Dinosaurs Became Birds, Humanity Became an Ostrich

Dinosaurs Became Birds, Humanity Became an Ostrich

Sister:
Hi brother, wow is it hot today! It’s probably going to be another record breaker, just one more indication of global warming.
Brother:
Sure is hot, but it’s just climate change. Climates have changed throughout time, right?
Sister:
It’s more than just climate change, it's global warming, it’s a crisis for the planet- it’s fires, droughts, winds, floods, and accelerating temperatures. Meanwhile our “leaders” are allowing the fossil fuel corporations and their allies to build more pipelines and dig more wells. Warning, Danger, Extreme risk ahead of an overheating planet!


Brother:


It's not that bad. Don't panic.

Sister:
Listen, study it they will stop the production of greenhouse gases they will not. It’s all about making money even as the planet begins to burn. Tell me brother; will you eat money when crops no longer grow? Is the profit system really good for us and our world?
Brother:
It’s a slow process; don’t worry so much, it may be your grandchildren’s problem.
Sister:
You’re wrong again. The earth is already suffering an accelerating crisis of global warming. Democrats and Republicans have run the country for decades have brought us to this point, driving our planetary spaceship, over a climate cliff. Do you think we could form a new independent people’s party that is not dependent on Wall Street?
Brother:
Sounds like is a big job, and who is going to organize and fund this new party? Stop thinking so much about all that stuff, let’s just relax and watch some “Reality TV".
Sister:
I’m just so worried; I can’t stop thinking about all these issues. Here’s another thing on my mind. Did you notice that Christian fanatics on the courts are imposing their “biblical law” on all of us, taking freedoms from women and giving them to guns? It looks like they’re turning this country into a killing field. In February 2017 the government allowed the Social Security disabled mentally ill to own guns without a criminal background check.
Brother:
That doesn’t sound too smart. But you know we have a second amendment right to bear arms…..…
Sister:
Yes, but only for a well-regulated militia.
Brother:
Hey, you’ve got to stand your ground to protect yourself.
Sister:
Why? It leads to the daily mass murder of innocents. For years we pleaded with do-nothing politicians. Is it time to take matters into our own hands and organize strikes across the land until these guns are banned, or do we stick our heads in the sand?
Brother:
Come on, it’s really not that bad. Anyway, you're free to buy a gun and move if you don’t like it here. Look how about we go out to a game tonight so you can just relax and let your worries go for a while?
Sister:
Thanks, I will. Sorry to keep talking, but I am overwhelmed by how fast things seem to be deteriorating. Did you know that in Jan 2017 the government effectively killed the Independent Ethics Office set up in 2008?
Brother:
To your point, maybe that's why the corrupt unregulated, Supreme Court, filled with Christian fanatics, strips freedoms from women and destroys the separation of church and state. I agree, the U.S. Taliban are in the process of imposing, a theocracy not a democracy. But what can we do, it’s a lifetime appointment.
By the way, most people are not very religious anymore. Things will turn around. There are checks and balances.
Sister:
Maybe it’s time to get rid of money the great tool of the rich and the corporations to corrupt the will of the people;
Brother:
Someone once wrote that money is the root of all evil.
Sister:
One of the roots, the other is the animal urge for dominance.
Talking about money, how about this fact: The Covid-19 pandemic continues, while masks are removed even in hospitals where those most likely to sicken and die will be exposed. The dead won’t collect their Social Security or use Medicare. The government has already admitted that the death of a million people has extended the life of Medicare and Social Security! Does the government really care if the elderly and infirm die from Covid-19?
Brother:
I don’t know. I keep hearing that all our problems are due to immigrants, Muslims, and Jews. I don’t know what to believe anymore. All I know is that life is getting harder, with the costs of everything going up and up except wages.
Sister:
Did immigrants raise your rent and the price of eggs? Is ignorance strength? Think about this for a minute. Did Black, Latin, Muslim, or immigrants’ lay you off, or did the employers close their plants and move overseas where labor is cheap and profits are high? Can you see that this is just a plain old racist scapegoat? Divide and rule is the employers’ tool. United we're strong but divided we're weak and wages stay low. Anyway, no matter which party has been in power the federal minimum wage is still $7.25 -- poverty-level wages for millions is a leading cause of death.
Maybe we need a new system of cooperation not competition, fulfilling the people’s needs not profit. How about we just get rid of the money system?
Brother:
I don’t know if that's even possible. You're a dreamer.
Sister:
Think about it. You work for a living. Did you set your own wages and working conditions or does the boss tell you what to do and if you don’t do it they fire your ass. Only employers: business owners, corporations raise prices; it is they who cause inflation in their greed for profits.
Brother:
I guess you're right about that. Still, who do I believe about all these big issues, you or the mass media, prominent politicians and economists?
Sister:
The Father of Capitalism Adam Smith wrote in his book The Wealth of Nations, (1776), “For one very rich man, there must be at least 500 poor…” Now it’s probably more like one million. Is it a democracy or an oligarchy? Who really is making all the major decisions, the rich 1% or the 99% who have to work to survive?
Brother:
Ever since the times of Ancient Egypt, there have been rich and poor. That’s just how life is. You're never going to change that.
Sister:
Do we have to accept this way of living? Workers keep getting poorer due to the economics of the profit system. Here is a recent example for you: the government breaks the rules to bail out the banks, the corporations, and the rich while millions of workers are paid the minimum federal wage of $7.25 and live below the poverty line. The Father of Capitalism, Adam Smith wrote in his book Wealth of Nations (1776), “Civil government…is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor...”
Both parties, for the last four decades, have refused to tax the rich and the corporations, instead borrowing trillions of dollars from them and saddling the people with massive debts. The rich are getting richer; the profit system works for them but really isn’t working for a large part of the population.
Brother:
I can’t argue with you on that, I don’t seem to have much of a say in any major social issues. Did anyone ask the population if we wanted to fund a war in Ukraine rather than spend billions on social needs like schools, and health care? No. But they are discussing cutting social programs to help pay for wars and militarization. No matter who we vote for, the basic problems never seem to get resolved. As far as I can tell, that's the way it has always been.
Sister:
That’s true. There is a war in Ukraine, inflation, and falling wages. Workers in military uniforms carrying guns on both sides, die by the tens of thousands in a war to decide which group of billionaires will control the wealth of Ukraine. A war against Russia armed with thousands of nuclear bombs! Did the people vote to spend $60 billion on going to war with Russia or did the politicians who are beholding to the arms industry and Wall Street?
Brother:
Yes and the scary part is that the politicians say Russia is bluffing about nuclear weapons, and our Generals believe that a “tactical” unwinnable nuclear war is winnable. Is their irrational solution to global warming a nuclear winter? There is an old saying--when elephants fight, the grass is trampled. Throughout history we little people just have to make do. Keep your fingers crossed.
Sister:
But if we sharpen those millions of blades of grass into sharp spears, we can drive the elephants out.
Brother:
It will never happen. Can we just stop talking about all this stuff, I would rather just not think about it. I’ll just vote for the lesser evil politician as usual.
Sister:
Lesser evil always leads to more evil. Look at the recent election. A President of the US leads a violent fascist coup against Congress, in a treasonous attempt to establish a dictatorship. Two years later he and his close collaborators are still free, with no punishment, no consequences, and no accountability.
Brother:
You’ve got a point there. So what do we do about it, they say we have no power to fight city hall. I don’t see how we can create a more egalitarian society.
Sister:
If we don’t fight for it, it won’t happen.
Let me point out a nasty hypocrisy. Here we demonstrate to take down statues and monuments to the violent racist Confederacy at the same time we are being told to support the government of Ukraine, a state that puts up statues and monuments to a violent Neo Nazi racist and celebrates the birthday of Stepan Bandera a Nazi collaborator who massacred thousands of Jews and Poles in WW 2. Look it up if you don’t believe me.
Brother:
I didn’t know that, but I do know that here in the US, politicians, the mass media and the internet are spreading myths about the replacement theory right out of the Hitler book about protecting the Aryan race. There are no consequences for this behavior. Books are being banned across the country, how long before they start burning just as they did in Nazi Germany? I admit, I am worried about where we are heading. I guess we have to make do the best we can. I try not to think about all this stuff.
Sister:
You are right to be scared. But we can organize to resist. We have the right and duty to self-defense. Are you aware that Neo-Nazis and the KKK walk the streets of America with guns and try to take our freedom away as they terrorize and intimidate the people? The US government refuses to label them as terrorists to be outlawed and arrested. Know your history, 50 million died fighting Nazism in WW Two. Tens of thousands of Black people were murdered by the KKK. Does this country care for and protect the vast numbers of working people by allowing these terrorists to be free?
Militarized police, contaminated with Neo-Nazi and KKK types, protected by the state, continue to brutalize and murder workers, the poor, and people of color. They get away with murder on a daily basis. Aren’t you worried about this?
Brother:
Yes, I am. There was a significant neo-Nazi element in the attempted coup under a recent President and that same ex-president is again running for President while leading a major political party. Reforming the police seems to be impossible.
Sister:
Yes brother, if this neo-Nazi, racist, movement is allowed to grow it could lead us into another destructive World War. These thoughts often keep me awake at night. We can’t just ignore this development or continue politics as usual. We need a radical break before it is too late. Let’s create a society driven by the needs of the people and the planet.
We could start by organizing a general strike for a people’s need budget, not a war and militarism budget. What do you think?
Brother:
I don’t see that happening, the last General strike in the U.S. was over 100 years ago. It's a pipe dream.
Sister:
Are we mentally chained to the profit system, is it really good for us and the planet? Is there another way to organize social life? Maybe a society of cooperation not competition….meeting needs not profit, a society without money, an egalitarian society.
Brother:
There is too much selfishness and snobbery these days. Things are going to have to get a lot worse before more people start thinking like you do. I guess most of us just don’t believe it's really that bad. Why rock the boat?
Sister:

I promise that this is the last thing I'm going to say about politics tonight before we go to the game. I have one last story I think describes where we are these days.
During World War Two, in a German Nazi concentration camp, as prisoners were being marched into the gas chamber, one man said to his friend, “Prove to me that fascism is coming!”

Brother:

That can’t be true, can it?

5/18/23