Sounds of a lifetime

PERFECT...

by Ruby (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 11 comments) on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 12:50:52 PM
 

thanks for all the work you put into this

"I regret to inform you..."

by JustHisWordsdotcom (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 14 comments) on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 2:04:37 PM
 

Good piece

Mary, kind of puts it into perspective doesn't it? If you are looking for the good guys, don't look in Washington, it will a long and fruitless search.

You will soon be able to add a new chapter to this impressive list, the recession of 2007 and the hyper=inflation of 2008 as the dog continues the pursuit of his illusive tail.

by Mike Folkerth (120 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 566 comments) on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 2:22:38 PM
 

You may have to wrote that one yourself, Mike.

I may not be here to remind you.  I'm just tired of all the turmoil.  I can only take comfort in my moither's favorite Bible verse:  "There shall be wars and rumors of wars but the end is not yet." Calamity fatigue has set in and I think I'll just sit and watch the machinery work.

by Mary Pitt (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 169 comments) on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 2:43:37 PM
 

Of things constant and not so constant

Mary, thanks for your fine essay. It has both remarkable scope and a literate, almost whimsical, historical recall.

I'd like to respond to the final few lines, especially the last line.

"It's Armageddon! Jesus is coming! Are you ready?"

Power-hungry, corrupt leaders, greedy corporations, oppression of the poor, bleeding the working class.

Ho hum! The more things change, the more they stay the same.

There are indeed some things that seem to never change. The greediest always seem to rise to power. The power is used to wage war against weaker nations to satisfy greed. The power is used to oppress the poor and the working classes to satisfy greed. The constant, that which never changes, is that the greed is never actually satisfied.

But, while there is constancy, there is also the constancy of change. Last night, at my local library's documentary series, I had a chance to see a movie called Energy Crossroads. The movie is a must see. It did an excellent job analyzing our current energy problems and the effects they have had, and will have, on global warming and on our economy. My only objection to the film is that it seemed to rely too heavily on technological solutions to our endless addiction to consumption and growth. Even with wind, solar and geothermal, the earth's resources are still limited. The "frontier mentality" that there's always room to expand postpones our rendezvous with civilization's ultimate reality. Why not try to make "getting small", as Steve Martin used to say, our new paradigm? Of course, he didn't mean it in the same way I do.

Last night, after my library film, I watched another film on the National Geographic network about global warming. The film was called Six Degrees of Warming. In very graphic terms, it showed what the likely impact on the earth would be as global temperatures rise. For those interested, I'm including the following series of links to see short extracts of the film depending on the amount of temperature increase:

Two degrees of warming

Three degrees of warming

Four degrees of warming

Five degrees of warming

Six degrees of warming

It may be true that human nature doesn't change much. It may be true that civilizations have always been ruled by those with selfish goals. It may be true that, even with radical changes or revolution, if mankind survives, the constancy of greed and war and tyranny will once again rise from the ashes.

Still, I worry when I hear talk that speaks of "end of the world" concerns in a dismissive, we've heard it all before, kind of way. We should not fail to understand that there are constants on this planet beyond human nature and human conduct. There is a finite amount of water. There is a finite amount of resources for food production. There is a finite amount of air to breath.

Much has been made, in discussions about energy depletion and peak oil and such, about the emergence of China and India as newly competitive economies with a potentially devastating demand for oil. Sadly, oil will not be the only catastrophe a growth-oriented future will bring. The current global population is something around 6 billion people. The UN estimates that the world population could rise to as many as 9 billion people as early as 2050. That's not all too far away. Put simply, the planet cannot sustain this many people. The constant being discussed here is limited planetary resources. Violate that, and almost everything else we've come to see as never changing will change in ways most of us cannot even imagine. This is not some kind of futuristic paranoia nor is it the psychosis suffered by advocates of "The Rapture." And speaking of psychosis, there's no negotiating with science contrary to what our "playing it politically safe" politicians, of both parties, seem to believe. Global warming programs espoused by all presidential candidates of both major parties fall tragically short of what is urgently needed. There is simply no room left for "political pragmatism." Our political institutions are putting life on the planet and the future of the US as a country at severe risk.

I understand those suffering calamity fatigue. The truth is, in some ways, I still look ahead optimistically. I see the many crises that are coming to a head as an opportunity for mankind to start living more consciously and more in harmony with nature and with each other. Perhaps that's just not in our genes but at least we'll be given the impetus to find out.

So, to those fatigued, I say take some rest. Step away from the darkness and the ugliness. And then, get back in the game with renewed energies. It is the job of us canaries to alert the others.

by welshTerrier2 (7 articles, 3 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 105 comments) on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 6:01:33 PM
 

Thanks for the fine statement

of our situation.  I refuse to be a "canary" because the canary always dies in order to alert the humans of danger.  I prefer to think of myself as a chanticleer, the rooster who crows at dawn to wake up the sleepers and, so long as my old fingers will work on the keyboard, I intend to continue to shout out the truth to those who would prefer to continue in their dreams.  Armageddon is the dream of many while others dream of sweet peace.  I dream of a people who can see the problems and do what is necessary to correct them in order to live up to the trust placed in us by our Founding Fathers instead of joining Rome in history as a once-great democracy.

by Mary Pitt (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 169 comments) on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 6:47:38 PM
 

Nice job, powerful

Powerful piece, nice capsulation of events and the winding in of war.  

An instrument of politics, power, economics, control, and changing the changing the focus of the will of the people from hope and change to war, destruction and fear...

let's wake up and stop letting them play us that way. 

no more fear, no more war. 

by August Adams (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 430 comments) on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 8:00:28 PM
 

Thank you, August

From your lips to the ears of the sleeping sheeple!

by Mary Pitt (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 169 comments) on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 8:16:21 PM
 

Here's one we may soon be hearing

Greetings,

You are hereby ordered to report for induction..... 

by Watching (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 314 comments) on Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 2:41:40 AM
 

Well, Mary

I was born during the Depression, so I can't claim first-hand knowledge, but I remember well my father telling me that he never knew a time when people were so close to one another in their poverty and need. He ranted at FDR for 'institutionalizing charity' because he felt it interfered between the given sandwich, the man who made it and the man who ate it.

Dad was a conservative Republican, back when they actually conserved something--a small time small businessman, the backbone of the country.

This thing they keep trying to call a 'recession' seems to have legs enough to rival 1929. I've been predicting this for 20 years and have been 'proven wrong' by the S&L patch, the Dotcom Bubble patch and now the Sub-Prime patch. Maybe I wasn't wrong. Maybe, like the Forest Service's reluctance to allow small fires, we'll now witness the Yellowstone Fire of national economics.

I welcome it, not because I am an idiot or look forward to the devastation a true depression will bring, but because I disbelieve there is a way forward in America without going back--no matter the pain. We have forgotten each other and, in the forgetting, forgotten our America.

Don't give up on us, Mary and don't give up the writing. Don't let them take away our language. Persevere, it's what true patriotism is about and I honor you for it.

by Jim Freeman (108 articles, 43 quicklinks, 194 diaries, 364 comments) on Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 12:48:50 PM
 

Ah, a kindred spirit!

It's nice to know that somewhere out there is someone else with a looooong memory!  My father was much like yours, though a poor dirt farmer who had to rent a farm and had ten hungry kids to feed.  Charity was different then but so was everything else.  I have done a lifetime of work with the poor and now I are one. I can't bear the thought of bread lines and people depending on the local churches for their meals.  I greatly fear a starving populace begging on street corners and babies working in sweatshops, but I'm afraid that is where we are going if greed and selfishness win over our society.

by Mary Pitt (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 169 comments) on Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 2:31:43 PM
 

A bit late but . . .

wonderful journey and wonderful comments.  Yea OpEd.

by davy (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 241 comments) on Saturday, February 23, 2008 at 3:34:17 AM
 

Yes, isn't it wonderful?

I love OpEdNews!  All the news and opinion you need in one handy location!  Thank you for the comment.

by Mary Pitt (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 169 comments) on Saturday, February 23, 2008 at 7:33:08 AM