Human worth cannot be set aside, or postponed, or subordinated. Human worth is not a commodity to be packaged and portioned. It is indivisible by race, gender, and ethnicity. It cannot be regulated in a way that does not diminish it. It cannot be fenced by policy, or deconstructed by law.
And those who seek to do so – are the enemies of all that make us human.
Agricultural farming practices are the biggest contributor of the Methane emissions that are “turbocharging” our planet’s Climate Change – but when the weather that these modern farming practices help create cuts into agricultural profits — we’re taxed to make up the difference. Agriculture is also the greatest polluter of our water and our waterways; and their use of fossil fuels is actually still increasing. Our government is trying to curb agricultural pollution by “voluntary programs” and “incentives” – decades of voluntary programs that have proved completely ineffective; and the incentives are limited to just pouring more tax dollars into Industrial Agriculture’s pockets.
Could there be anything worse? Yes, there could – for those living in our country’s rural areas: where Industrial Agriculture is steamrollering a carpet of poverty, crime, toxic fumes, and impaired water over their communities – and nobody cares.
It’s Urban Colonialism; bringing a self-serving “modern agriculture” to the backwards rural natives — profiting at any cost.
Another year to survive. Can you make it to the next Pandemic? Survival begins in your mind – so protect your behind and think ahead. Remember: only the tough will survive to live in a world that nobody wants to live in.
“Justice” is codified by those who make the laws – not those who are the victims — and they’re frequently a community apart. That’s why victims are tossed “closure” – like a barking dog a bone — to shut them up.
Sheep with the teeth of a shark will stop the depredation of wolves better than a shepherd — especially an uncaring one.
Government has made great strides – in pretending it’s actually doing something. All of their “On this spot we will build” glowing rhetoric is good for selling; but the results confirm that selling and profiting are the sole concerns of their policy making.
“Transparency,” “participation,” and “ethics” are stickers pasted on the sides of an impenetrable monolith – and our involvement is reduced to reading the proclamations of their “black box” decisions.
While our politicians are “ongoing nowhere” — we’re “going nowhere” — and it’s nowhere we want to go.
Since when did our government get so predatory?
Politicians and their conies are swollen with privilege and pillaging – deceptive and manipulative policies reach deep into the life savings of the hard-working poor – proclaiming it’s equitable to give to those who disdain low-paying, dead-end jobs — by taking from those who worked them.
Tompkins County government brags about being Progressive – but when you question their decisions – they go silent – and feel no need to answer. They see themselves as rulers; not as representatives.
This excerpt from the county’s Comp Plan is revealing:
“The Tompkins County Comprehensive Plan presents a vision for the future of the community. It is based on a set of principles that reflect the values of the community as expressed by the County Legislature they have elected.”
It’s a fancy-dancing way of say that they will make all the decisions – an interpretation that is supported in every page of their plan for how others should live.
There’s no need to cook the books when you can’t be called to account.
Theirs is the burden of rulership; ours is to carry their sedan chairs.
Our government doesn’t share – so everything they give you; they’ve taken from someone else; and plan on taking back.
It’s a basic divide-and-conquer technique to manipulate one group of people by targeting another for hate – and then “cleaning up” whatever opposition is left.
Do you really think that giving our government the power to discriminate against whoever they want, however they want, for as long as they want, in secret: is a wise thing?
There’s corruption – and then, there’s collegiate corruption: the sort that’s wrapped in so many layers of studies, credentials, and pretty mission statements – that the essential ugliness is hidden from all but the most determined of searchers. And most people don’t want to search.
The prevailing atmosphere of our “college-destination county” is fear. When a County Highway Director made public claims that were proven to be blatantly untrue – no one in the County’s Ethics Committee, the Ithaca Tompkins County Transportation Committee, the County Legislature, and no Lansing Town Board member, or any other Town or County official approached would comment on it, or even mention its occurrence.
How’s that for an Ivy League University town that pretends to be a beacon of free thinking and equitable illumination? How’s that for a conspiracy of silence?
When the rich, Cornell-sponsored agribusinesses decided to take over north Lansing, NY for their sole benefit and profit: Cornell’s planner stated that the existing rural residents “didn’t deserve to live there” – and rather than this being denied – all of the Town of Lansing, Tompkins County, and Cornell officials continued to use this bias statement as the foundation for their every policy decision and regulatory agenda of the last 15 years.
Tompkins County’s rural people are disposable; and in the County’s “vision of the future” Comprehensive Plan: they no longer exist — they’ve been disposed of.