Converting To Berkeleyism

I’m a liberal getting an ongoing even more liberal and eco-friendly education. Hanging out in Berkeley is bound to bring change in a regular visitor. I mean, the sheer force and willpower of 100,000 of the most liberal people in the US is bound to have impact. I don’t ask for bags at stores and have purchased a number of cloth bags. Of course, the question is always whether I remember to bring the cloth bags when I go into a store. I usually find it in the back of my car as I stumble out with armfuls of loose goods because my guilt for even contemplating using a plastic bag would be too great. I’m working very hard to kick my plastic bottle habit. It’s tougher than I thought it would be. I think one of the big pharmaceutical companies is developing a pill for it though.

My refrigerator is filling with organic items, despite what my scientist date told me some time ago; go here if you’ve forgotten. I’m buying produce from local growers instead of the grocery store. The thought of chicken pumped with steroids makes me quite ill. I signed a petition yesterday to get an initiative on the ballot to be kinder to our farm animals. It will, of course, fail—as agri-business is big business here in the Central Valley where I live (and California is not a blue state, but pretty much split down the middle coastal/valley), but I’m sure those behind the drive will try again and again until it doesn’t.

Whereas I was a “good” recycler before, I’ve become rabid in my diligence. I usually only have two bags of actual garbage a week now in the entire household. That’s a huge thing coming from a point where we had mounds and mounds of garbage each week that often sent the gargantuan garbage bin into overflow.

I drove in Berkeley yesterday instead of walking and felt the urge to go to confession, though I’m not even Catholic.

But, I knew the transformation must coming along nicely yesterday when Magical Samantha helped me with this project:

Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative. ~John Kenneth Galbraith