David and I have a lot of time to talk on the road. I’ve learned a lot about David in the process. And I’m sure David has learned a lot about me.
David knows that I grew up in a home with parents who instilled traditional values in their children. And when I say traditional values, I mean the traditional values of working class Christians: Love you neighbors whether you like them or not, do good to those that despitefully use you, we’re all members of the same human family so treat everyone with love and respect, sleep in your own bed, honesty is the only policy, and the Golden Rule.
I grew up believing that all parents at some level believed and taught their children those same values.
But I was wrong.
A few states ago, I struck up a conversation with a young man at church. Our conversation turned to values and why it is that the ruling class seem to operate by a different set of values. He went on to say that lower working class people are taught to obey societal and religious rules and that the ruling class are taught that they make the rules, and because they make the rules, they are free to break the rules as they see fit.
And while the working class are doing just that: working, working 9 to 5, working sunup to sundown, working 40, 60, or 80 hour weeks, working their fingers to the bone, working an honest day’s labor for an honest day’s wages, working and wearing their lives away, the ruling class are buying and selling and investing. They’re making millions, sometimes billions, off of the labor of the working class. They’re buying companies, firing employees at will, then turning around and selling the same companies at obscene profits, giving no thought to the fact that their company flipping places working people on the streets and on the dole.
And while the working class are paying their taxes, the ruling class are pulling the strings on their political puppets to create the tax loop holes that enable them to gain millions, by and large, tax free.
And while the working class are genuinely concerned about the welfare of the human family, the ruling class are concerned only that the working class keep their noses to the grindstone, their shoulders to the wheel, and their mouths shut so the ruling class can continue to profit from other people’s labor.
And while the working class wouldn’t resort to shady means to make a buck, the ruling class don’t give a rat’s ass how they make their bucks or who ends up hurt or dead in the process.
This analysis may be a bit over simplified and may be a bit too black and white, but then again, maybe it’s a dead ringer.
How else can one explain the fact that corporations like Monsanto, Dow, Dupont Pioneer, BASF, Bayer and Syngenta continue to operate on the values of Profit over Loss, Regardless.
Regardless of the fact that their chemical and GMO-based agricultural systems are killing the soil, polluting waterways, and poisoning all life, including the lives of their own children.
Regardless of the fact that their large scale, monocultures destroy precious biodiversity and displace millions of peasant who join the ranks of the poorest of the poor.
Regardless of the fact that many who farm GMOs find that suicide is the only escape from an endless cycle of debt.
Regardless of the fact that by patenting plants and animals, the poisoners become biopirates committing biopiracy as they steal from Nature and from the collective commons.
Regardless of the fact that their corrupt collusion with politicians makes of mockery of democracy.
Regardless of the fact that virtually nobody wants their poison saturated bastardized imitation food and that the only way they can continue to get people to eat such stuff is to continue to keep GMOs unlabeled, even if that means threatening and suing entire states such as Vermont, or creating global “Free Trade” agreements like the TPP that declare participating governments shall do nothing to infringe on corporate profits including the labeling of GMOs.
Regardless of the fact that many countries refuse to buy GMO-based corn and soybeans and those commodities are so overproduced in the USA and their value is so low that GMO-based agriculture can only be sustained by billions of dollars in government subsidies.
Regardless of the fact that most farmers are barely making a living and most of the subsidies they receive end up in the bank accounts and investment funds of the poison peddlers.
Regardless of the fact that the poisoners must shield their eyes from the sight of the deformed, disabled, diseased and dead people their policies and poisons have produced.
Regardless of the fact that they must cover their ears to block the cries of their victims.
Regardless of the fact that their alleged science-based research is little more than the science of fraud and deception.
Regardless of the fact that their profit is commensurate only to their skill as liars.
I am grateful that I was raised with the values of Right and Wrong rather than the values of Profit and Loss. But I want my children to know and understand that there are people in this country and in this world—people they will likely never meet—who care only for their own profit and that those people make and break the rules as they see fit. And those people use their power and influence to ensure that only their political puppets—both democrats and republicans—enjoy the financial backing to win elections or the connections to be appointed to key governmental positions, including the regulatory agencies that are supposedly in place to protect the people and the environment.
I want our children to know that they must assume full responsibility for their own health and well-being. I want them to know that in violation of the Constitution, their conversations are being monitored and recorded, not so much to catch thieves, crooks, and terrorists, but to catch the people who catch government thieves, crooks, and terrorists.
And someday, when enough people have awakened from the collective delusion that corporations care and that the government represents them, I pray that the people who value Right and Wrong will rise up and create a system of government based on the values of Right over Wrong, on the value of loving rather than bombing, on the value of caring for rather than pillaging the Earth and her resources, on the value that all have access to clean and healthy food, education, and health care.
For the sake of the Earth and her inhabitants, may that day come soon.
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Brett and David Wilcox are within two weeks of finishing their transcon 3,000 mile Run For a GMO Free USA. To date, their run expenses far exceed donations received. You can help change that fact by making a donation of any amount through their Indiegogo campaign fundraiser.
