Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

"Are you the one?" the hero pleaded. "Did I save the world?"

"I don’t know," the heroine replied with a sheepish grin. "I’m just a cheerleader."

For those who are not in tune with television culture, these were the concluding words to Monday night’s episode in the hit series "Heroes." I tuned in to check it out and, while I am not necessarily hooked, I understood the appeal.

This is the kind of world we wish we were living in.

The modern world is a complex and frightening place. There are so many horrors, threats, injustices and causes: Genocide in Darfur and the Congo, poverty, starvation, brutal oppression in Oaxaca, the sexual slave trade, the devastation of New Orleans, immigration rights, international labor, living wages, civil liberties, abortion, the sanctity of marriage, embryonic stem cell research, racial discrimination, police brutality, freedom of speech, media responsibility, health and medical care, drug dependency, AIDS.

In an age of instantaneous information, we are inundated with life and death propositions. We are overwhelmed by the volume of human need and the raw, human instinct to care and empathize with the unfortunate.

It would be so much easier, clearer and more comprehensible if we could just narrow it down to one cause, one purpose: Save the cheerleader, save the world.

In recent weeks and months, I have focused my attention on the Iraq War, convinced by my own passion that if we can stop this war, we can alter the course of history. Though it may be more faith than conviction, it helps to sustain my efforts in my chosen struggle.

Save the cheerleader, save the world.

In quiet moments, as I reflect on the nature of my existence on planet earth, I understand that stopping this war may not in fact alter the course of history. There may be another war with far more devastating consequences. In the distance of time, the Iraq War may only be a minor entry.

Saving the cheerleader may not save the world.

There is, however, one crisis that we have every reason to believe has the power to irrevocably change our world. Failure to address it with absolute dedication, barring an act of divinity, will certainly and inevitably lead to the end of the world as we know it.

If you are not already aware of the crisis to which I am referring, then all of our information systems, technologies, brain trusts, civil societies, media conglomerates and talking heads have failed us miserably.

It is so easy to lose the through line for all the plot manipulations, so easy to lose the song in all the noise.

It should be called the poisoning of the planet (that would be more to the point) but it is commonly referred to as global warming or global climate change.

As informed citizens, we are all at least vaguely aware of the mass quantities of toxic waste we are spewing into our atmosphere, pumping into our water, soil and food chain on a daily basis. We may be aware that our current president has effectively negated all environmental protections, suspending enforcement of even the most basic regulations on clean air and water.

We are probably aware that America is the world’s leading polluter but most of us are probably not aware of a recent study by a German environmental group (Germanwatch, Agence France Presse, 11/14/06), rating fifty six industrial nations on their efforts to limit the effects of global climate change.

America ranked fifty-third, with only China and Saudi Arabia ranking lower.

The study considered all measures taken in the last five years, a period marked by nearly universal recognition in the scientific community of the problem, its magnitude, and its human origins – only corporate sponsored "scientists" dissent.

As Americans, if we are not ashamed of our nation, our industries and our leaders for criminal negligence of the future inhabitants of the planet, then we do not yet appreciate the weight of the crisis.

Plainly stated, we are sleepwalking through Armageddon.

A hundred years from now, survivors of the human race may remember the Iraq War as one in a myriad of reasons we did nothing to stop the poisoning of the planet.

The first five minutes of every evening newscast should be a chronicle of the melting glaciers, rising ocean temperatures, altered weather patterns, droughts and failing crops. Not a single day should pass without a new feature on the worst polluters in the nation, the diseases they spread, the damage done and the measures that could be taken to stop them.

We need a sea change, a Marshall Plan for mass transit and green technologies, a sweeping and dedicated effort. Instead, we are spreading war, hatred and fear. Instead of employing every able bodied person in the cause, we are building more and greater weapons for the ever more dangerous world we are working to create. Instead of making our nation a model of environmental sanity for the world, we are investing in the destruction of other nations.

Forget the cheerleader. Save the earth, save her children.

Of course, that is a little misleading. The earth will survive global climate change but every inhabitant with less than six legs may not.

Jazz.

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE APPEARED ON DISSIDENT VOICE, THE ALBION MONITOR, PEACE-EARTH-JUSTICE, THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS, LEFTWARD AND COUNTERPUNCH. Random Voices