We Have to Do More Than Just Weather the Storms

by Ernie McCray

The devastation and human pain
Hurricane Ian
has left in its wake,
is so depressing
and disheartening
especially since we’re to blame
for its overwhelming intensity,
as we’ve essentially
turned our backs
to more life sustaining sources of energy
like the wind and the sun,
insisting on feeding Mother Nature
fossil-fuel-fed
greenhouse gas emissions
which give her no option
other than to respond to our actions
with forces
that are historical
and, yet,
we’re still doing little to nothing
about the situation,
falling in line
with other challenges
we avoid facing
that are also ruinous
to us as a nation,
such as citizens
who, like a hurricane
knocking down power lines
and flooding homes and businesses
and streets,
leaving tons of debris,
work at washing the will of all people away,
so, to speak,
referring, specifically,
to a woman who enjoys a high ranking
in our society,
the wife of a Supreme Court Justice,
standing before the January 6 Committee
perpetuating the “Big Lie”
that an election was stolen,
voicing her disgust with America’s VP
for not playing a role
in her, and her comrades, chicanery,
sharing her opinion that
“We are living through what feels
like the end of America,”
without considering that
the truth of that is due
to folks like her
attempting to undo
voting processes
through which we Americans
make political choices
and, in doing so,
they insult and demean
all the millions of folks
who, in 2020, went to the polls
in large numbers,
many of them people of color
striving to keep their fragile
expectations and desires alive,
with what little is available to them
to undertake such an enterprise –
leaving climate change
and racism
very much alive
since neither, yet,
has been taken
seriously.

So, we,
more than just weathering the
natural and political storms
that do us harm,
have to temper them
as doing otherwise
would leave our climate at the mercy
of Mother Nature
and our country
to the whims
of traitors
who don’t really believe in a democracy.

We have to make this country as good as it can be.