Note: This is a slightly revised version of a piece that I posted a few years back…

We have got to do better
Janelle Meraz Hooper

I’ve been watching the news on television. For this post, it doesn’t matter which one. What I am going to say has been said many times before and will be said many times in the future. The problem is, we have failed to extract the core truth in the message and act on it:

WE HAVE GOT TO DO BETTER. Let me say it again: We. Have. Got. To. Do. Better. Our planet is in crisis, our people are in crisis, and we have too many problems to list.

LET ME JUST SAY THIS: If we can’t get along among ourselves and begin to solve the problems we have at the moment, how are we going to solve an even bigger crisis?
What if we have another pandemic?
What about the next earthquake, nuclear failure, environmental disaster? What then?
Some of us even feel sure that we will deplete this planet’s resources until we will be forced to evacuate to another planet. If so, do ya think we and our children will be on the list to be rescued? Probably not!

Perhaps there’s  even a more serious scenario: What if there really are little green men out there in space and they are zeroing in on Planet Earth? Could happen. What will we do then when we can’t even agree on our minor problems? China has announced that its space monitors have picked up alien sounds (transmissions?). How can we respond if we’re not even able to get along with each other?

Let’s start on the little stuff (food, water, disease, and ideological). Then, maybe, when things really go haywire, we’ll have a fighting chance.

Janelle Meraz Hooper is an indie novelist/playwright whose play, Geronimo, Life on the Reservation was chosen by the Los Angeles Times in 2021 as one of its 19 Culture Picks. Her new novel, a historical fantasy, is titled Geronimo’s Laptop (still in production). See my books and short stories here:

http://www.amazon.com/author/janellehooper

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Thanks for stopping by! Janelle