CAPE COD'S GRASSROOTS: OPINION

I've written about being rooted to the earth in my Shadowwater books, taken from Native American folklore. When the word "ground" is used to describe what we walk on, readers often picture grass, dirt or in urban areas, concrete sidewalks. On Cape, our "ground" in all the above examples covers sand, the peninsula where we live shifts, changes; erodes.

With time, the roots above give way, but not the spirit of Cape Cod's people. Whether they be indigenous, migrants from the Old World (called Cape Codders) more recent dwellers or "wash-ashores," among these inhabitants, those who fight to protect our natural resources represent a grassroots initiative that once thrived on Cape Cod.

(Google Images)

Coming to the Cape from upstate New York as a child, I saw a world that didn't exist in my small town. Our family began our regular summer visits during the early seventies as the counter-culture movement continued to flourish. A record store where I bought my only YES album, "Relayer"; a second-hand shop frequented by "hippies," where I purchased a denim choker, and protesters scattered among several towns for many causes, remain fixed to my memory. For a tween these experiences, along with my mother's activism in multiple causes, taught me to travel a different road where I could make the world a better place.

Since then, with the influx of new money, the Cape, to those who infrequently visit, may appear conservative. And there's no denying we have more right-leaning proponents than in the seventies. However, when I relocated here I learned that long-time activists, both Cape Codders and "wash-ashores" like myself, do exist, though in smaller numbers.

(#NoDAPL - Copyright 2016)

Some fight exclusively for Cape-based causes, such as shutting down the leaking Pilgrim Nuclear Plant whereas others broaden their reach to national movements, e.g. NoDAPL, and worldwide issues like climate change. Of course, Massachusetts has been the hot-bed of rebellion since the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution.

However, like Nevada, for example, before water shortages forced homeowners to abandon their lawns, the Cape has also become an oasis for those who live in the past and ignore the future. Many here who can afford to replace their natural grounds with grass sod often maintain their yards with pesticides which seep into the aquifers and pollute our lakes. They choose to ignore their local impact, national environmental issues and our decaying world.

(Intrepid Protesters - Copyright 2016)

For social programs, cuts in our state budget including opioid prevention and recovery, and money for the Cape's most vital industry, tourism, the Cape will no doubt see a reduction of tourism-related jobs and services and increasing recidivism, homelessness, and fewer visitors (the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce has lost 50% of its budget). Homeowners will have to pay more and wait longer for service providers because of locals being forced to relocate off Cape since the cost of living here will become even more prohibitive. The result? What many year-round- and snow-bird-conservatives seem to want by voting for Trump: a resort dwelling where opposing viewpoints are squelched, and the struggling working- and fixed-income-poor are swept under the rug.

What some on Cape don't see or wish not to acknowledge is that young and old, rich and poor, healthy and disabled who disagree with the abrupt turn this nation has taken toward the right have become more empowered.

And to Trump supporters who believe that "the Donald" will create jobs for the working class you have been conned. Instead, you will see reduced regulations which will put more money in corporate pockets and closet nationalists who want white supremacy to rise above our nation's melting pot. In essence, Trump's supporters have given rebels with a cause the ammunition to fight harder, have brought the grassroots movements to an even broader audience, not just Bernie Sander's supporters, and have made the disenfranchised even angrier.

In World War II terms, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Japan's Pacific theater naval commander after the attack on Pearl Harbor said, "We have awakened a sleeping giant." Trump conservatives heed the Admiral's warning. If grassroots' voices become overwhelmed by fake rhetoric and malicious discourse that have no merit in fact, our greatest ally and reason to continue the movement, planet Earth, will have the final say--sooner than later.

(Nauset Beach - All Rights Reserved 2016)