This open letter was written by a friend of a friend on Facebook and posted therein. I thought it would be good to set it free outside the Facebook system, thus I am publishing it here on Propagandada.
Dear President and First Lady Obama.
I am a naturopathic medical doctor and an instructor of genetics, human anatomy, microbiology, nutrition and pharmacology. My undergraduate degree was in environmental science and policy. I feel blessed with a grand view of human history, geologic time and the entire span of life on this rare and beautiful planet.
For thousands of years human society was lead by three types of institutions: governmental, military, and religious. Today, we clearly have new masters that have effectively trumped them all: commercial industry.
In this age of corporate dominion, the people of the world need the U.S. President to lead the charge against the reckless and inherently short-sighted, greed-driven corporate marauding that is, without question, leading the entire world toward an inexorable nose-dive into major multi-system catastrophes of global scale.
One thing that our corporate “citizens” seem to share is a greed-driven sociopathic psychosis that has somehow become just part of the backdrop of life as we know it. By their very design and nature, corporations attend only to their own profit margins and readily spew any cost that can be externalized onto the world that bears their now crushing weight. It is sheer madness to allow these money, resource and influence gobbling giants bereft of both soul and conscience to run roughshod over us any longer.
No-one with a coherent world view is blind to how corporate parasitism and cost-externalizing mechanisms are misleading consumers and poisoning the future we’ll all share. Sadly, most of the U.S. population has chosen the more than amply provided diversions over developing an awareness of this growing corporate cancer. As our leader, I implore you to use your voice to reveal, shame and tame the world’s worst corporate “citizens”.
I know that from where you stand that you are more aware of the depth and scope of the problem of corporate influence. A brief passage through the headlines is all we need to see how corporate greed is fouling the world: the war in Iraq, the recent oil spill in the gulf, the housing and financial industry colapses, global climate change, nuclear proliferation, world hunger…
I also know that the only language that our new commercial masters understand is one that is market-based. A broad system of market tuneups (in the form of green taxes), bans, and strict and well enforced regulations aimed at internalizing the external costs and curbing the worst of the corporate and consumer behaviors must not be delayed any longer.
If it helps, please know that there are citizens who will willingly make many deep sacrifices requisite for our liberation from the madness of our corporate masters possible. We are currently a minority, but we will gladly teach our fellow citizens how (and why) to do the same. I am doing everything I can and strive to lead by example, but I fear it is not enough.
I am a naturopathic doctor, and one of the core principles of naturopathic medicine is “Tolle Causam”: Identify and treat the cause. If this nation was my patient, I would not offer any more pacifying solutions that failed to hit the mark.
And so I say to you, Mr and Ms Obama: Yes we can–Guide consumers away from supporting the most egregious industries through strategic taxation that promotes renewable and sustainable practices at the consumer and producer levels through internalizing the full costs of the worst industrial practices today.
Adding $.50 of tax per gallon of gas this year, and every year for the next 20 years, would be a good start. Of course, all of the revenue could be used to develop and distribute alternative energy technology. Environmental imperatives are screaming for combustion engine transportation and industry to be phased out. Smart progressive taxation is the best way to effect such a transition.
Likewise, processed food, junk food, food additives, tobacco, alcohol can all be discouraged through taxation with all of the proceeds going into paying for the the astronomical costs associated with the modern epidemics they are causing: cancer, heart disease and diabetes. As well, non-recyclable non-renewable materials can all be taxed to discourage their use and to create funds to begin the work of restoring the ecosystems that suffered from their extraction.
Of course, the major long term benefit of such taxation, would be the industry-wide promotion of sustainable alternatives whose materials and methods did not trigger the taxation in the first place. Without this kind of taxation, it is madness to ever expect any of the corporations to meaningfully step out on their own with more expensive practices that protect heritage. The industries need to be lead by a government that holds the interests of sustainability and survival itself in the highest esteem.
Do not forget that you are following the unquestionably worst President in the history of this nation. You can hardly throw a pen in Washington DC without hitting something that needs to be changed. We the people elected you out of a desperate need for change. The scope of the forces which would resist the true change we seek is almost unimaginable, but we still thirst for it. Nothing is more important to many of us in this time.
The time to do only what is popular in the current climate is long past. I implore you to extend your efforts to change the climate by educating the people. We need to publicly eject corporate interests from government. We need you to pull the masks off of those “leaders” who continue to sell their influence to the highest corporate bidders. If you do this, future generations will be forever grateful, however much the current generation may resist.
Best of luck to you in your most noble efforts.
“T.R.”
Dr. Timothy R. Morris
Naturopathic Physician
Research Fellow, Medical and Biomarker Research
Optimal Health and Prevention Research Foundation
Seattle, WA, USA
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