For the first time in 24 years, I felt like a stranger in Boulder City. In the Damboree parade, I carried a banner for a political candidate, along with two other city residents. The three of us have lived in Boulder City for 68 years collectively. We know a lot of people, yet we felt like outsiders, looking into a crowd of folks who were unfamiliar to us.
We certainly don’t know everyone in town, yet all three of us felt a real difference in this year’s parade crowd and didn’t even mention it to each other until I said something about how I felt. I don’t think all three of us imagined the same feeling. I know it was real.
I’ve never counted how many folks attend the Damboree parade, but my sense of being in many past parades told me the attendance was lower this year than it has been previously. The weather was great, so you can’t blame attendance on awful heat. Wilbur Square wasn’t packed as usual and the sidewalks seemed to have lots of space for spectators.
If you’ve ever read any of my commentaries, you know I want everyone to vote in every election. Everyone should register to vote and then do it. I spend time registering voters all over Clark County because I want everyone’s voice to be heard. I want to hear political discussion of all types. I want to hear facts, not simply opinions, convoluted rumors and campaign slogans. I want to have discussion and debate on issues, not arguments and shouting.
While our contingent of marchers received far more waves of support than negativity, the passion of those against us was “hot and heavy.” Why? Someone needs to explain that exuberance to me.
I believe everyone wants to have a caring economy and equality for everyone. People don’t want suffering, pain and destruction. We live on this planet together, so why the outrage when a group of individuals supporting one candidate walks past? I don’t get it and will never understand it.
You can disagree if you wish, but I believe everyone wants a clean, sustainable planet on which to live. We want clean water to drink and fresh air to breathe. We want a government that works for all of us, not only some. We want a job we enjoy, one where we earn a decent paycheck to support our family and have a good quality of life.
We don’t want wars and death. We don’t want people living on the street without a roof over their head, food to eat and proper medical care.
Providing a good quality of life for all doesn’t mean we have to suffer. Everyone can prosper. Yet, in order to have a caring economy that works for everyone, we need to learn how the economy already works and institute a Green New Deal. As it happens, the candidate I support understands the economics of Modern Monetary Theory what a Green New Deal means for everyone. His economic adviser is a college professor named Stephanie Kelton, who, in this short one minute and 45 second video (http://bit.ly/32qjMdB) briefly explains “MMT is How lt Already Works.”
If you take the time to watch this, you will have more questions, and I invite you to watch another video (http://bit.ly/32pzHc0) from another college professor, Fadhel Kaboub, as he gives a presentation on a Green New Deal for Newark.
Now, all you have to do is care enough to take the time to watch these and other presentations at http://bit.ly/2Y4QSjy and you will get facts from economic experts around the world, facts you don’t see anywhere else.
You have a choice to make. You can choose to be receptive to economic facts and the reality of what currently transpires in the U.S. economy or not. Oh, and remember what they say about money making the world go ’round. You know how the world works, but do you care? It’s up to you to educate yourself with materials from economists who have made Modern Monetary Theory their career, or you can choose to be a face in the crowd objecting to an agenda you do not know and have less desire to understand.
Rose Ann Miele is a journalist and was public information officer for Boulder City for nine years. She can be reached at roseannrab@hotmail.com or at 702-339-9082.