Reprint: April 2007 ... Nothing Changed

(preface: you listen to enough lyric-less music and avoid social interaction for a period of time and the words just come out in one big burst of emotion)

The issue of sustainability is the ability to create an environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable region, based on increased use of local, renewable resource. But who gives a fuck? Who is willing to sacrifice in a way where change needs to be made in every aspect of life (from turning off lights when not in use to driving as little as possible to spare our breathing air from the massive amounts of carbon it's receiving)?

Fuck everyone else, I work hard for my personal belongings. I slave over 8 hours of harassment from rude, overpaid, pretentious customers to earn the right to drive my car, cool my living space, and drink my Florida orange juice. Fuck peak oil. Fuck global warming. Fuck environmental crises.

Turn the flood plains into housing communities because then I can buy my big house with my big lawn. And then pave over that farm down the 4 lane road because then I can have my Safeway with a Starbucks to get my food and coffee. And then they can build my Walmart so I can get everything for my new house for really low prices, always. And once that goes up, the Gap will come in next door so I can buy fashionable outfits every 3 months and be able to afford it. Everything will only be a ten minute drive away, How convenient!

Now even though gas prices are rising, we can tap the National Arctic Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and we can lessen our dependency on foreign oil. And I know some of my stuff has harmful waste attributed to it's production, but we can just dump somewhere far away and then it won't bother me. And I know they spray chemicals on my food while it grows, but these tomatoes are so red and juicy and I eat them and I'm just fine!

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But now they say were going to run out of oil, something called peak oil, where production is in a terminal decline? That Alaskan oil reserves ran out 7 years after being tapped? That the chemicals my 2 year-old daughter has been eating from those tomatoes have caused her to develop leukemia? That the toxic waste from those landfills way way far away have leeched into my drinking water so i only can have bottled water to drink? That Safeway and Starbucks and the Gap have completely taken over their respective industries so that I don't have a choice anymore in the products that I want and the prices I have to pay for them? That gas prices have tripled in ten years and now my suburb has turned into a ghetto for since I can't afford to drive anywhere, no one wants to live far away from work?

Well at least all of that won't happen in my generation....or has it already?

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I needs to become we. What is the individual worth when he/she consistently contributes to the demise of others?

Mine needs to become ours. What good is MY "beautiful" living space when it is surrounded by abandonment and theft?

Their problem needs to become our problem.

We all have ideas, solutions to the problems that are going to become blatantly evident in the very near future, but we never discuss them, nor do we collaborate to create change. They just reside within us, taking up space, conjuring dust.

But maybe I'm wrong; just blowing smoke out of my ass, begging for attention in the MySpace realm of pointless blogging and absolute need for social contact of any form...

...but then again?

"the world has turned, and left me here."