Showing Love and Tolerance for Six Pack Joe and Fundamentalists

Okay, I admit that sometimes I get angry with Christian Fundamentalists and Conservative Gun-Lover Types. HOWEVER, I do have a sneaking suspicion that those who hold onto rigid, narrow, and intolerant beliefs are doing more harm than good. I do feel that by the end of this decade there will be a great showdown between the Fundamentalists of the East and West. This scares me, and troubles me greatly. Nevertheless, expressing anger over what I perceive as ignorance is not the answer. But love and understanding IS the answer.

Michael, my friend and fellow Earth-saver from California, gave me a gentle reminder that my anger and cynicism won't accomplish much. I'd like to share his beautiful thoughts, which I have edited slightly:

I have long felt that we environmentalists tend to demonize our opposition's supporters at worst, and patronize or stereotype them at best. This is understandable given both the terrible damage being done and the fact that they demonize and stereotype us environmentalists even worse. But I feel our doing so is counterproductive. I was concerned about your shorthand for the average American who seems to care more about his or her beer and "hot button" issues than ecology.

I find myself urging our colleagues that we understand better what drives the average voter, and, by understanding, to communicate our message more effectively. That, of course, is an enormously difficult challenge. It helps to see that "the average American" is being exploited and manipulated by the same power structure that is despoiling nature and condemning all of our descendants, both of conservatives and progressives, to a devastated and poisoned planet. Even the religious right is being cynically used by this power structure (consisting largely of the multinational corporations).

I think fundamentalists are going to wake up at some point and find that the real power structure (which I've named the international corporatocracy) has utterly betrayed them. They will find that their "Christian values" are being eaten up every bit as much as the environment is by the materialistic, soulless hyperconsumption promoted by these corporations at the expense of every other value known to humanity.

This wake up may already be beginning. The National Association of Evangelicals is preparing a new framework which will move them away from overidentification with the neoconservative wing of the Republican party and its callousness towards the poor and its exploitation of the environment.

It is visionaries like my friend Michael who will lead humankind out of near disaster. He is a light in a dark tunnel, and I thank him for taking the time to write.

I do find it interesting that Ralph Reed, now a senior strategist for the Bush Campaign, grew up in Miami just like I did. We are about the same age, and he lives in the east Atlanta suburbs, while I live in the west suburbs. Surely Ralph, as a kid, saw all the rampant growth and destruction of greenspace in South Florida. It's funny how seeing that changed my life forever at age 10, but Ralph chose the debate team and then onto politics. He is ruthless at removing "unpure" politicians from power — the same politicians I campaigned for in 2002. It's funny how life has its twists. Oh well.

The Yellow Canary