Rotten America

I am sitting at The Weatherstone as the dungeon of a kitchen I was working in clearly wasn't helping my creativity blossom. A place like this, especially in the middle of the day on a Thursday, can easily be labeled as a "Hipster Hangout," infinite fixies locked to the fence outside and philosophic smoking circles progressing in the back garden. Therefore a prerequisite to a Weatherstone visit includes an open mind to diversity, art, and--first and foremost--people in general.

With a latte induced creativity jumpstart underway, I'm flipping through PSD's and getting shit done, hardly listening to the man--who I [perhaps unfairly] have classified as a "baby boomer"--talking too loudly on his cell phone.

When he yells out the words "those treehuggers," I'm suddenly all ears. I quickly discern they are discussing the possibility of mining for gold in a nearby "hotspot" and the possibility of hundreds of $20/hour jobs being produced as the price of gold is now over $1,500/oz. Apparently, this could have been an option several years ago, "except those treehuggers made sure it didn't happen"...."those treehuggers got in the way of us making a lot of money"...."we have a real money making opportunity as long as those treehuggers stay out of it."

Eyes still stuck to my screen, I'm burning, suddenly furious that someone can be so uneducated and unaccepting of what other people value. I believe the word he was looking for was environmentalist. Had he needed to address the black man across the cafe, I'm sure he would have started with, "Hey Negro!"

Its people like this--who refuse to execute forward thinking, learn of alternatives, and grow together despite differences--that cause the foundation of our future to rot. While mining for gold might aid in the economic growth of our area, the true growth and development of humanity is being stunted.