MY BATTLES

            On this Veterans Day, I honor those who have served, who have laid down their lives or been willing to, that I may enjoy freedoms unparalleled in human history.  Must of us Baby Boomers had parents, uncles and aunts who served in that great WWII conflict.  I was just a couple of years too young for Vietnam.  And let's not forget Korea.  I mean this sincerely, thank you veterans for your heart and service--including all the brave men and women serving in our armed forces today.

             With that said, I must confess that on this day, while honoring our Veterans, I can't help but think of the battles I fight every day.  They are cultural battles and often they are as profound and serious as real bullets because they deal with the heart and soul of what a nation is willing to defend.  If you're going to defend something, you'd better be pretty sure about what you're defending.

             Defending an embarrassment or a tyranny turns military honor into sacrilege. I'm deeply concerned about what our young people in harm's way are now defending and so I find myself as respectful of their commitment as I am dubious about what we as a nation are committed to.

            How does a nation that sees pollution and the cost of environmental disrespect as an asset to GDP pay for a military, long term?  Bereft of social and resource capital, eventually our national of wealth will move to penury and be unable to field a defense.  How can that be?

             1.  We pour herbicides on the land and call it production.

            2.  We prohibit mega-fauna from the landscape and create fire fuel.

            3.  We feed our children vegan diets that deprive brains of development.

            4.  We eat junk and drop sperm counts 50 percent.

            5.  We blame the government for our health care problems while drinking soda and eating nutrient deficient industrial fare.

            6.  We complain about flooding and drought while criminalizing surface run-off hydration through farm ponds.

            7.  We prohibit neighbor-to-neighbor food commerce and cry about food deserts and the price of authentic food.

            8.  We invest in fake meat instead of community-scaled abattoirs.

            9.  We buy chemical fertilizers instead of developing on-farm composting.

            10.  We go to the theater instead of vetting our food provenance by visiting farms and being active in the local authentic food movement.

            11.  We take the kiddos to soccer games but won't pack leftovers to eat.

            12.  We visit the doctor instead of the farmer.

            13.  We expect wellness to come out of the end of a needle or from a tablet rather than from nutrient-dense food.

            `14.  We tolerate erosion but don't tolerate raw milk.

            15.  We spend far more on high quality dog food than we do on people food.

             This list could be extremely long, but you get the picture.  When you're defending something, you'd better know what you're defending and it had better be worth your life. 

             What's your battle?