Sunday is my birthday. I’ll be 68. By some strange coincidence, my lifetime (so far) corresponds to what I would call the greatest squander in the history of the world.

Despite spending trillions of dollars on our military, we haven’t won a war since 1945, when I was 1 year old. One tie (Korea), one defeat (Vietnam), and two currently unfinished (Iraq and Afghanistan).

We have put more than 900 million acres into cultivation, of which 90 percent are bathed in chemical fertilizers and pesticides, gradually destroying the soil’s natural health. More than 170 million of those acres are in corn and soy, which are processed into foods that have nearly no nutritional value.

We raise chickens, beef and pork as if they are industrial commodities, creating unhealthy meat for mass consumption.

We have made ourselves fat and sick with the food we eat. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight. And being skinny doesn’t guarantee good health, either. We have a “health care system” that is the worst and most expensive in the developed world. We keep trying to “let the free market work” to keep costs in balance. The free market can’t work because it can’t make any money on you if you are healthy, only if you are sick.

We have built endless ribbons of highways choked to gridlock by millions of cars and trucks in and around our cities. Our “transportation system” is based on one person in one vehicle crawling in endless traffic jams.

We joyride in every kind of gas-powered toy: snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, power boats and personal watercraft. When was the last time you saw someone on a Harley on his way to work?

We are in endless pursuit of energy — natural gas is the latest savior — not caring if we pollute our air and water as we frack it out of the ground.

We have planted 50 million acres of suburban lawns, doused them with chemicals and run over them weekly with machines that pollute far worse than passenger cars.

Perhaps it’s time to change our current course.

Let’s try universal health care. Not the “socialized” kind the British use (socialism = very bad).

How about the German model? It was created by that darling of conservatives, Otto Von Bismarck in the 1870s as a way of unifying the German states. It’s insurance-based and not for profit.

Let’s unburden ourselves of our military albatross. Try the Swiss model, based purely on the defense of the nation and its people. When was the last time Switzerland won (or lost) a war? When was the last time Switzerland was attacked? Even the Nazis stormed into most of Europe and Russia before they would invade Switzerland in the 1940s. They knew better.

Let’s potty train our corporate “persons.” Make them clean up the messes they make of our air, land and water. Better yet, don’t let them mess up in the first place, like most other people.

Let’s support our local economies. Buy local food and shop at the local hardware and clothing stores. Bank locally; go easy on online purchases if there is a local source.

Let’s begin building alternative transportation methods: high speed rail between our cities and light rail anywhere we can.

Let’s get off the couch and go outside for a walk or a run. Reclaim your core! Our bodies are all we have. Don’t give up on it until it’s all over. Run, play, swim, paddle — sweat every day.

Neither a patient nor a consumer be. Stay healthy; buy less.

Expand your love — of the people around you and of the natural world we live in. Move away from fear, anger and negativity. There is too much anger in our land, and anger is a close relative of fear. Life is too short to be lived unhappily.

Question everything, especially what you read in newspapers, magazines and the Internet. Question political speech especially, because it usually operates on two frequencies. The higher frequency, known as “dog whistle speech” is usually aimed at a specific audience.

For example, when someone says he favors “less bureaucratic red tape and wants to ease government regulations,” the average citizen thinks the candidate is trying to make government work better. The corporate ear, capable of hearing dog whistle frequencies, hears that his company will be able to continue polluting the air water and soil, or perhaps even pollute more.

In any case, I’m looking forward to a happy birthday this Sunday. Squander or no squander.

Denis Thoet owns and manages Long Meadow Farm in West Gardiner. www.longmeadowfarmmaine.com.

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