Dear Willamette Women Democrats

When I was born, the population of Earth was 2 billion people. Now, seventy-four years later, it exceeds 7 billion. Humans have multiplied and increased just as our genes and culture told us to. We occupy every piece of habitable land. Our products, wastes, chemical compounds and medicines have found their way into the deepest crevices, down to the bottom of the sea and up through the atmosphere to outer space. The Earth is ours. It is one domain, one territory. We rule.

But now that we've filled the Earth, where do we put the energy and innovation that went into expansion? Sure, a very small number of us might be able to leave Earth to colonize distant planets. But we're talking dozens, maybe a few hundred. The vast majority of us are permanent residents of a planet in environmental decline. Every time the space cadets launch another rocket in search of a potential home, the air, water, soil and atmosphere that our kids rely on take another hit. Expansion must no longer be the guiding principle of our society if we are to survive in peace. We need to learn to live with what we have.

A major obstacle is that our economy is dependent on expansion - constructing new homes, paving meadows, producing cars, harvesting more fish, designing weapons, enlarging the military, etc. These activities create the jobs, for sure, but mostly those jobs are for men. What would men do if, by some miracle, we were able to stop those activities? What would men, whose livelihoods depend on perpetual growth, do with their time? Even though it is obvious that an economy based on 'growth' is unsustainable, we have not yet come up with an alternative.

That's where women come in.

We live on a filled the Earth. For the first time in our long history, we have reached the physical limits. We are all in this together. We have a choice as to the kind of future we want.

If we continue to support the male-dominated model, then the alpha males will continue to fight for dominance and territory. We will be like rats in a pen, or like gangs in a ghetto. The leaders will secure for themselves and their families a monopoly on the resources, and the rest of us will be forever scrambling for scraps. Already we see this as the dominant males hoard wealth, give themselves massive tax cuts, and propose cutting food subsidies to the poor.

There is an alternative. A filled-up Earth could become a global village. Women have always set the tone of the village. They could set the tone globally. They could demand that the economy be oriented to life, that is, to women, children and Nature. If during the last 2,000 years we had spent as much money on education, healthcare, child care, environmental protection and community as we've spent on weapons, armies and wars, we would not need weapons, armies and war. We really could be a global village.