Our view of Mount Mitchell in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina: Glynn Wilson
The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –
BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS, N.C. — We don’t have much time.
It’s addicting in our newly evolved human condition to stay focused on the fast breaking news of the moment, the sensational clickbait. From day to day, we bounce back and forth from one crisis story to another. It’s hard to turn our eyes away from what’s happening on social media and television to think about what we need to do as individuals and groups to survive in the long term.
The novel coronavirus pandemic is still growing, spreading and mutating, wrapping its deadly web around more of the human population in every corner of the country and the world.
While states and cities are gradually reopening more sectors of the economy, the virus just spreads even more and it’s not clear that the economy will recover any time soon in any event. Unemployment stands at record levels, and once the benefits run out and the stimulus money disappears in a few weeks, this disaster is going to alter our world in ways not being anticipated in the daily press or on partisan radio and cable TV.
For the past several weeks, mass protests against police violence and for racial justice captured the attention of people the world over, a worthy cause that might help drive some voter turnout, but still a massive distraction from our focus from the worst health crisis we’ve ever seen and the most devastating economic shock of our lives.
Since the crisis began back in March in my own journey of survival, I’ve moved from the chaos of Florida to the sparsely populated mountains in North Carolina, spending most of my time not focusing on the partisan politics, but instead working on a business plan to survive — no matter who wins the next election, as important as it will be.
I’ve spent many hours and days planting an organic vegetable garden and planning to help spread this idea around the region. We should begin to harvest corn, potatoes, beans and tomatoes about the time the economic crisis lurches to the next level of pain.
This has also been a therapeutic and spiritual experience, and once we get the garden finished, there will be a place for zen-like reflection far away from the urban din. We have fresh well water and a solar powered rain water catch system ready for what the future might bring.
As expected in this experiment in social alchemy, the plan has continued to evolve. It now includes a search for a location in these mountains for a writers and gardeners retreat, where a larger organic garden can provide the local fresh produce to fuel the next wave of literary creativity that we will need to survive intellectually into whatever future there may be left on planet Earth.
Return to D.C.
I must report that in a few weeks, I will be returning to the political news world after this much needed social distancing thought break. Right after the Fourth of July, the media camper van will roll north toward Washington, D.C. and the Catoctin mountains of Maryland near Camp David. Now that President Donald Trump has hit the campaign trail by holding an indoor public rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Steve Bannon is back on the campaign on Fox News, my skills and services will be needed in the trenches soon.
U.S. Senator Doug Jones of Alabama will know who his Republican opponent will be after the runoff vote on July 14, so as far as we’re concerned, the campaign of 2020 will begin in earnest at that point. Then there will only be four months left before Election Day on Nov. 3, and it is going to be one hell of a critical and chaotic time in human history. Much can still going wrong, although it appears that some things are starting to go right, at least according to public opinion polls (see the headline links on the front page).
Trump’s Job Approval Falls Below 40 Percent
American National Pride Falls to Record Low
A Critical Election
This is as pundits like to say the most critical election of our lifetimes. It could very well be the final battle of the American Civil War. The racist South must inevitably lose this ignoble war one more time, hopefully for all time — and once and for all. I’ve been writing about this for 40 years, and I’m sick of it. Get over it people.
It is critical that we move beyond the partisan politics of race and religion and form a more perfect union, finally. The demographics favor this, but it is still a close equation and voter turnout is critical. This guy in the White House has to go, one way or another. He is trying to turn this country into an authoritarian dictatorship that only helps dictators like Vladimir Putin of Russia. The future of our democratic republic depends on Trump’s inevitable departure from power.
The very future of human survival on Earth might well depend on it too. We have no hope of survival if we are going to ignore science and try to live on alt-facts and Twitter sound bites and let these disasters run on out of control in some kind of a libertarian train wreck.
Country Gentleman Sweet Corn: Glynn Wilson
No matter who wins the next election, our world has changed so drastically that some of us must remain focused on planning beyond November. Sometime between then and now, we have a team of strategic partners who are beginning to think through launching a new web interface to aggregate all the best and latest information on how to grow organic fresh food, to preserve fresh water, to help foster communities and networks of local farmers. It turns out that there are lessons to be learned from rural values, although rather than romanticizing the past, we must look to the future.
You may recall that I wrote a lot last year about escaping the worst affects of climate change and global warming by fleeing the cities and finding shade and solace in the mountains. Well now that mission has expanded to escaping this pandemic and economic depression — and the next virus or economic crisis.
It’s one thing to find a way to survive from day to day. We must spend some time thinking about the long term. If there is to be a long term.
I can’t predict the future. But I can by god think about ways to try to have a future. If you are interested in joining and helping us in this endeavor, stay tuned here to see how you can be a part of this. All will be revealed in good time.
Looking forward to new horizons, my friend. The garden is looking great!