Any Takers?

Proposed: ATennessee Time Capsule   Any Takers?

I propose we, you and I, create a Tennessee Time Capsule to be created between April 1 and November 15, this year.

In it, I suggest we place information about our times, to be shared with whomever finds it some fifty years hence. One hundred years is too long to wait. I want those people to learn from us while they can see the link between the decisions made in 2014 and the impacts of those decisions on the people who are affected at the time it is opened.

Imagine the impact of decisions we make today about issues like poverty, education, global warming and healthcare; water, fracking, energy, and air quality; jobs, social conditions, arts and culture; militarization, deforestation, destruction of sovereign nations for profit.

People just fifty years from now will have lived through much of it. Not only those born today, but those who are our children and grandchildren. My grandchildren, ages three and younger today, will have felt the full impact of the choices we make in 2014. While their parents may be in their 90s or younger, enough of them would still be living. They could be tapped by academics and asked to relive their life conditions based on what actions their parents chose to take – or not.

“Is it true, Dad, that the politicians of the day deliberately elected to deny global warming, and for that, we lost half the water on the planet? Where was Gramps during all this? Are we paying for a gallon water what people used to pay for a custom hand-made suit because legislators approved fracking near aquifers? Did our grandparents actually have access to medical care and social security -- before it was ruined through privatization? Were you too young to understand this, Dad? Wait! Dad, where were YOU and MOM while this was happening? Did you say anything, do anything?

"Are we fighting with such ignorant people now because we elected to deny adequate education to the poorest of our own citizens, and they couldn’t find work for lack of training, so we kept them in prisons until our system ran out of money?

"Dad, why is it that, when guys like Fleischmann and the Congress were waging war on women, the poor and disenfranchised, the state of UTAH was eliminating homelessness? Or the state of Maine was legalizing the importation of prescription drugs from Canada? Even Kentucky implemented Medicaid expansion. What were these guys in Nashville thinking?"

I propose we, you and I, place books, CDs, DVDs, digital media with records of the words and actions of the likes of Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Eric Cantor, and others on the national stage, along with the records of lesser know national legislators like Chuck Fleischmann and Marsha Blackburn, along with State officials like Sen. Stacy Campfield and Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey and Governor Bill Haslam.

We can categorize the issues and contrast their statements and actions with those of the sensible people who committed heart and soul in an attempt to build a better Tennessee.

Fifty years is just long enough that the progeny of those legislators will also feel the impact of their actions, especially in the eyes of those who were most egregiously harmed, that they might learn valuable lessons as well.

We can learn why they thought that putting trillions in military spending was preferable to building a sustainable society. Why enriching themselves and their business friends came first, and at the expense of the environment. Why the anarchy fifty years later was an acceptable trade off for their personal enrichment in their time.

We can plant capsules with the same contents in Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville and other communities that contribute.

Let me know. There's much work to be done.

PS  Since many of us will not be there for the opening, it might behoove us to craft a missive of our own, to wit, we share with our successors the action WE TOOK to improve lives for all our fellow citizens and the planet, OR the reasons why we we stood by while elected officials betrayed our trust ON OUR WATCH, with our implied consent. I'd really like to read some of THOSE letters.

Joe