One of the more disturbing phenomena in American society today is the notion that continuing to do bad, destructive things is somehow better than doing good, nurturing things. Among them, politics (religion trouncing reason), energy (renewable energy buried by government subsidies for fossil fuel), and farming (corporate food=holy, organic=evil).
While corporate farms receive zillions in federal subsidies to grow even more corn and soybeans we don’t need, small farmers like Randy Ramsley in Caineville, Utah are not only neglected and crushed by large government and corporate interests. They are ridiculed, threatened, and attacked by their own neighbors because of the self-destructive notion that organic farming or environmental stewardship is a political issue. As this excellent article in New West shows again, a great many people think it’s better to demean and destroy someone who’s trying to do a positive thing than to simply not take away their freedom to do it.
Freedom is what America’s about- isn’t it? Or are Ramsley’s “neighbors” simply part of the growing movement to stamp out freedom and progress of any form to accomodate the ascent of backwards, right-wing, religious dictatorship and further restrictions of basic American and human rights? The good news is Ramsley’s not giving up yet. The bad news is his attackers aren’t going to either until the last evidence of Ramsley’s good works are trampled under the wheels of their ATVs.
