What I learned

Me in front of the Berlin Wall, well a part of it that was
brought to the United States.

Maybe I shouldn't be trying to save the world after all. Maybe I'm missing the entire point. I mean, I'm thinking, if we are extinct, who's going to really care? Who's going to miss us? What is the purpose of perpetuating ourselves forever? Maybe this whole thing isn't about perpetuation, but maybe it's about LOVE. In this crazy world we live in with pain and death and daily surprises, LOVE appears the only constant. It is some strange, higher-evolved emotion that only humans, and maybe a few monkeys, can experience. But what if the LOVE keeps evolving until we are all warm fuzzy hippies? Is that the fate of mankind? We hug, love one another, and then turn to face our extinction?

Okay, allow me to be more pragmatic. MAYBE the reason I'm trying to save the world is for fairness — so future generations can still see and experience the same beauty that I have enjoyed. Maybe the little kids of the future are entitled to a patch of woods and a creek to play in.

Or, maybe it's a principle. Maybe it's not FAIR for humans to explode their numbers and consume every corner of the Earth like mindless parasites. MAYBE that's not fair to the millions of other species we share the Planet with.

Maybe, hell, maybe I just like the natural world. Maybe I'm just selfish and want to make it last.

And now, a little deep rambling...

The success of our country is due to our strong Economic Machine, which has brought most of us some degree of material wealth and comfort. Maybe the Republicans are the anointed caretakers of this engine. They are like little robed monks who walk around oiling, tuning, and generally pampering the Machine. Of course, the Machine makes a lot of nasty waste, which harms both people and nature. It is obviously wrong but when the Environmental Whackos complain, the Guardians circle the wagons and scream, "You cannot mess with our Machine!"

And the Whackos respond, "But the thing is poisoning us; it's slowly killing us and our children."

"But the Machine brings you wealth and prosperity," they say. "Without it we could not have the American Way that we all enjoy."

"But, but, what about the future?" you ask. "You are destroying the very world that sustains us."

"Don't worry about it because God will take care of that."