Compact Action: Feet Along the Path

I saw signs and portents all along the path from California. My thinking has been so changed by The Compact and my growing political awareness that almost every scene along the way holds a warning or lesson.

In California, we crossed ridge lines of wind turbines, now a decade old. You know, the kind of power we are told "isn't ready yet" by those with a stake in the status quo.

In Arizona, we saw the Homolovi ruins. An Anasazi people, the dwellers at Homolovi thought they had it all figured out, then their climate changed. Now their cities lie in dust.

A free limo whisked us from our hotel to the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, where we turned down the challenge of eating a 72 oz. steak in an hour. If the cult of over-consumption had holy places, this would be one.

Springfield felt frozen in time. The idea that the climate may be changing, oil may be running out, or what our culture of over consumption costs in terms of lives and pollution abroad simply doesn't occur to most of them. The faith in their leaders, mostly Republican, is absolute. The idea that corporations might not be in their best interest is mostly unheard of.

When I placed my feet along the path toward a political awareness of these issues, I found there was no turning back. We made a similar commitment in my family joined the Compact and when we came here.

How do you find allies? How do you change minds? How do you build awareness about so many issues from the erosion of our democracy to the power consolidation behind the politicians?

In two weeks, we'll look at a few of these new local allies and how to find them.