Ted Auch

Upon returning from St. Paul last fall to protest the war, trampling of our civil liberties, and continued mistreatment of the planet I was disappointed to hear the trivial nature of what concerns our community. We have fallen prey to those whose goal it is to distract us with sensationalism and misdirection. The substantive backbone of our skeleton is crumbling exponentially. This is to say that “We do a lot of churning here, but don’t produce a lot of butter.” When telling people in Burlington we were going to the RNC, many of them exclaimed “Good for you!” or “Wow I wish I could do that!” Are you kidding me? Traveling to such events is the equivalent of paying attention to politics once every four years (Ring a bell?). Marches on St. Paul or DC or the WTO are not the events/actions that make change. Rather it is the incremental, methodical, unemotional, fact-based bombardment of public officials that makes change. Acute events are sensationalized and more often than not misinterpreted by the media, while chronic questioning and discourse change the argument’s trajectory. Most of the bravado and academic dialogue takes place in front of or within the sociopolitical “choir” as it were. What happened to sending letters, calling, emailing your policy makers here in Burlington and in DC? This brings me to the title of this piece and my assertion that this region’s citizens spend 25 minutes each day pursuing their activist side. It seems that many of us spend far more time then this advocating for the Moran Plant resolution in March and the idea that we should convert it to an ice-climbing wall (A What?). I was left scratching my head that in the tight economic times we are in, all that this city needs specifically in the north end (Old Not New mind you!), and what the influence of such a retrofit would be to our CO2 footprint…Why? This town and state needs the same type of zeal relative to things like mandatory composting, bottled water bans, conversion of city fleets to vegetable oil, engaging the agronomic sector, home-fueling, etc…..Not fulfilling the fantasies of a couple of die-hard ice climbers. Pragmatic and considerate of the entire community this idea was not.
25 minutes is not much! It is the amount of time we spend surfing ridiculous websites or gabbing about the latest gossip in this and other publications. The former could include the aforementioned elected official contacts or otherwise abhorrent or mundane acts such as not walking by plastic and cans but rather picking them up and placing them in recycling bins, or simply paying attention! I also happen to know that with just a couple minutes a day set aside for investigation of issues and policy we would influence both, as it stands now we are wallowing in the reputation established a long time ago. Never let regional pride haze objectivity and discourse! It is time that we stop viewing geopolitical and environmental concerns as a buzz kill, stop patting each other on the back for tokenism or even a modicum of interest in the machine that is the US government, and start holding officials from the bottom on up accountable for their actions…..CONSTANTLY! Apathy is not becoming of our elected officials and is even less so on us the electorate. 25 Minutes a day would keep the apathy away and allow us all to sleep better at night sans alcohol or pharmaceuticals! If all this didn’t scare you into action I would just note in conclusion that those opposed to abortion, evolution in classrooms, civil liberties, GLBT rights, etc. spend 2 or 3 times this on their opposition and getting policy shaped to their liking. We’re not where we are right now because the right is more powerful, we’re where we are because they truly care about the path, albeit misguided, that this country is on. Don’t blame them folks!