An interesting sunrise this morning to go along with warnings about what is happening the world. (More of today's sunrise pictures) First comes a not surprising study which indicates we are causing problems on earth.
"..the way society obtains its resources has caused irreversible changes that are degrading the natural processes that support life on Earth."
You would think at over two dollars per gallon, we could figure out a way to get around the country without destroying the environment. Of course if we had been paying that price with some of the money going for real research, things might look a little better down the road. Now all the money goes to the oil companies and oil producing countries. I not even going to speculate on how much this whole situation relates to the current problems in the world. Then of course, if you want to worry about something besides the environment, you can always start worrying about the government. It turns out even some Republicans are getting concerned.
In today's New York Times, John Danforth, who was a Republican Senator from Missouri for years, penned an article, "In the Name of Politics," which contained these quotes
When government becomes the means of carrying out a religious program, it raises obvious questions under the First Amendment. But even in the absence of constitutional issues, a political party should resist identification with a religious movement. While religions are free to advocate for their own sectarian causes, the work of government and those who engage in it is to hold together as one people a very diverse country. At its best, religion can be a uniting influence, but in practice, nothing is more divisive. For politicians to advance the cause of one religious group is often to oppose the cause of another.
For a country founded on religious freedom, this is more than a little dangerous. It is interesting to see a Republican concerned about changes in their party which just achieved almost complete control recently.
We believed in limited government, in keeping light the burden of taxation and regulation. We encouraged the private sector, so that a free economy might thrive. We believed that judges should interpret the law, not legislate. We were internationalists who supported an engaged foreign policy, a strong national defense and free trade. These were principles shared by virtually all Republicans.
But in recent times, we Republicans have allowed this shared agenda to become secondary to the agenda of Christian conservatives. As a senator, I worried every day about the size of the federal deficit. I did not spend a single minute worrying about the effect of gays on the institution of marriage. Today it seems to be the other way around.
I guess we can remember Lord Acton's warning.
"power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"
As a history major, I haven't seen many good examples of religious influenced government. As a citizen and parent, I will continue to worry about the federal deficit. I worry about the impact of interest rates which will surely have to rise in order to finance the war in Iraq and the recent tax breaks. It is not a pleasant to leave our planet and our government's finances in worse shape than we found them. The future could be bleak for the next generation if they have all our bills to pay.
At this point, I guess I'll keeping enjoying the sunrises and mowing my yard, hopefully the emissions from the mower won't push us over the edge. We have already decided our next vehicle will be hybrid.
I don't see us going back to the land and becoming self sufficient homesteaders. We have lived on the land and provided almost all of own food, then we farmed for years and provided food for hundreds of others. That was a lot of work for a lot of years. You've never weeded a garden, until you have done it in black fly season in northern New Brunswick.
Now we shop at Kroger, the Roanoke Natural Foods Coop, and the Roanoke Farmers Market. It is a lot easier than doing your food which becomes a full time job in the summer. Maybe it is not as rewarding, but I have yet to see many gardeners master the art of growing food just for two people. I can't even do it with tomatoes. I will continue to enjoy my crop of tomatoes and hope for an opportunity to have an extended small garden some time in the future. Maybe growing vegetables at the beach is a research opportunity. If so, I volunteer.
As to the government, we are going to have to get to a crisis point before things change. There are too many people who do not want to be confused by the facts. Other things than facts are more important to them. As is often the case, when things go too far in one direction, the pendulum will swing back in the other direction. We have a lot of hard working people in this country. As inevitably higher interest rates begin to take their toll along with unbelievable fuel costs, we'll have changes in government priorities. We won't be able to afford not to.
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