547 a giving planet

Where to start? With a drip.

Due to a recent large bill for two pieces of plastic pipe and a valve, I have become interested in learning more about pex plumbing. Like many things in the US, this more efficient way of doing things is having a slow takeoff. 

Why? Because existing building codes, laws created by localities, have been slow to change, sticking with the tried and true rather than adapting to new technology.

This is true on many fronts. After recently riding the train cross country, I arrived in the town I grew up in. Above is a bit of information from the town zoning laws, stating businesses are not allowed to have exterior displays of their products. 

This runs counter to everything modern "new urban" planners have found: to create a vibrant retail presence, stores want to invite shoppers inside by displaying their goods outside.

But really, it seems like everything is upside down. Above is a classic piece of projection, aka "I'm rubber, you're glue." With right wing white supremacists going amok with AR-15s on a regular basis, "conservatives" are simply saying it's liberals going crazy with rainbow flags.

How do we get into a mindset that says, "I'm a victim, therefore I must attack first?"

How do people driving around in death machines wind up feeling victimized by bicyclists?

How do cops wind up feeling like it's really important to bust drug users?

How do people get pushed out of the public space of our streets, creating death zones only safe for cars?

The answer is, often, money. 

Existing manufacturers of copper pipes don't want their business to go away. Plumbers that know how to use them don't want to learn new tricks.

People feeling squeezed by a growing wealth gap created by the Uber rich and the politicians they've hired on both sides of the aisle buy the baloney they've been fed about "other people" trying to take their jobs and homes, instead of eating the tofu of abundance.

It doesn't have to be this way. We are loving people living on a giving planet.