Thinning the Herd

At some point in our lives, we all have to decide what is important. Whether it's a fully conscious decision, or we are thrust into it; sooner or later we all decide what's essential and what is not.

I decided long ago that cable T.V. is non essential. I've lived without it for over ten years. The double talk and the waiting on hold got old. The lack of real competition, the consistent rate increases for constantly deteriorating quality and fewer programming choices got old.

Something green is essential. Wherever I live, no matter how small, there's something green growing in my home.

I decided, in the late 1980's that meat is non essential. For awhile, I ate fish and eggs, but I noticed that those food choices sat in my gut like cement blocks for too long, so I cut them out, maybe fifteen years ago. I'm still here, so those choices are non essential. Soda is non essential. It's expensive. It's bad for your teeth. I made the choice to cut it, and I don't miss it.

Recreational drugs and booze are non essential. If you need them to make it through your day, you are not free.

Too often, prescription drugs are non essential for the people who buy them. The profits these drugs generate for the pharmaceutical companies that market them are essential for the continued survival of those companies.

McMansions, and designer clothes and diamonds and millions and fancy titles are non essential.

If you need those things to know who you are, you're not free.

Coal is non essential. We have sun-- lots of it. It's free. We have wind, and its power can be harnessed to run farms. I'm no scientist, so don't expect a detailed explanation here of how it is done. Sun and air and water are essential for human, animal, and plant life.

Coal mining kills people; either quickly in a mining accident, or slowly via black lung disease. It also wrecks the environment. We can free ourselves from this habit. If we wait until we hit bottom, it may be too late. If we wait for the coal pushers to say it's OK to stop using, we will be addicted forever.

Health insurance is not essential at all. Insurance is the problem. What's essential is access to quality, comprehensive health care for everyone. Breast enhancement surgery is non essential. A healthy body, designed by nature with all of nature's magnificant variations, is the only one we need.

The kind of health care we have now in America is based on income, status, and address. It's designed to thin the herd. This wealth care system was designed and implemented by people who think humans with little money are non essential. The wealth care system we have now is an anti life machine worthy of a comic book mad scientist. The decisions made by this heartless system kill children.

People before profits. It's a cliche by now, but that's what it comes down to, and we have to decide: which one matters most.