What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?

The title of a 1966 movie, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? has me thinking. What will we tell our kids? Our grandkids? Because surely the conversation, real or hypothetical, will happen. Until recently, I thought of this talk occurring perhaps 20 or 30 years in the future, when the effect of humanity’s greed, pollution and waste has made the planet’s environment a dangerously changing place for all of us. But I need to think again.

The consequences of climate change are here now. The near-death of Earth’s Oceans is here now. So many other effects of our waste and pollution, too numerous to even mention, are here now. Thus the conversation about what we all did about it, may as well occur now too. The most troubling part of all this is that these challenges are only beginning. Our discussion can certainly be an on-going one.

What did you do? What are you doing? What can you do? What should you do? It doesn’t matter so much when you are asked these questions; now or 30 years from now. It boils down to this: are you part of the problem, or part of the solution?

Never thought about it? It’s never too late to start. There are plenty of things that you can do right now, just to begin with.

Not the least of these, and one of the simplest, is to vote for people who will do the right thing. Doing what is right for the planet amounts to doing what's right for one's constituents. Those who do that will invariably also do the right things in other policy matters as well. The choices, especially the one for President, couldn’t be more stark.

And the war part? It most definitely is a war. If you’re on the wrong side, history, and even your ancestors, will judge you harshly.