Leap Day

One of the first things children learn in school and at home as they are growing up is to follow the rules. Rules help children to stay safe, be fair, learn and get along. Rules invite children to respect truth and honesty, to listen, and to take care of things. When children don't follow the rules it can impact other children, parents and their teachers negatively. Children aren't independent beings, they depend upon others for guidance and sustenance and need rules to control their behavior. It is important that they learn quickly how to follow them.

Now consider that adults and children on the other hand do have options regarding rules. If they choose not to follow the rules chaos may very well be the result. Adults understand that we follow rules to coordinate ourselves with others so that everyone has basic expectations regarding interactions. But what can we learn from children?

Most adults think there are only two ways to go about rules(law), you either follow them or you don't. But children have a third way which is to ask “WHY” before they agree to blindly follow. Parents and teachers spend years explaining and reinforcing “WHY” particular rules are important. It takes a lot of work to get all children to obey the rules and toe the line.

Today we are bombarded from both sides of the political spectrum by those that either want to “level the playing field” or have everyone lie down and accept that “life isn't fair.” The “life isn't fair” group says trust business, don't regulate them, let them use free speech and money to create laws that gut environmental protection, depress wages, close down the postal service, gut public education(we don't need an educated population), let our infrastructure rot and make access to non emergency health care a right only the wealthy can afford.

The left calls the media a conservative mouthpiece while the right says its controlled by liberals. Well both groups are wrong. The media's sole purpose is to trumpet the corporate mantra that business is right and all others are wrong. The corporate media is involved in hiding all the harm corporations have caused all over the world. We need look no further than this island to see the damage corporations have done to the south shore. To see the red mud and hulks of their machinery rotting away under the rising sun now that they have drained all they can.

As George Monibot has said “The corporate press is involved in a naked attempt to rebuild the nation around the demands of business” and not the population. For instance having a postal service was written into the constitution so the population could have reasonable access to the national debate without business skewing the discussion towards their interests alone. Today we are losing that communication portal under the push to privatize. Some may say the internet is replacing it but please remember that the internet is not a substitute for free speech as long as we pay private portals that try to exert control over what passes through or how you gain access to material or even the speed at which your connection delivers it.

Rules and ideology replace thought. Rules and ideology are comfortable but they won't help you make progress for yourself or the community. Rules and ideology work when change is slow but today we see change banging at our doors. We have to create an environment on this island and in the nation as a whole that at least attempts some leveling. People and business need to be regulated, no one group should hold sway over the other. No amount of power and money should allow corporations to walk away from their responsibilities to the communities they impact.

Today is a leap day, an out of the ordinary day, a day to think differently....so like the children above do...start asking WHY we should lie down and accept another rotting hulk on the south shore just because life isn't fair.