Home

Contact Johnny Peaceseed

Commentaries

Poetry

Daily Archives

Links to Great Web Sites

Johnny's Heroes

Boycott These Products

Quotes for the Revolution

Free Seeds of Peace...

Buttons 1

Buttons 2

Buttons 3

Flyers

Posters

July 9, 2003

A View from the Northwest

Over the past month I've traveled over 2000 miles and I've had a chance to look at life in some outlying areas of the Northwest, and I'm sad to report that the corporate tide continues its rise.

Town after small town drained of life and vigor. High unemployment and low wages the norm. Small businesses failed or in ruin. Wal-Marts, corporate farms and fast food giants the major employers. Republican country. People talking about personal responsibility, big government and gun rights. Innocence ignorance, arrogance mixed in a dilute brew. Simple people, mostly well meaning. Not understanding the world they now live in. Mad about something thought lost. Uncertain of the future. Poverty and hopelessness with a rural address.

And a great espresso stand in Stanley. Kind rangers in Kellog and Redfish Lake who love this land are were willing to share some of its secrets. Shop keepers and gas station attendants and waitresses who still know how to smile. Many who have forgotten.

And the land. Vast tracts of rolling hills. Chaotic fields of wild flowers. Yellows and blues and oranges and reds and purples. Wilderness. Land debeautified. Side-by-side. Jagged snow capped peaks lined up like spines on a dragon's back. Vistas of one hundred miles. Cranes, eagles, magpies, herons, ducks, blue birds. Abundant rodents of every variety. Deer and elk and coyote and the scat of bears. Smell of old growth. Decay and renewal. Abandoned homesteads. Giant corporate farms. Rushing streams and lost dreams. America.

I love this land as I grieve for it.

Johnny Peaceseed