I've been thinking...

...and not writing. I've also been reading. The book I am trying to finish is Jared Diamond's Collapse. There is much to discuss, but I am trying to wait until I actually finish the book before I start spewing ideas. For now, let's just say that I highly recommend the book.

I had an interesting conversation about the automotive industry the other day. Someone I know (kind of) is looking for a new car. This person has previously bought American-only cars; however, upon doing research the American car that this person wanted to buy was actually assembled in Mexico with parts made in Japan. Whereas Subaru, a Japanese car company, is built in Indiana by American Factory workers (at a zero-waste production plant, none the less). This person wished to buy an all-wheel drive vehicle. Subaru makes the most fuel efficient AWD vehicles - lowest emissions & highest gas mileage. Its hard to beat that.

It comes down to the question of whether you want to support greedy executive-level Americans who refuse to recognize the need for sustainability, or if you'd rather support a cutting edge domestic assembly plant that provides actual jobs for American people (who then spend their money within the American economy - I bet they even pay the mortgages!).

This situation just further exemplifies how difficult it is to "buy American."

From a sustainability view point, we should buy American. The only problem is that, well, it's very difficult. Lately, we've been trying to minimize what we buy from China. It turns out that a great many of the things we use do indeed come from China. My mother gave me some little appetizer plates the other day (which I didn't need, but felt compelled to accept) - I turned them over, and sure enough, they come from China. I ran them through the dishwasher & some of the glossy-glaze came off... these plates are now being used under small indoor herbs (winter is here - herbs are now inside).

It occurs to me that the more recent push to 'buy local' is an extension of the former 'buy American' drive. The problem is, what can you buy locally? I was really excited when I was unloading the giant bag of bird seed that I had purchased from Costco & happened to catch the label - the seed was made within 20 miles or so of my house. Wahoo! Start reading the labels and see where your consumer dollars are going. You might be really surprised.

When I think of the 'buy American' push in, what, the '80s & early 90s or so (it's hard to remember - I was a kid) - I think of flag waving Republicans. But now when I think of 'buy local' I think of new-wave hippie-type folks (yuppie? privaledged?). Polar opposites, at any rate. And it's an interesting shift. Now when I think of the stereotypical spending habits of conservatives, I think of Walmart, and I think 'cheap bastards - wont even support their own working neighbors.' Which I am pretty sure was the original Republican complaint about not buying U.S. made products.

When did that shift happen? Is it too late to bring everyone back to the middle of the road?

Which brings me to a further point. I've had it with partisan politics. Yes, again. But I've really had it. I'm tired of complaining about Bush - he's obviously a screw up and a lost cause. He has seriously F***ed our economy & our constitution, and that is his legacy. Veterans Day is on Sunday. Think about it. I don't think Veterans put their lives on the line for this sort of administration - one that erodes or constitutional rights and devalues the American dollar and the American Image (commercial & otherwise). One out of four homeless people are Veterans. Veteran's deserve our respect now more than ever, so think about that during the massive Veteran's day sales at the mall - those sales aren't for them, and certainly don't honor them in any way.

Anyway - with Bush - what's done is done. Can we move forward a little bit already? Take a look around us - our economy is serious trouble. Our energy costs are in the process of sky rocketing. Peak oil has come & gone. Our climate is changing rapidly, and we need to do something quickly to save our hides. I don't want to elect a whiner - I want to know who is actually going to create some sort of initiative across our country to get going on the future - future energy, future economy (they are so deeply intertwined, people). But to make any real progress, we need someone who wont alienate the other party. We need some kind of unifier, someone who can create a vision for the future and show it to us all so that we have something to work for, together.

Maybe we need a new party - the middle of the road party - their platform can be 'reasonable people, reasonable ideas'. Membership requirements for this new party should include 'must have had to work for a living at some point, and have some sort of grasp on reality'.