Ripples of Hope [View all]

[H2O Man]

“Our answer is the world’s hope, it is to rely on youth. The cruelties and obstacles of the swiftly changing planet will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. It cannot be moved by those who cling to a present that is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger that comes with even the most peaceful progress.

“The world demands the qualities of youth, not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. It is a revolutionary world we live in ….

“First is the danger of futility, the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills -- against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence. Yet many of the world’s greatest movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man …Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

“It is from numerous diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

-- Senator Robert F. Kennedy; South Africa; June 6, 1966.



I loved last night’s Democratic Party primary debate, between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Even as a Sanders’s supporter, I felt that Ms. Clinton did well in the first-half of the debate. It was evident that she had a campaign message that she was intent upon delivering; if one were to simply compare her to the remaining republican candidates, she clearly has superior communication skills.

But, of course, it wasn’t a competition between Hillary and the republican nominee. Rather, it was between Clinton and Sanders. And, perhaps especially during the second-half of the debate, the public saw the contrast between the illusion of security offered by clinging to the current economic trends, versus the excitement and promise of a new revolutionary movement for social justice.

My intent here is not to insult Hillary or her supporters. There is common ground between the Clinton and Sanders campaigns, for example, on the issue of the water in Flint. We know that the political machine that poisoned little children -- and everyone else -- in Flint can not even claim ignorance, as they were fully warned. Thus, these poor excuses for human beings are not even covered by Voltaire’s saying that ignorance is the mother of all cruelty.

Yet, a closely-related question -- one that has begged to be asked in their discussions of Flint -- defines the very real, and extremely important, differences between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, not only as politicians, but as human beings. And that has to do with fracking.

Now, no highly-contested campaign goes 100% smoothly. And no candidate is perfect. But Hillary’s answer wasn’t rooted in her being caught off-guard. No, it was a packaged response that has been rehearsed numerous times. And I know that it had to be painful for her supporters at the grass roots, who are conscious of the environment. For just as there is no question among the scientific community that “climate change” is real -- with only a few who are paid to pretend it is in dispute -- there is really no question that fracking poisons the water, ground, and air. And, of course, those who are paid by the energy corporations pretend that it is in dispute. Sound familiar?

Ms. Clinton danced around the question. In essence, she said that as long as a community is for fracking, it’s okay. We know that she has advocated fracking in the recent past, which translates to trying to convince a community that the profits from it outweigh the risks. Thus, the majority have the power to poison the minority’s water, for financial gain.

Now, that is simple unacceptable. It is something that I sincerely urge my friends who support Hillary to give serious thought to.

Bernie’s answer was as brief as it was definitive: he is opposed to fracking. He stands with the people who want safe drinking water for their families.

Thus, I’m not surprised that those running Hillary’s campaign are desperately attempting to “spin” last night’s debate, and distract the public’s attention on real and serious issues. For that is what campaigns do after their candidate had a tough night. Rather than discuss what is real and serious, they talk about what is made-up and the opposite of serious.

The Sanders’s campaign is in very good position now. Our opposition will continue to try to convince of otherwise, of course. And there’s no better example of the tools the establish will use than CNN and MSNBC. That’s no more surprising than learning that McDonald’s will be serving cheese burgers. (True fact: when Chris Christie was discussing a possible presidential run in 2012, he told his advisors that he would refuse to stop consuming food from Burger King.)

The truth is that our opposition in the 2016 Democratic primary never thought that Bernie Sanders would be where he is today. Nor did our enemies in the republican party. And they are our enemies. Any republican who supports fracking is your and my enemy. They are hoping to make financial profits off the suffering of our communities. And, as we see in Flint, the republican establishment does not care about what suffering they cause in a community.

In fact, the Sanders revolution is going a bit better than even I could have hoped for. So let’s keep it going!

Peace,
H2O Man