[Sdpg] Rejected Column May Be Worth Reading

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

As many of you know, I write a monthly column called "Permaculture in 
Practice" for the Santa Fe New Mexican's Real Estate Supplement.  Below you 
will find my first rejected column since it started in January of 
1999.  I'm proud to say that this month's version resembled too much of a 
didactic diatribe for my well-meaning editor.



It's only 500 words.  After making sure that you and all of your friends 
vote by November 2, feel free to read "the column that never was" and 
distribute it to other permies who you think might enjoy it.    Thanks, Nate.



PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO POLITICS



This column's mission is to provide readers with practical, hands-on ways 
to apply permaculture.  One important, practical, hands-on activity of 
which many of us will partake by the first Tuesday in November has to do 
with lever pulling, button pushing, box checking, and chad punching.  Yep, 
it’s finally time to choose a president.



As regular readers of this column know, permaculture can be applied to any 
system: a garden, a business, a bureaucracy, a football team, a summer 
camp, and even a presidential administration.  As a practical question 
then, here at the edge of our most critical election ever, I feel obliged 
to ask how the Bush Administration has done from a permacultural perspective.



Let’s look at some of the basic principles that we have previously 
discussed here:



*The yield of the system is theoretically unlimited.  George Bush’s war 
demonstrates this permaculture principle by the fact that perpetual war 
produces unlimited yields for campaign supporters entrenched in the 
military industrial complex.



*Cooperation, not competition, is the very basis for survival.  Certainly 
his “coalition” demonstrates how easy it is to complete a project when you 
have enough friends who want to help.



*Every element in a system should perform more than one function.  The war 
serves many functions.  It makes people think that Bush is fighting terror 
(even though he’s actually fueling its flames), and it creates a diversion 
from little issues like jobs, healthcare, education, social security, the 
debt, etc.



*Everything gardens, or has an effect on its environment. By ensuring that 
multi-national companies don’t have to spend as much money on environmental 
protection, these companies have more money left over to support the 
re-election of the administration.



*Work with nature, rather than against her.  Since it’s natural for people 
not to want to pay taxes, cutting taxes certainly buys the president 
votes.  Since the full effect on future generations (who will have to foot 
the bill not only for all of the lost revenue, but also for the cost of the 
debt) of the tax cuts will come later, voters will naturally blame whoever 
is in power then.



*Make the least change for the greatest possible effect.  By taking the 
longest vacation in the history of the presidency right after receiving a 
briefing saying that Osama Bin Laden is planning a disastrous attack on our 
soil, Bush provides us with an excellent example of this principle.  While 
some of the people who he is supposed to protect and defend are jumping off 
of the 107th story of the World Trade Center and others are plotting to 
overthrow the fourth hijacked plane –probably aimed at the White House, 
Bush doesn’t care to make sure that everything possible is being done in 
our defense.  There are no words that describe the enormity this attack, 
but this president prefers to enjoy reading My Pet Goat.



There are many more permaculture principles that demonstrate the power of 
our president, but hopefully, by now, your choice at least from a 
permacultural perspective is clear.  Vote Kerry.
Nate Downey
Santa Fe Permaculture, Inc.
505-424-4444