The Power of One !!

Last Sunday, I read the story about Mohammed Bouazizi, the courageous young man from Tunisia who was a fruit vendor that started the revolution in North Africa and the Middle East. This is the young man who was humiliated by the police. As the Washington Post reports, " he wept with shame" after being slapped. He asked " Why are you doing this to me?", "I'm am a simple person and I just want to work." Later he doused himself with paint thinner and put himself on fire.

What a way to crush the human spirit through police force. This has happened in history so much. The small person, who is neither seen nor heard. But Gandhi, Mandela, King, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, Bouazizi and so many who have stood in the way of the power -- tell us that all is not in vain.

Mr. Bouazizi's death made people realize how they far they had fallen and been oppressed because of the power system. Soon, the people would rise up against the power structure. Yes many would die but not in vain. Leaderships would collapse in Tunisia and Egypt and threaten other systems. The same thing that happened in India with Gandhi, the United States with King, Parks, Evers and so many others and Mandela in South Africa is inevitable wherever people are not treated with dignity and human respect.

This current movement will move into SubSaharan Africa where people want to be respected like the human family. It has gotten so bad that many will take small boats or walk across the Saharan Desert to find work in Europe. So many must run because of war in DRC, Ivory Coast, Sudan and the poverty is so dehumanizing.

The thing is: No one knows who will begin this movement because of the power of one.

Now, you ask how is all of this related to climate change???????

Well because of our consumptive ways, we are driving a system of inequality around the globe. People are working 100 hours per week to make things for Americans and in the process being exploited. Because of our need for fossil fuel, there are people who work in oil fields and coal mines all around the world and are being exploited. They live and die in the oil fields and coal mines around the world. Companies like Walmart are exploiting in China and at home so that we can buy cheap shirts, pants and socks. So many will die in the textile factories around the world after being exploited for their labor.... all for what????

Our ways here in America are creating new slave markets similar to the days when my ancestors were taken from West Africa. It gives power to those governments who can exploit their populations to become bigger and bigger while making the human spirit smaller and smaller.
Yeah we have nice things.. but at whose expense.

If we don't watch ourselves, we will be like the captains aboard slave ships who laughed, drank rum and thought about payday while men, women and children died below. We will become like those who lost consciousness when killing millions of Jews during WWII. See the human spirit wants to be free, but the flesh binds us to our desires even at the expense of others.

While looking at the ongoing issues overseas, we should ask ourselves did we help to make this? When a new system comes about what will we do to keep it from reverting back to its old form?

The Earth and its changing climate is telling us that we are not in balance. We are going to have to consume less, exploit less and use what we have been given with discernment and understanding. By consuming less, we will remove the power of those who exploit because Americans want it and they will have to depend less on the textile factories, less on the oil fields, less on the coal minds and focus more on the human mind, on education and on equality. We will also reducing the potential warming and damage that our children and grandchildren will have to deal with.