I agree completely that humans for the most part do not care about the environment and at the root of this evil is greed. I'm afraid this is the result of evolution - humans have the mental and physical capacity to exploit the land and all that lives on it, including other humans, and we do. Being at the top of the food chain, we consume all else. I see the result in my lifetime being development of a very ugly planet of ugly people full of disease and made fat from all they have consumed. There are places where this is not so prevalent as in NEO, and I can think of no places that are worse... although most of America and the world are as bad. I attribute our especially unhealthy mental and physical state in NEO to America's foundation of very evil murderous European settlers' cursed genocide of the indigenous people fo this land, leading to settlement of this region by especially worthless European scoundrels, who exploited circumstantially valuable plundered assets into fortunes in the industrial age, enabling over a century of very bad industrious exploitation of natural resources and desperate people, enabling production of unprincipled mass-media, leading to a high degree of social ignorance, pollution, toxic harm and desperation. In our current state of highly dispersed disproportionately impoverished and uneducated and unenlightened masses, controlled by bottom-dwelling non-indigenous small fish in toxic ponds, NEO is probably an unredeemable community on a perhaps unredeemable planet. I recommend you suffer through your time here, learning all you may from any enlightened people you may find, making all the positive difference you may in this highly unreceptive place, and then leave for a more healthy environment for your advanced education. If in the process you find you may make a difference here for the better, I hope you will, but know this place is a poor example of society and not at all something to which you should commit your great mind and talents - NEO is far from accepting the state of despicable crisis we've brought upon ourselves and so far from possible to help.

I find it interesting that a teen (my daughter) posed this question of the day and insightful answer, in light of the Plain Dealer's current series of front page exposes on what is wrong with teens. I believe the PD and American society is getting the story all wrong, as I remember when I was a teen about Graci's age I joined the Sierra Club, and was outraged over the murder of native Americans, all of which my parents rationalized away. It seems to me teens have the right answers - their thinking is not polluted by the rationalizations adults create for themselves to justify their bad behavior. So teens are rightfully angry with adults for good reasons - adults are generally evil - and teens show their outrage in healthy ways adults reject because adults can't accept being exposed as the traiters to society and the environment that they become, in pursuit of self-interest. In the big scheme of things, historically over the centuries, teens have had huge responsibilities in the villages and adults died in their 20s and 30s, when the PD says people are just becoming "developed" - now we live longer than ever intended, and our old, polluted minds are the problem in the world. We should be looking to the minds of the children for the answers, and following their instruction, rather than condemning them for thinking freely and well.

Disrupt IT

With the economy having moved to a two income family model, we have further and quickly, I might add, devalued the homemaker and stay at home parent to the point that the number of parents actually parenting has slipped to record lows. It used to be that a mother's pride was her children, not her career. Now a look of disdain meets the announcement of homemaker as a career. Apparently we don't value parenting as a society; we don't train for it, we don't know how to do it, and we would rather pay someone else to raise our kids. Women's rights got hijacked again. Equal rights might have been defined more broadly so that women who choose to stay at home (or men for that matter) might be compensated or at least appreciated by the economic structures for the work they do. I guarantee that  a child ignored will do just about anything to get attention, the more they are set aside and made to resemble a chore by their parents, the more combative or hurtful their behavior will be. Children need love and guidance; you don't have to be a psychologist to know that. They need to learn creativity, free thought and courtesy. It takes time and attention, something that we seem to have done away with in our hurry up and wait world. I have produced a dance company, nurtured a dance community, but my bio always noted that my most cherished production is our son. Being there for him as he grew was such a delightful adventure and a chance for me to grow through those years again, too. We had to be there when he found the boundaries, to encourage him to venture out and to protect him with education, but most important is love, unconditional and unwavering and time – lots of it.

I didn't read what the PD has to say about parenting. I sort of laughed when I saw the headline and then moved on to the NYTimes.

Thank you guys for your support,at least I think thats what you are doing...I really think that not only the govornment,who right now seems to want to put all of its money in to the war right now(this topic will be brought up in later posts), should be handling and brainstorming ways to help the environment. Why is it that now a days it doesn't seem to bother people that the ice caps are melting and the polar bears are becoming endangered because of our stupid selfish ways  that we need to drive everywhere and we are cranking up the heat...granted I do complain about the cold a lot but I don't sit there in a boiling hot house making the power plants work to produce heat and polution. NO! I do something about being cold I put on some long pant with tights underneith,  a sweater,a long sleeve shirt,and some stinking socks!!!!!!! So if your going to complain move to the bahamas and warm up!!