One Step Forward, Two Steps Towards Extinction

We’re finally making some  real advances against that awful malarial plague in africa

We are losing 50 species per day to this man-made mass extinction of ours

Infant mortality is being reduced even in the very poorest areas

50 million acres of rain forest are destroyed each and every year

china and India are bootstrapping their way out of abject poverty

80000 porpoises and 200000 albatross are killed each year as useless bycatch

the air in the LA basin is dramatically cleaner than in the 70s

china is home to 16 of the worlds 20 most polluted urban areas

smallpox and polio have been virtually eliminated worldwide

the average annual temperature in Alaska is increasing 1˚ per decade

food costs have decreased relative to income for years in the USA

the world's grasslands are overgrazed by mans animals by a factor of nearly 2

experts predict human population will stabilize at around 9 billion inside of 50 years

researchers say the earth could sustain 1-2 billion developed world inhabitants

great progress has been made in bilingual education in our schools

35% of latinos drop out of high school even as newly-arrived illegales take away their bad jobs

consumers are now much more aware of the health benefits of eating seafood

global tuna populations have declined by over 70% and are now not naturally sustainable

we are now sure of the vital role that marshes play as fish nurseries and in water purification

the US alone destroyed 117000 acres of wetlands every single year from 1985 to 1995

the early plastics industry had to convince people to throw away their cups

nowadays every year 380 billion plastic bags are discarded just in the USA

In 25 years, people worldwide living on less than a dollar a day fell by half a billion

Today, some 1.1 billion people must live on less than one US dollar for an entire day

2002 U.S. health spending was almost 2.5 times that of the median OECD country

20% of US citizens have no health insurance and their numbers increase every day

Military spending only amounts to about 2.5% of world GDP

US military outlays represent 48% of the whole world’s total

America proudly spends almost $9000 per year per student on education

So-called 3^rd world Costa Rica has a higher literacy rate than the undeveloping United States

If You Haven’t, You Can’t Know

If you have not awakened to the sound of a creek burbling beside you

Where do you get the gall to vote against cleaning up our lakes and rivers

If you haven’t squeezed the throttle and heard the hoarse bellow and felt its raw power

You’ll never understand why OHVs are just the most fucking fun

If you never saw the earliest morning sun kiss a wild mountain basin

You can’t ever get a clue as to why wilderness might just be important

If you haven’t had one of your platoon buddies get his legs blown off right there beside you

You’ll not understand the great camaraderie even in a pointless and immoral modern war

If you never robbed a frightened white man at gunpoint when in need of a fix

You don’t understand what shaking with drug-enhanced psycho excitement is all about

If don’t know the rapture with which our savior fills our hearts

Your eyes are simply closed and your soul is truly dark and empty

If you have never gotten all shook up over the smell of meth abrewin’

You cant criticize the beutifool buzz that rots our teeth and makes our hair fall out

If you haven’t ever lost more than you could afford but just kept on playing anyways

You will never know how good it feels to win back even just a little bit

If you never stated proudly you were eager for the chance to clear your name

You cannot know why you then claim to have no comment regarding the allegations

If you never became quite still and simply regarded all of your wandering thoughts

You can derisively dismiss that phony bullshit about the sound of one hand clapping

If you haven’t nearly died and then realized you are looking at a peaceful sunset

It’s hard to know just how miraculous each and every second of our lives really is

If you should ever notice yourself dwelling on some phony sport or another

The door to your cure has begun to swing open in front of you at last

If you haven’t quite grasped the lure that drives men to unmuffle their vehicles

You really need to get right up here behind the wheel in this big bad baby

If you haven’t ever sweat too much and breathed too hard

You will not truly appreciate the gentle sun of a desert Winter

If you only ever eat vegetables, fruit and all that other so-called organic shit

You cannot understand the addictive joy of salt, sugar and hydrogenated oils

If you just read the bible and watch what’s new on TV

You’ll miss the wisdom of Mohammed and his buddy Isaac Newton

If you never spent too many lonely nights in the dark, all alone

You cannot fully appreciate the peace of slumbering together

If you’re always in an angry hurry because it’s still late once again

It really won’t be too easy to just sit there and listen to those stupid birds

If you’ve only weighed their arguments and critiqued other’s decisions

It’ll be hard for you to understand undertaking any real action of your own

If you never questioned the endless mowing, watering, fertilizing & pesticiding of your lawn

You probably never walked barefoot in some quiet forest meadow

If you really have thought through what you are saying right now

You won’t need to be told to just shut the fuck up, once again

If you haven’t hiked hard up to an alpine ridge on a clear september morning

You don’t deserve the gas it takes to drive your SUV over the pass, ever again

If you haven’t even saved a penny and lived large off of your maxed-out credit cards

Don’t bother to complain to me about those evil those Tax and Spenders

If you can’t even do the four operations of basic arithmetic in your head

Don’t you dare and try to question a scientist’s so-called fuzzy math

If you haven’t ever swam in a warm ocean during a real rain

You likely worry way too much about getting a little wet

If you can’t conceive of any society not based upon simple greedy profit motives

Sustainability surely sounds like another cockamemie liberal fairytale to you

If you never were in awe of the interwoven cycles of the web of this earth

You’ll find it easier to believe that we alone are possessed of a soul

If you still believe a god who awaits you created all of this and left behind his word

You need never even look into the void yet for even the briefest single moment

If you hadn’t seen those kids grow up and loved them so much through thick and thin

You cannot understand their exceptional nature or the uniqueness of their gifts

If you felt you always needed to stop in order to smell the roses

You were lucky, because you never noticed you really were not going anywhere...at all

Pointless Libtard Dreaming, Once Again

Just let me find a little cool shade in that searing heat of the day

If we could only sit out for a moment in the morning, when the sun feels so good

Give us a brief chance to listen carefully to the vast background silence

Allow me just a minute to sort through all these layers of confusion

Let me awake slowly with you to the tinkling music of that little stream

I really want to hear the evergreens sighing in the wind, once again

Maybe the opportunity to come in for a moment, out of the long cold rain

We are searching for the places that we want to be able to look back upon with smiles

Grant me brief instants of a cosmic awareness, even though I do not understand them

Don’t let me give up all of my consciousness to their colorfully manufactured illusions

Show me how to make a lasting peace simply, and within my own habitat

Let us at least try to leave things at least as intact as they were handed to us

I need to see the value of sweet water, clean air and un-profaned food

Help me to spread peace without using the same tired old sales techniques

I need to de-emphasize greed, but not with some slick marketing campaign

Let us dilute all our problems by vastly reducing our own numbers

Teach me how to contemplate and plan instead of simply reacting with the Quick and Dirty

Help me arise early and pull my thoughts together in my own good time

Make sure that we can actually believe there is a real meaning to our daily work

Let me be ready to fight as well as to know when it’s time to contemplate

Allow us to rejuvenate quietly in the special places we have preserved

Grant us a strong faith but help us to cast off the moldy beliefs of the past

Force the incredible shortness of our existence deep into my conscience

When my turn comes, let me begin teaching that I might really start to learn

Just let me be there once when a much-needed rain begins falling at last

Help us be rid of these implanted desires for items we do not need

Maybe to throw off this false doctrine of man in a continuous struggle against nature

Allow me to slowly find clarity during the gathering of the few dawns I will see

Bring us back from the edge of this abyss trembling, but with a new vision

Give elders good experiences that their children may seek them out with respect

Shatter the myth that mass blind individual greed ensures humanity’s happily ever after

Let us enjoy simply remaining quiet even when we might make extra noise

Teach us to stay out of debt and thus run the grasping usurers out of business

Demonstrate the falseness of the scourge that is the marketing myth of disposability

Grant us an appreciation for the people and technologies that make society possible

Awaken us with fond memories of dreams that shed real light upon our waking lives