The Brockovich Report

I do want to save nature, and keep as much of the earth pristine as we can. Certainly, I am all for clean air, and clean water, and clean energy. Absolutely, I want the people in Hinkley to be able to drink their water without being afraid they or their children are going to die of some kind of pollution-induced cancer. Sure I want the people near some Australian plant to be able to drink their water without fearing Benzene intake. Don't we all?

But we have to remember...people are part of nature. At the heart of it, people are the reason I want to clean up. We have to love the people too.

I want to remember the people out there who are at the bottom of the "feeding chain." There are census statistics defining millions of home-owning Americans as poor. I'm not going to play the statistics game; I don't know where to draw the line between those suffering hardship and those struggling to survive. Certainly if you own your own home, you're better off than someone living in a cardboard box under an expressway bridge; but what if after paying your mortgage and utility bill, your taxes and the gas (or bus fare) to get you to work, you only can afford to feed your family starches and low quality food; or only for three weeks of the month? What about when you're barely making it, and then you get sick? Overcrowding, temporary hunger, difficulty getting medical care and impending destitution--the difference is a matter of degree.

The point is that even here in this most prosperous country in the world, there are people suffering real material hardship. Millions of people live from paycheck to paycheck. Some of them have no paychecks at all. And what is one factor behind this?

I am on the record for beating the "Made in the USA" drum for a while now, it has been pointed out to me by some of you readers that not everything that says "Made in the USA" actually IS made in the USA. John Bowe, author of "Nobodies" points out many labels on products which say they are made here aren't.

Maybe we need to make sure that the labels that say "Made in America" ARE made here, by American workers. There's enough "American" stuff being manufactured outside of this country that, if it were actually made here, it would put paychecks in the pockets of some of our unemployed; feed some of our hungry children. It would ease the struggle some of our own people who are fighting to survive.

I want to know that when I "buy American," that not only am I getting a sound, healthy product, I am also easing American hardship, feeding American hunger, sheltering American families.

I'm not talking about turning my back on the rest of the world. But it's like those old adages:, physician, heal thyself. First things first. I want to get my own house in order.

It is my dream that we can develop healthy, dynamic ways to care about our own needy, or we can ignore them and pretend they don't exist. And here's hoping that we do care, and we do find ways to show it. I have high expectations for us, because, in America this is still true: the dream of today is the reality of tomorrow.