registered voters think abortion should be legal in most cases.
• 57 percent of registered voters support the legalization of same sex marriage.
• 80 percent of registered voters believe undocumented migrants working in the U.S. should be allowed to stay legally if they meet certain requirements.
• 51 percent of voters want to keep or expand the Affordable Care Act.
• A majority of U.S. adults (59 percent) say stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost.
• And from Gallup: 64 percent of U.S. adults say they are worried a “great deal” or “fair amount” about global warming.
There are many excellent suggestions for what you can do: Stand up for what you want your government to do. Expand your reading (such as Environmental HealthNews.org), join a national organization(s), sign petitions, send emails or call your representatives, pass on information to your family and friends and go to rallies. Encourage your friends and relatives in other states to call their representatives and senators to tell their stories. For more ideas, visit: https://www.indivisibleguide.com/
My favorite organizations are Planned Parenthood, Sierra Club, Earth Justice, AARP, 350.org, MoveOn, ACLU, Public Citizen, and Union of Concerned Scientists. I also admire Greenpeace, NRDC, Environmental Working Group, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Earth, Food &Water Watch, Center for Food Safety, NARAL, Amnesty International USA, National Organization for Women, NAACP and Avaaz.
Please give this information to those you know who are not sure global warming is a problem: http://theageofconsequences.com/
http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
https://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php
Louis D. Brandeis, the American jurist, famously warned: “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
I felt betrayed by this election. This country’s support and progress toward social and environmental justice (women’s rights, voter’s rights, consumer rights, worker’s rights, LGBT rights, public health, clean water, clean air, protection for endangered species, education equity and more) is being trampled by those now in power in Washington, D.C.
I’m fast approaching 78 years old and I’m not sticking my head in the sand. See you at the Women’s March in Kona at 3 p.m. Jan. 21!
Gail Jackson is a resident of Waikoloa