Reimagine! You Can Say I'm a Dreamer
By Christie Seeley
Vallartasounds.com
This week's message from California Governor Gavin Newsom and many other world leaders as they come to grips with the fall out of the coronavirus this week is Reimagine—I love that.
Governor Newsom rolled out the details of how the State of California plans to deal with a recovery in the years to come. Lawmakers just worked over the budget, and I must say it includes some very positive and forward-looking programs for children, education, healthcare and health care workers, including consideration of climate issues. He ended his presentation, asking us to join him in "reimagining" our future.
I am with him! I hope that out of this devastating experience might come an awakening that would cause us to take a fresh look at our lives and our society and, by doing so, work toward innovative changes for the betterment of our children's lives and the earth.
That is a big dream, especially as we are still in the thick of things in fighting this virus. However, it is undoubtedly a worthwhile one.
We have wandered so far since John Lennon penned those words based on a poem by Yoko Ono, hoping for "the world to be as one." We are still the same people with the same desire for peace and equality, but somehow, we have allowed others to take control of our destinies. In the excellent documentary on her life called Becoming, Michelle Obama said to President Barack Obama when the Democrats failed to come through in a crucial senate race, "Those were our people! And they couldn't get off the couch to vote!" (That is a paraphrase). Well, she was right. We are too complacent about our roles. We often allow our leaders to trade our well being for favors from the corporate world only to enrich them beyond any reasonable level to the detriment of the working and middle classes worldwide, in other words, 99%.
I'll get down from my soapbox now and offer hope that we will work hard to use this experience as an inspiration to "reimagine" the world we live in, starting with our own lives and our communities.
My daughter just finished reading the revealing book Eviction. I am a landlord. I believe I am a fair one who has maintained my rents at a reasonable level over the years. But even at that am appalled by the cost of housing in my area. I am also a realtor. I recently took a break for a few years. I found it so disheartening trying to find affordable housing for young couples only to be outbid by speculators who never intended to occupy the homes they purchased using the cheap money supplied by bankers for so-called flippers. Our pursuit of profit at the expense of our fellow man will know no end if we don't begin caring about equality issues.
The current pandemic is showing us how vulnerable our fellows and we are and causing us to consider the vast rifts in the ability of different segments of our communities to cope. Governor Newsom and many other world leaders are seeking remedies to help their constituents to recover from the financial woes of the current crisis simultaneously addressing this issue. I hope their efforts continue long after this crisis ends. And may that end be soon!
By Christie Seeley
Vallartasounds.com
This week's message from California Governor Gavin Newsom and many other world leaders as they come to grips with the fall out of the coronavirus this week is Reimagine—I love that.
Governor Newsom rolled out the details of how the State of California plans to deal with a recovery in the years to come. Lawmakers just worked over the budget, and I must say it includes some very positive and forward-looking programs for children, education, healthcare and health care workers, including consideration of climate issues. He ended his presentation, asking us to join him in "reimagining" our future.
I am with him! I hope that out of this devastating experience might come an awakening that would cause us to take a fresh look at our lives and our society and, by doing so, work toward innovative changes for the betterment of our children's lives and the earth.
That is a big dream, especially as we are still in the thick of things in fighting this virus. However, it is undoubtedly a worthwhile one.
We have wandered so far since John Lennon penned those words based on a poem by Yoko Ono, hoping for "the world to be as one." We are still the same people with the same desire for peace and equality, but somehow, we have allowed others to take control of our destinies. In the excellent documentary on her life called Becoming, Michelle Obama said to President Barack Obama when the Democrats failed to come through in a crucial senate race, "Those were our people! And they couldn't get off the couch to vote!" (That is a paraphrase). Well, she was right. We are too complacent about our roles. We often allow our leaders to trade our well being for favors from the corporate world only to enrich them beyond any reasonable level to the detriment of the working and middle classes worldwide, in other words, 99%.
I'll get down from my soapbox now and offer hope that we will work hard to use this experience as an inspiration to "reimagine" the world we live in, starting with our own lives and our communities.
My daughter just finished reading the revealing book Eviction. I am a landlord. I believe I am a fair one who has maintained my rents at a reasonable level over the years. But even at that am appalled by the cost of housing in my area. I am also a realtor. I recently took a break for a few years. I found it so disheartening trying to find affordable housing for young couples only to be outbid by speculators who never intended to occupy the homes they purchased using the cheap money supplied by bankers for so-called flippers. Our pursuit of profit at the expense of our fellow man will know no end if we don't begin caring about equality issues.
The current pandemic is showing us how vulnerable our fellows and we are and causing us to consider the vast rifts in the ability of different segments of our communities to cope. Governor Newsom and many other world leaders are seeking remedies to help their constituents to recover from the financial woes of the current crisis simultaneously addressing this issue. I hope their efforts continue long after this crisis ends. And may that end be soon!
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