Moving forward.

Late enough in the game for Francis Thicke to matter to eco-conscious Iowans but before Michael Pollan’s comment made national waves, I heard Thicke speak at the Linn County Democrats office in Marion, Iowa. I had followed his campaign quietly, surprised at its platform for progression.

Thicke’s speech was delivered to two Cornell College students, two reporters, two members of his own campaign, the office staff, and me. He spoke explicitly about wind energy, biomass fuels, and topsoil erosion, addressing the big “sells” of any political campaign: infrastructure, industry, and employment. There were breadcrumbs, however, that led to the environmental powerhouse: localization, renewability, and longevity.

Thicke would be the radical’s politician despite working from the top-down: if you start restructuring the larger order, changing how industrialized farms operate, you begin to dismantle the hierarchy altogether and, those of us on the bottom, can meet you half-way through the rumble.

Less reliance on fossil fuels means less consumption of fossil fuels means less production of fossil fuels; less exportation and importation of food means less distance your food has to travel (less fossil fuels, too) means more local business; more local business means better local economy means more money for sustainable projects in state. And the cycle continues and feeds into itself and grows. (Remember the Earth’s never-ending life-cycle?)

If 280,000 more people understood this, maybe this post would be different. Maybe we would be one step closer to that faraway goal of a sustainable society. Maybe I would have fallen asleep much more quickly on Tuesday; maybe shoulders wouldn’t have been quite as slumped yesterday; maybe today my jaw wouldn’t have been set so grimly.

Today, after working on articles I have been writing, rewriting, and editing for weeks, I was struck by something.

395,046* people stood behind one man taking on a political giant. Unquestionably, Francis Thicke is a hero. He became a rallying point for a movement whose numbers will only continue to grow. Those 395,0476* voters, though, they are heroes, too. So, too, are the individuals across the nation who vocalized their support for Thicke and his voters. Just as Thicke himself goes against BigAg everyday on his Fairfield farm, those individuals are fighting corporate agriculture by buying local, organic products instead of processed, industrialized food. They are the foot soldiers leaders like Thicke need.

We might have lost the battle on November 2nd, 2010, but the war is not over. It will not be over until society, as we know it, ceases to exist and a new, sustainable way of living comes into being.

I took yesterday to rest; I ran five miles instead of my usual ten – sixty minutes to myself and John Cage instead of environmental podcasts; I began re-reading “Evasion” instead of scouring periodicals for post topics; and … I did not call Francis for a post-election day interview as I had intended.

Tuesday might have been the failure of 670,570 people to see the larger picture, but Tuesday was also a testament of compassion. On Tuesday, Iowa counted 395,047 humans who are changing the world. And yesterday … Yesterday, I rested because today was the beginning of a new chapter in the war.

Today Iowa governor-elect Terry Branstad stated that he would not support a sales tax increase that would fund the voter approved state conservation fund. Politicians on both sides of the spectrum are opposed to the tax increase and, now, it’s up to us to make sure that something happens. Those of us who already voted to approve the fund now have to insure that it ever sees any money.

It’s time to put our money where our mouths are: we must stop murmuring our discontent with the practices of this world and start screaming for the change that we so desperately need.

The Earth has been crying for it for decades. It’s time people start listening.

Live free, stay hungry.