It’s something, but the work goes on…
Change isn’t over with the election. We can celebrate the fact that the American people have shown the courage to make such a strong statement with their right to vote, but it doesn’t mean that everything will be instantly better. Personally I’m happy about the outcome of the election but I certainly don’t suffer from the delusion that there is but a hair’s thickness of difference between the dealmakers on either side of the aisle, much of the time. Let’s pray for the courage it will take to go the rest of the distance towards a less warring, more humanitarian and environmental state.
These are just a few of the headlines from the last week that summarize the mess we are in and how deep of a hole we have dug.
I celebrate the victory for change and pray that it really will be all that it promises to be. Peace, T
Wild seafood could be wiped out by midcentury
By Juliet Eilperin
The Washington Post
Published: Friday, November 3, 2006
WASHINGTON - An international group of ecologists and economists warned Thursday that the world will run out of seafood by 2048 if steep declines in marine species continue at current rates, based on a four-year study of catch data and the effects of fisheries collapses…
Britain Warns of High Costs of Global Warming
October 31, 2006, Tuesday
By HEATHER TIMMONS (NYT); Foreign Desk
Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain warns that failure to act swiftly on global warming would have cataclysmic effect on global economy...
Bloody month ends, but violence doesn't
By Steven Hurst
The Associated Press
Published: Friday, November 3, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A blood-drenched October has passed into a violent early November as a motorcycle rigged with explosives ripped through a crowded Shiite market in Sadr City on Thursday and suspected Sunni insurgent gunmen killed a Shiite dean of Baghdad University.
The attacks showed no signs of abating after at least 1,272 Iraqis were killed in the first full month of autumn and the 43rd month of the U.S. bid to quell violence and build democracy in Iraq….
Rise in Iraqi refugees challenges U.N. agency
By Alexander Higgins
The Associated Press
Published: Saturday, November 4, 2006
GENEVA - Nearly 100,000 Iraqis are fleeing each month to Syria and Jordan, forcing the United Nations to set aside its goal of helping refugees return home after the U.S.-led invasion, officials said Friday…..
AWOL soldiers rethink any return to U.S. soil
By Brett Barrouquere
The Associated Press
Published: Sunday, November 5, 2006
posted by Just Tom @ 8:23 PM
11 Comments
11 Comments:
Depressing. But real. We gotta roll up our sleeves and get to it, honey.
The work never ends.
A victory is still a victory...diving into those wounds and starting the healing process, dontcha think?
And I just read reams on the Tilman investigation ....
Happy Anniversary, Tom. I am glad this world also holds people like you and Cindra.
C-- sorry to be so depressing. I just have a thing about premature (no, not what you are thinking) celebration.
Goldennib, you nailed it.
Jenn, you are right-- I was just quoting a common football coaches' saying after a squeaker win to my colleagues at the college: a win is still a win. we'll take it. Let's not squander it.
Quilly, you bring up another good point. I should have put that on the list becaus we it's not just Tilman. There was an article during this same period about several parents that did not get the correct story as to how their sons or daughters died in the war.
Where's the headline about Rumsfeld's resignation? I agree the outcome doesn't guarantee change, but it's a step. It shows we have a captive audience and let's hope the American public will remain engaged. Let's make things happen and think positive.
The thing I fear most is that the "victors" will spend time gloating (like the NPR jokefest on Rumsfeld quotes that marred Thursday's NPR "Morning Edition"), and then launch into revenge.
The "peace and collaboration" message of the Dem leadership might last only so long as the polls - especially if We the People decide we'd rather witch hunt than face the unified blood, toil, tears and sweat that extricating ourselves from our collective perfidy is going to require.
It's all going to take money. That means more of us working for less and still facing major tax hikes. It means Bill Gates staying the course and not bolting for New Delhi because he can no longer make tax-free robber baron profits off software that doesn't work and call it the Gates Foundation.
You think I'm kidding? Try telling a roomful of fishermen about that 2048 extinction statistic. They'll tell you to your face that you're lying, and that you hate them, and that they hate you back. And they have the fists to demonstrate it. Crede expertum.
And about that "premature" business. At least you're, um, achieving. Unlike some of us. Get a room!
:)
Egan, I didn't list Rumsfeld because personally, I saw that as part of the solution and my list was what I saw as the problems we inherited.
O Ceallaigh, I think we agree on this one. I'm cautiously optimistic after the election but am getting old enough and have too many elections under my belt to jump up and down.
Sounds like you've dealt with fishermen before! You don't have to tell me. I live in Oregon, spent a decade on the Oregon Coast working with Marine biologists, did some commercial fishing at one point to make some money and a lot of my friends are fisherman. In a small community, biologists and fisherman are both friends and enemies on odd or even days.
C has sat in on town hall meetings where red-faced people, who were neighbors, flung such words at each other. C got a degree in environmental studies not too long ago while double majoring in art and did some volunteer work with famed conservationist, Paul Englemeyer. We were friends with people on all sides of the issue. Tough stuff.
As you probably know, fishing was virtually shut down this year.
As far as premature or otherwise: I'll consider myself lucky until my luck runs out! we are only where we are at on the way to where we are going. One day at a time.
C has sat in on town hall meetings where red-faced people, who were neighbors, flung such words at each other.
What? You were at the urchin harvester's meeting in Orland, Maine, the other day? Why didn't you introduce yourself? :) :(
One group in Maine is in clover - the lobstermen (and yes it's -men, she'll put your eyes out if you say anything else). Good (for once) management strategies plus removal of the main predators - cod - means that, for all practical purposes, the Gulf of Maine is a huge lobster aquaculture facility. So long as the diseases are kept at bay. Is there any support for research on lobster disease? Not until they all die ...
If your spouse loves as good as she looks, and I suspect she does, you better keep that rabbit's foot right close, dude. Some of us should be so lucky.
Interesting situation with the lobsters! I just heard an interesting bit on NPR about mapping the sea urchin genome and how much we are learning from sea urchins. That was today of all coinkydinks.
And yeah, I know what I got and I do appreciate it. It is not lost on me.
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