Our Planet in Peril While Future Generations Ignored

              Our Planet in Peril
 
               By Peter Reum



My perception could be quite wrong, but the machinations of highly wealthy corporations and citizens of independent means have made democracy  laughable for honest and caring citizens worldwide. Our country seems to have lost it's mojo. This has caused some concern for those people who would like their descendents to inherit a planet that is still liveable. Future
generations would see this planet as better than the one their ancestors lived in.

Baby Boomers, including me as a member, appear to be more concerned with money and wealth than with the planet being liveable for future Terrans. Our Boomer Generation caters to environmently destructive groups by voting for the proposed legislation using the positions adopted by the large corporations and independently wealthy individual monetary contributors more concerned with material gains than a sustainable future.

There are no easy ways to get out of the box canyon our addiction to campaign gifts of money and related services have caused. We have made money the central focus of how to win battles over who is elected to
public office and then vote independently on important questions that come before them.

I know that several states and the elected
citizens of many cities have made revised
limits for campaign contributions a priority.
Some cities, counties, and a few states have enacted limits for campaign contributions
by governmental regulations. These well intended referenda have been overturned by judges who are more attuned to their personal political beliefs than the publicly
approved initiatives various citizens have affirmed in public voting.

The old adage about politics being reflective
of public will has been turned upside down.
Political madness related to influencing financial outcomes has turned the citizen
initiative into hash. Recently, a few citizen initiatives have succeed in spite of corporate interference. One that I heard of that passed in California was about limiting the amount of personal information that can be sold to interested corporations. Despite being overspent by corporate entities, the voters of the state of California prevailed.

The election of politicians from the Baby Boomer generation, despite the outcomes influenced by them in the Sixties and Seventies, has been somewhat disastrous.
Many from the Boomer Generation, despite influencing early victories legislatively, have become more interested in their wallets and purses than in what is good for the long term health of their future descendents and the delicately balanced ecosystems that need to be sustained.

The future of the descendents of nearly every form of life depends on the cooperation of all nations in thinking about not just the current generation and their
children, but 7 generations ahead,  as envisioned by Lakota warrior and mystic Crazy Horse. If what little time left Boomers
have is devoted to bringing balance back to
an abused planet, perhaps our generation will not be remembered as the generation that abused Planet Earth instead of giving a
world better than it inherited from past generations. The alternative, a decimated ball of rock, is unacceptable.
                               ***
Copyright 2019 by Peter Reum

All rights are reserved

This brief essay was helped by a few important sources. They are the Mari Sandoz biography of Crazy Horse, The excellently understandable programs on sustainability presented on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS)...most importantly Nature. Several books too numerous to mention were extremely important in my small comprehension
of this difficult topic.

The last thanks goes to my father, whose determined effort to be a gentleman farmer
inculcated me with the idea of sustainability when it was off the radar both scientifically and also not seen as important by people in our world as an idea worth championing.