Every day my biggest challenge is not sending another email or update or alert out to someone. Important new developments, urgent action requests, and thoughtful pieces of analyis arrive in my inbox or newsfeed on almost an hourly basis, but I have to rein in my urge to share everything because I know no one else has my "luxury" (or is it a curse?) of focusing on these things as their job. Still, despite my best attempts at restraint, the biggest complaint I always hear is that I put out too much. The second-biggest complaint is probably how overwhelming it all is, both in terms of complexity, numbers of issues, and the average person's lack of relative power to do much about any of them.
The truth is it overwhelms me too. For the reasons just mentioned, but also because over the last 40 years I've come to see just how connected every issue is to so many other issues. That's what makes it hard to "focus like a laser beam" on only one or two issues, which is what the JPR Commission and I have agreed is a realistic goal for the coming couple of years. But immigration is connected to poverty and the criminal justice system, and climate change is related to environmental regulation which is related to job creation, and now it turns out migration is being driven more and more by climate change, and it's all related to why wars are fought and why our military budget is so high... you get the picture.
It is overwhelming, but we can't afford to ignore those connections any more than politicians can ignore social media, or business can ignore new technologies. A good example is what has been happening in Iraq under our military invasion, occupation and continuing intervention, and what has been happening in Syria under Assad and now US and Russian military intervention. Their populations have been devastated, with hundreds of thousands dead and millions maimed, traumatized or displaced, and their refugees clog the makeshift camps at so many countries' borders. The bombs dropped and fuel used by the military, and oil wells burned by insurgents all have wreaked havoc on the environment far beyond shattered buildings, leading to poisoned water and exploding cancer rates.
President Trump's proposed federal budget would make deep cuts in nearly every other area of government except for the military, which would get a big boost despite no specific mission requiring one. The U.S. already outspends the rest of the world combined on the military, and its budget is over 60% of the discretionary federal budget (entitlements like social security and medicare are funded through separate taxes, not the discretionary budget). It seems to me that until we realize that might makes neither right nor peace, and begin to take seriously the need to invest in people, jobs and preserving the environment, the underlying problems that contribute to climate change and the migration crisis will never be addressed.
Justice is related to peace which is related to reconciliation which is related to justice. It's hard to care about one issue without having to pay attention to all of them. But we also have to pick our battles, so while we won't stop caring or paying attention to other issues, our energies and actions will stay focused.
The truth is it overwhelms me too. For the reasons just mentioned, but also because over the last 40 years I've come to see just how connected every issue is to so many other issues. That's what makes it hard to "focus like a laser beam" on only one or two issues, which is what the JPR Commission and I have agreed is a realistic goal for the coming couple of years. But immigration is connected to poverty and the criminal justice system, and climate change is related to environmental regulation which is related to job creation, and now it turns out migration is being driven more and more by climate change, and it's all related to why wars are fought and why our military budget is so high... you get the picture.
It is overwhelming, but we can't afford to ignore those connections any more than politicians can ignore social media, or business can ignore new technologies. A good example is what has been happening in Iraq under our military invasion, occupation and continuing intervention, and what has been happening in Syria under Assad and now US and Russian military intervention. Their populations have been devastated, with hundreds of thousands dead and millions maimed, traumatized or displaced, and their refugees clog the makeshift camps at so many countries' borders. The bombs dropped and fuel used by the military, and oil wells burned by insurgents all have wreaked havoc on the environment far beyond shattered buildings, leading to poisoned water and exploding cancer rates.
President Trump's proposed federal budget would make deep cuts in nearly every other area of government except for the military, which would get a big boost despite no specific mission requiring one. The U.S. already outspends the rest of the world combined on the military, and its budget is over 60% of the discretionary federal budget (entitlements like social security and medicare are funded through separate taxes, not the discretionary budget). It seems to me that until we realize that might makes neither right nor peace, and begin to take seriously the need to invest in people, jobs and preserving the environment, the underlying problems that contribute to climate change and the migration crisis will never be addressed.
Justice is related to peace which is related to reconciliation which is related to justice. It's hard to care about one issue without having to pay attention to all of them. But we also have to pick our battles, so while we won't stop caring or paying attention to other issues, our energies and actions will stay focused.
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