Op/Ed

Letter to the editor: Local response needed to preserve democracy

An article entitled “The Coming Collapse,” which appeared in the left-leaning CommonDreams.org explains why Bernie is getting zero press coverage. More importantly, it helps to explain the craziness we are witnessing across the planet.
The article is a frightening and deeply disturbing look into what, deep in our hearts, many of us know is true. Democracy is being consumed by unbridled capitalism which the Pope has called “the dung of the devil.”
This is not a fight between the GOP and the Democratic Party. This is a fight between Corporations, Consumerism, and Colonialism and The Real People Who Love Democracy.
Trump has tapped into the ferocious energy of angry people. But his approach is leading our Democracy into the fire.
So now what? This author suggests: “We (the real people who love democracy) must invest our energy in building parallel, popular institutions to protect ourselves (and our democracy!) and to pit (people) power against (corporate) power.
These parallel institutions, including unions, community development organizations, local currencies, alternative political parties and food cooperatives, will have to be constructed town by town.”
With the exception of “town by town” the author is calling on the real people to embrace The Commons. The Commons include: 1. Common pool resources like natural ones such as air, water, and wildlife and many more human invented ones 2. Commoning practices that actually conserve those resources and assets; and 3. Commoners willing to step up to the plate.
This might happen town by town but many municipal governments may not be free and willing to do this. Most may have been absorbed by the unbridled beast. It may best be accomplished concurrently in assemblages that are more natural: watershed by watershed, ecoregion by ecoregion.
Concurrence and the commons in the ecoregions of home. Think about it. Do not freak out. This can still be accomplished with compassion, gratitude, and self-control. In a word: Love.
But time IS running out. The clock is ticking.
David Brynn
Lincoln

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