It's Valentine's Day and all you want to think about is love. Even when I saw the NY Time's article this morning on the carbon footprint of the 100 million roses that will be given today, I couldn't help wondering if I had to feel guilty about how I expressed my love?
Eighty percent of roses given in the US are grown in South America. Oh, great -- I can already guess at al of the carbon emissions associated with trucking and planing these beautiful flowers to my local florist. Local, local, local my ecological mind shouts! But beware of falling into simple assumptions.
There's always a moment in those movies when the bully pushes the bullied too far -- the bullied has to either give in or become something new. The recent tax bill, delivering permanent tax cuts to corporations at a time of record profits and strong economic growth, is the too far moment for me.
It's clear that the old economy-government model is broken. No taxes are good taxes is the constant mantra; no public investment is worth the loss of any private gain. We need to become something new. We need to move beyond thinking about democracy as a political term and start thinking about expanding democracy to our economic system.
In a true democracy, the ultimate source of power is "we the people". Not special interests. Not big donors. Not even the personal ideologies of the people we represent to elect us.
If a better future is to be built, not only do all of us have to get back in the game of deciding what types of community we want, but we've got to change the game itself. That's what a small group of neighbors is trying to do with the Community Congress.