Today, the three major man-made issues facing the world in general, and the U.S. in particular, are: 1) wealth and income inequality, 2) climate change, and 3) right-wing extremism. The combination of these factors portends tsunami-like devastation around the globe in the coming years. What is more they appear to be virtually unstoppable. All efforts to date have not stopped them: optimism has had no effect against them; speakers and teachers have been ineffective; while religion, prayer, and good will are mocked by them. We need a fresh new assessment. We need to think harder about how to find our way out of this mess.

Wealth and income inequalities are the consequences of the activities of right-wing extremists initiated here by America’s Koch brothers, while most of the world’s billionaires, and all their sycophants have followed them like lemmings. When graphed, both curves show they began shifting into elongated skews about 30 years ago. They became locked into place as the direct result of greed transposed into tax and inheritance laws. Their effects are most pronounced in the United States. The gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” is a thousand times worse than most minds can comprehend. Changing the tax and inheritance laws will require that citizens vote in huge numbers and elect progressive candidates into office at all levels of society. There is a slim chance that will happen in November 2020. Ignorance, however, is one of the consequences of inequality stemming from a lack of education and learning how to think coherently in particular. Inequality is a very steep incline to surmount. That’s because money, false advertising, and greed push back with a vengeance on this subject.

Out best source of knowledge about climate change comes from scientists and the scientific method. Tracking and reporting on climate change and its growing tentacles of disaster therefore is in their hands. When 11,000 of them warn us that rising temperatures are largely the result of burning fossil fuels, and hotter temperatures are causing the polar caps to melt and ocean levels to rise, we must accept those predictions as valid. When they also predict floods, and droughts, and raging forest fires, we also must accept those predictions because they are all fact-based and the conclusions of thousands of scientific studies. All the wealth holders and all the politicians combined are no match at all against science and scientific investigations. Too little progress is being made, and those efforts are falling far short of what is needed.

We tend to associate right-wing extremism with Russia and Cuba. But this is a new day. It flourishes in the U.S. as well. In fact, the Trump administration is so closely aligned with Russia that our entire history and reason for being are now at peril. Right-wing extremism embraces monarchies (rule by a single family), and plutocracies (government by the wealthy). In contrast, a democracy is rule by the many, and government consists of representatives of the many. Today, our 273 years of a democratic republic is under attack at all levels by a fat, blithering, nincompoop who can barely walk and chew gum at the same time. But here we are, just the same. This is what happens when money, greed, false advertising, and kindred spirits in distant places coalesce and collude in a conspiracy of greed. And we do not even blink when fact-checkers document 14,000 lies have poured from the mouth of that same fat-ass at the forefront of political extremism. (Note: I am aware that name-calling is not considered to be a nice way of alluding to those with whom we disagree. But let’s face it: We have never put anyone in power here with such a distasteful set of characteristics as Trump).

So, what can we do about these formidable challenges that have engulfed us in the past 30 or 40 years? Starting now, we must elect fair-minded men and women to public office at all levels of government. Only then can we begin to roll back the massive set of laws that the right-wingers have heaped upon us. That may sound like an easy task. After all, nearly all religions proclaim that God is on the side of the righteous, and the fair-minded, and those who simply want to do good. But it appears to this observer that God wants us to work our way out of the mess we are in. He or She gave each of us a brain. And we developed logic, and mathematics, and the scientific method. We built high tech societies around the world that our forebears knew nothing about. And we climbed half-way up the mountain of achievement and civilization.

Now we see an avalanche of boulders coming at us shaken from their resting places by the hands of the greedy. We need to act fast while side-stepping the approaching disasters. We need leaders, not bellicose bimbos. We need truth-tellers, not right-wing propagandists. And we need courage, the guts to do what our moral compasses tell us is the right thing to do. We need to attack greed at its core, the fundamental causal factor that is driving our misguided ideologues who now occupy positions of power in our governments. We need to push back because our existence depends on it.

Philosophers and lecturers have reminded us that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Let us therefore remember the Inquisitions, the scourge of the earth that gave rise to tyranny, and murder, and unspeakable suffering. Let us remember fascism, and totalitarianism that gave us evil empires around the world. Let us remember the blood, sweat, and tears and the sacrifices of all our forebears throughout the ages who fought the good fight, and who did not “go gently into that dark night.” They got us part way up the mountain. We are their descendants. We are their children. Let us carry the torch of freedom and fair play handed to us. Like it or not, we must shoulder the burden against the misguided few, the self-centered extremists whose only commitment is to themselves. We must defeat them. We must defeat greed.

This is not a call for a debate. That time is past. It is a call to action. The first step in this war against freedom and fair play is wrapped up in Internet petitions. YouTube videos are another. Then there is Twitter. And Tweets. And Facebook. There are many other ways of getting organized around a central theme. Readers know lots more about these methods than do I. And so, readers of all ages and persuasions, I call upon you to create a groundswell of messages, and send them out to other media, and to politicians. You might add, “If you want my vote, take action on these three pressing issues of the day. Otherwise, you may find the door to your office with this sign hanging on it: Occupied.”

I can only conclude with this observation: When galaxies collide, the outcome inevitably goes to the swirl of mass and matter with the biggest knockout punch. Will the winner of these challenges be greed or fair play?

The clock is ticking…