In My World

In my world religion cannot possibly ever be the cause of any wars

Human population stayed at a level that could tolerate our messy ways

Having more features and comfort means being more efficient as well

In my world the old are not treated as irrelevant fools to be cast aside and ignored

Children long to be outdoors before they strap on music or play electronic games

Science is a wondrous tool and religion continually sheds its calcifying dogma

In my world failures and mistakes increase knowledge just as does success

The country and the people preserve things simply because the future is unknown

Greed is not the main factor in success or viewed as a great virtue by society

In my world more is spent on finding peace than preparing for yet another war

Preserving the environment that supports us is not seen as wasting money

Fast food might be occasionally eaten when one is far away from home

In my world we travel through space inside the womb of this blue world

We proudly maintain, repair and renovate most everything we own

Nobody endlessly mows a fertilized, watered, fumigated bluegrass “lawn”

In my world we know where meat comes from and the sacrifice its production entails

People would not even consider making their vehicles produce extra noise

Teenage granddaughters of unwed mothers do not singlemom babies on their own

In my world time is not measured by looking forward to the weekends

Evolution is merely one of many ongoing, undogmatic scientific debates

Shopping is not mentioned in any list of patriotic activities

In my world much time is spent preserving and marveling at the earth’s web of life

Societies do not produce climate changes that future generations must adapt to

A large part of a people’s legacy is based upon their environmental footprint

In my world sustainability is a very important issue to the entire society

Plastic-wrapped white bread produced in automated factories does not exist

Domestic animals do not run free, kill wildlife and breed unwanted offspring

In my world no warnings need be issued about toxins in fish and game

People don’t celebrate by shouting drunkenly and producing loud explosions

Children quickly learn their subordinate places in the larger pack

In my world people understand and appreciate what it means to be a farmer

The first sprawling unplanned migrant squatter slum never even appeared

Religion is taxed and regulated like other franchised vices such as gambling and liquor

In my world our numbers stopped increasing before we reached 3 billion

Our unavoidable mistakes and messes do not threaten entire planetary ecosystems

Pretty much all of our pollution could be solved by simple dilution

In my world there are no starving children whom people must strive to ignore

levees are not built to protect flood-prone homes that should never have been built

No one misses the foolish, giant, wasteful vehicles that we did not produce

In my world the old do not lay drugged in their own feces pondering meaningless lives

Leadership is more than ass-kissing, back-biting and shoulder-climbing

Newborns are not found in dumpsters stuffed into milk cartons with drugs in their bloodstream

In my world we welcome pilgrims from across the world who come to teach us of their cultures

Large reserves of petroleum are left untapped for unknown future needs

Cigarette butts, fast food discards and bottles are not part of the scenery

In my world health care is neither a privilege nor a huge economic problem

People journey for weeks on foot talking to others in every little town

We do not ignore the effects of our actions because some believe we cannot control them

In my world things are built to be better than they have to be

For profit exploitation of regional labor inequities is not viewed as progress

Savers do not waste all their money on useless but expensive healthcare and then simply die

In my world small planes are required to have mufflers just like cars

Mining companies do not walk away and leave a toxic mess for future generations

Fat Texans do not sit idling diesels, smoking with just one window cracked

In my world tourism is not an industry and there are no corporate resorts

Politicians do not parrot speeches that their corpro donors pay other people to write

We do not destroy the things that we love just to cash in on their emotional appeal