I remember Barry McGuire singing ”Eve of Destruction” in the 60′s and it was a scary prospect at the time – thinking the end was near. Forty-five years later, he’s updated it with new lyrics and a powerful, disturbing video. When he sings, “You don’t believe we’re still on the eve of destruction”, it makes me wonder what we’ve all been doing all these years and why we are still in the huge mess we’re in.
The answer is plenty – but not nearly enough. We can’t discount the good work of the environmentalists and peacekeepers, philanthropists and educators, and us average folks who every single day, do our part to make our world livable and lovable.
But over the past few decades, we have also slacked. We’ve been living the good life, dining out at expensive restaurants, living far above our means, living in bigger houses than we need to, enjoying our good fortunes as our real estate values climbed higher and making money hand over fist in the dot com era.
Obviously I’m not speaking about all of us – but many of us have done well over the past forty+ years – and many of us have lost everything we gained in the recent recession. But during the upswing, when things are going well, we tend to want to stay fat and happy, and not to look too closely at the darker side.
The attacks on Sept 11, 2001 woke us up. The Gulf war, the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, the Bernie Madoff scandal, the presidential election, the recession, the BP Gulf oil spill – all have caught and finally held our attention.
He’s my pledge and I hope you’ll take it with me. I can and will do more. I can donate more money, I will be more conscious around using fossil fuels, I can waste less and give more. I can and will do more. Whatever it is you do to leave this world a better place for our children – let’s all try doing just a little more.
Can you join me? Will you join me?
