Politics Part 1

My first awareness of a political issue was at UCSD in 1984. I was 19. I have always appreciated the environment. I started bird watching when I was 10 and it is still a passion of mine. Obviously that makes for lots of walks outdoors 🙂 Also, I grew up in Southern California. Orange County to be specific (yeah, and NOW it is the “hip” OC!). Anyway we would drive up to LA a lot. Let me tell you there was a damn good reason we called it Smell-a back then! You could see, smell and *taste* the air up there. That was the 70s and thankfully regulations were passed to require cars with cleaner running engines. Catalytic converters and unleaded gas only. Now, I was too young to know which side introduced these regulations and which one opposed them, but what I DO know is that 30 years later the air is a hell of a lot cleaner up there. I can’t even rightfully call it Smell-a anymore! But I would say that the pollution in LA was my first awareness of an environmental issue. So back to my book report. I had heard about DDT and its impact on birds of prey, but this book really covered the topic. I also learned how resistant the companies using DDT were to the studies proving their negative impact on the environment. Money first, everything else after, right? I know that the Republican ideal is that letting corporations make all the money they want is GOOD. Because it theoretically creates jobs which increases spending and keeps the economy humming. Right. Nice theory. Unfortunately, there has been enough corporate greed to pretty much sink that “hands off” plan. Corporations need to be regulated to ensure the best outcome for everyone. Yes, they should turn a profit, but not at the expense of the environment or using unfair labor practices or shoddy workmanship on their products. Yes, those regulations such as safety requirements or clean engine requirements on cars means the consumer pays more. Fine. It is worth it to me. Without regulations we might not have peregrine falcons in California. Can you imagine that? Not being able to watch those amazing hunters take to the sky in aerial displays over Torrey Pines that take your breath away? Oh yeah, I’ll pay more for my car in order to keep watching my birds and be able to share that joy with my son. So there you have the first issue that made me pay attention. I joined Calpirg, followed local issues and politicians and took note of the “Ds” and “Rs” next their names. Sure it wasn’t 100% one way or the other, but I must say that my parent’s GOP was not coming out smelling quite that nice. It wasn’t enough to turn my loyalty away though. It takes much more than that for me. Part 2 will deal with the next issue: government aid and medical insurance. That starts in when I found out I was pregnant with DS1 in late 1984 while I was a student at UCSD. Stay tuned!