Chris Tharrington

… for everyone, higher taxes for corporations and the wealthy, and sensible regulations on business. If every American feels like they have a hand in America’s success, we’ll see less tolerance for intolerable actions like what happened on that United flight. Then, when we’ve moved the balance more toward something resembling equity, we can talk about commonsense ideas like breaking up monopolies and penalizing malicious businesses like United for harming Americans who do everything right and play by the rules.

Mr. Obama, I don’t even remember what you said that day at your inauguration. But I do remember that for whatever reason, sitting in the band room while everyone else was going about their normal day, it felt nice to care. I care about who is elected president. I care about how we talk about that person who is elected. I care about the fact that you are a black man. And what that means for our country, for the historically disenfranchised, for your daughters. I care. Sitting in that band room, in my nerdy high school sanctuary, seeing a man who is elegant and powerful and black, and who treats his wife and daughters with love and respect, assume the office of President of the United States of America…I felt proud to be an American that day.

All over the world, we see virtually every social, economic and environmental indicator trending in the wrong direction. IPCC scientist Terry Root doesn’t even tell the public how bad things really are so as to avoid inducing paralysis. For anyone paying attention and willing to overcome the powerfully seductive denial reflex, it’s obvious that things are falling apart and that we don’t know which Jenga block will make the whole tower collapse or when. But soonish is a good guess.