Page 1 - Nebraska Report Nov Dec 2020

Nebraska Report

There is no Peace without Justice
Nebraskans for Peace NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020 VOLUME 48, NO. 6

In This Season of Frenzied Overconsumption

Resolve To Live More Simply

( so others can simply live )

If you’re fortunate enough to be what’s ‘old’ or out of fashion. This economy has had a further dampening
‘middle class’, you’ve been able to hop consumer drive is so ingrained in our effect on our consumer spending, with
in the car whenever you want, eat what- psyches, it’s now reflex. We don’t give supply shortages and price increases on
ever you’re hungry for, go shopping, it—or its impact on the ecosystem—a everything from toiletries to groceries
spend money on recreation, and maybe second thought. (particularly meat).
even fly somewhere for a holiday. But with the coronavirus and the Like our “Greatest Generation”
Consumption has become such an climate crisis, we have no choice but to great-grandparents during the Depres-
enthroned part of our American way of start rethinking the way we live. sion and World War II, middle-class
life we’ve equated it with ‘freedom’. So By limiting our mobility, sheltering Americans now find themselves having
long as we’ve got the money to pay for at home and social distancing have not to make do with a lower level of con-
it, we’re free to move around at will, only reduced transmission of the CO- sumption—concentrating on the bare
eat out, shop till we drop, trade up for VID-19 pandemic—they’ve simultane- necessities needed to live, and not a
a nicer car, a nicer home (in a ‘nicer’ ously reduced our ability to go out and lot more. Instead of being a temporary
neighborhood), and then ‘throw away’ consume. The lockdown on the global state of affairs, however, this retrench-
ment is the wave of the future. The pre-
vailing threat of pandemic and climate
disruption ensures that ‘doing with less’
inside: will be the ‘new normal’ from now
on… And ‘Living Simply’ our only vi-
able lifestyle option.
And, it turns out, cutting our
A Holiday Appeal to Our What’s HOT in Global Warming? p. 8 consumption won’t kill us. Half of the
Supporters p. 4
Racism Is a Problem world already lives on less than half of
What Is “Responsible Only Whites Can Solve p. 10 what we do, so we know it can be done.
Investing”? p. 6 But making these necessary cuts—both
Keeping Up with COVID-19 p. 12 for own health and the planet’s—will
FRATELLI TUTTI: require a permanent cultural shift in our
TO ALL MY BROTHERS HARD TRUTH by Sally Herrin p. 16 perspectives and attitudes.
AND SISTERS p. 7
continued on page 2

Nebraskans for Peace’s state office in Lincoln is located on land that formerly belonged to the Otoe Tribe.