|
A
look at the bright side of life
Ailee
Slater
EUGENE,
Ore. (U-Wire)—Sometimes, it really
does seem like it’s the end of
the world. Iran just announced its plan
to ignore nations’ pleas and restart
a nuclear program; 48 percent of the
American public thinks President George
W.Bush is an honest man; New York Gov.
George Pataki vetoed a bill to dispense
emergency contraception without a prescription;
and if London can be hit by terrorists,
anyone can be hit by terrorists.
Luckily, bad news is what regularly hits the headlines of morning papers, and
readers are lucky because the world is hardly ever as bad as it seems. Most
importantly, forgetting about the pain and sorrow in the world is probably
the key element in coming into a future that is happier for all.
To begin with, although countries are steadily mounting weapons of mass destruction
against one another, not everyone is resorting to violence in order to be heard.
For two days, Cindy Sheehan has stood near the entrance to Bush’s ranch,
and says she will not leave until she can speak one-on-one with him about the
war in Iraq, where Sheehan’s son was killed, and try to persuade him
to reconsider his reasons for continuing combat.
Mothers are the talkers; politicians are the fighters, and the world slowly
goes to war with itself. Still, the resilience of women such as Cindy Sheehan
certainly shines. Even if governments nationwide haven’t yet taken such
mature steps, it is promising to remember that if everyday people can change
the world for the better, we don’t have anything to worry about.
As reported by Newsweek, California has begun creating small communities so
energy efficient, power bills are reduced to less than half. Houses within
these communities use solar panels to regulate temperature, and host low-energy
appliances. Best of all, any excess solar power flows into a grid, which is
then tapped into by everyone else in the neighborhood.
Projects such as these communities should be receiving major news headlines
and captions that proclaim everything is going to be OK as long as we all just
take simple steps to make it so. New York may be readying itself for a chemical
weapons attack, but isn’t it just as important that Shell gas stations
are working with General Motors to provide hydrogen fuel pumps?
There is much that needs to be fixed about our planet and our society, but
that change cannot come until we change ourselves. And what better place to
start than optimism? After all, the world is not as bad as it seems.
This column originally ran in the Oregon Daily Emerald.
|
