Connect

The last time I passed through customs, I was on my way home from Bali. No matter how wonderful the travel destination and experience, I always relish the return to American soil. There is something very  comforting in speaking with a Customs Officer who I know is not going to charge me a tout (bribe paid as a form of tax, on something that should be free anyway) and who appreciates the price paid for the soil on which he stands, and protects.

As I said my hellos and thank yous to the same guy whose line I had been through several times before, and headed out to pick up my baggage, something odd struck me. LA seemed far more run down and disheveled than Denpassar Bali, which I had just flown from. Trippy.

I realized it then, and do so with greater alacrity now, that we as a people in this country, are exceedingly vulnerable, possibly more so than we have ever been since we became a country. We are divided.

“United we stand, divided we fall” is an old wisdom. It was penned by Aesop BC. Before Christ. Old. Enduring. Think about that. It exists to this day because people tend to forget certain unpleasant aspects of their world in the life process. So mankind has needed this reminder. As a result, the saying has endured.

The prior blog laid a lot of information out. It was done with a distinct sense of purpose and great forethought. I want the knowledge in it to be followed by the acquisition of wisdom. We cannot continue in our past vein of polarity in this country. That is a tall order for a system founded on adversarialism: to kill our penchant for choosing sides.

As I watch people lining up to do fund raising “For the Gulf” there are several big assed Elephants in the room.

Here they are, described in brief.

The people of the Gulf States are screwed. For a LONG time. We have unwittingly created not just the death of an eco system, but a vast economic death. Giving money, while a nice gesture and possibly short term help, IF one chooses a charity that does not spend 90 cents of each dollar on infrastructure, is not going to  get those people out of the woods. Think Third World desperation, despair and powerlessness. THAT is one of the elephants we have created.

If you watched the news report in yesterday’s blog and know anything about the oil industry you will realize that it not only supplies oil, but jobs. It also is a filthy business. It has been polluting the Gulf Coast for decades. So IF you are one of those that is on the pole end that insists on the cessation of all offshore oil activity, congratulations. This could possibly occur. You just raised the cost of oil and its minion of oil based manufactured products. You also just killed off all of those people’s jobs, and welfare, I am sorry to point out,  will be paid for by all of us. Great, more social and economic destruction. Nice work. Problem is, that you use the oil every day too.

If you are on the other end of the pole, you are all for headlong development. More jobs. Independence from foreign oil suppliers. Less war and death, and oddly enough, the death of the Gulf Coast eco system, already strained. Since the Gulf Stream connects virtually 50 percent of the world’s oceans directly, you just quite possibly killed the ocean and the jobs and food source of millions of people. Nice work, once more.

Now for all you ignorant, well intentioned, self righteous pole sitters, it should be pretty obvious: our arrogance is the biggest elephant in the room.  Number Two is the massive loss of the eco system that will create a huge chain reaction of death and destruction in every realm. Number Three is the death of the economic system of the Gulf States and another massive blow to the US economy.

We are about to experience unprecedented suffering in this country.

But there exists a Fourth Elephant. Remember all the politically inspired Global Climate Change uproar which one of our corrupt leaders implemented? Al Gore and his climate change, make me some money folks?  Well, between that lovely little volcano that spewed as much ash and toxicity into the air this past year, as 20 years of US industrial output (or more) and the poisoning of the ocean by the Horizon disaster,  we are now going to experience REAL global warming effects, and soon.

The Earth is what one could call a “Smart system.”  It is going to engage ALL of it’s resources to fix itself, as the narrators pointed out in the video in the prior post. We will see storms, we will likely experience earth quakes, and a huge number of minute microbiological effects that will not be so readily apparent, and that are already engaging to right the system.

Pay attention to what you believe, and become willing to follow. I suggest we all place Aesop’s words in our heads and hearts. We will need each other more now, than ever before.

Speaking of united. Allan Weisbecker’s POV on all of this is a  GREAT READ.

Here is an interesting and rather innovative resource. Consider that we are the solution. Not just part of the problem.

Lets go kill some Elephants.

Towards Light