Tag: global warming

“Every citizen silently, but never the less certainly, sustains the government of the day in ways of which he has no knowledge. Every citizen, therefore, renders himself responsible for every act of his government.”

“No action which is not voluntary can be called moral….Any action that is dictated by fear or by coercion of any kind ceases to be moral….Freedom of the individual is at the root of all progress.”

Mahatma Gandhi

MAY YOUR SKY ALWAYS BE YELLOW
He always wanted to explain things, but no-one cared.
So he drew.
Sometimes he would just draw and it wasn’t anything.
He wanted to carve it in stone or write it in the sky.
He would lie out on the grass and look up in the sky and it would only be the sky and the things inside him that needed saying.

And it was after that that he drew the picture.
It was a beautiful picture. He kept it under his pillow and would let no-one see it.
And he would look at it every night and think about it.
And when it was dark and his eyes were closed he could see it still.
And it was all of him and he loved it.

When he started school he brought it with him.
Not to show anyone, but just to have it with him like a friend.

It was funny about school.
He sat in a square brown desk like all the other square brown desks
and he thought it would be red.
And his room was a square brown room, like all the other rooms.
And it was tight and close. And stiff.

He hated to hold the pencil and chalk, with his arm stiff and his feet
flat on the floor, stiff, with the teacher watching and watching.

The teacher came and spoke to him.
She told him to wear a tie like all the other boys.
He said he didn’t like them and she it didn’t matter.
After that they drew. And he drew all yellow and it was the way he felt about
morning. And it was beautiful.

The teacher came and smiled at him. What’s this? She said.
“Why don’t you draw something like Ken’s drawing?
Isn’t it beautiful?”
After that his mother bought him a tie and he always drew airplanes
and rocket ships like everyone else.

And he threw the old picture away.

And when he lay out alone looking at the sky, it was big and blue;
and all of everything, but he wasn’t anymore.

He was square and brown inside and his hands were stiff.
And he was like everyone else. All the things inside him that needed
saying didn’t need it anymore.

It had stopped pushing. It was crushed.
Stiff.
Like everything else.

[Turned in to a high school English teacher 2 weeks prior to author’s suicide.]

Cause the old future’s gone

The old future’s gone

You can’t get to there from here

The old future’s gone

The old future’s dead and gone

Never to return

There’s a new way through the hills ahead

This one we’ll have to earn

This one we’ll have to earn

Hunters in October

Raise their guns in sport

Is war another animal or

A beast of last resort

The beast of last resort

The old future’s gone

The old future’s gone

All passengers must disembark

The old future’s gone

Fear took down the winged life

The winged life we’ve led

So kiss the joy as it goes by

Poet William said

Blake the poet said…

John Gorka “The Old Future’s Gone”

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

                                                                                                 Declaration of Independence

1776

Has our form of Governance become destructive to the majority?  If so how shall we work to change our government?  What would a future with a different form of government, economy, social order look?  Where is our current governance taking us?

Once a week I publish an installment in the story.  This is followed by the Concepts Behind the Fiction section.  This section is filled with information and links for you to investigate.

About a week after I publish on this site, I will publish on The Daily Kos, Z Communications and here.  Check my Links button on my website to connect to one of these discussions. These posting will happen simultaneously and on a Saturday or Monday afternoon (depending on which day of the week I have off from my paying job).  The day of the posting will be announced on my website. I will make myself available to moderate a discussion and for comments and questions during that time.

A running Post of what readers think are the most important issues for our future and how to get to the future we want will then be created as part of these discussions.

If you are coming to this blog in the middle then check out the Characters List and the Plot Summary pages.

Four (wow) articles from THE ENVIRONMENTALIST (many more on the site):

US Climate Change Envoy in Place and Ready to Negotiate

by Jake Schmidt.  Today, a ceremony was held at the US State Department to announce Todd Stern as the Special Envoy for Climate Change (see short bio and video of the event). As we outlined in our transition recommendations, it is crucial that President Obama appoint a climate negotiating team early in his Administration.

http://climate.the-environment…

Deniability: Facing the War on Terror through Poetry

There are times in history when it is best for a people to move on from past mistakes. There are other times, such as now, when the past cries out to be explored. For those who are searching for meaning to the last eight years, a new book by American poet, George Witte, Deniability, is the place to start. This is not only for the writing that is spectacular in its simplicity, its perfect placement of each word, its prose, but for its bravery in peeling back the layers of the war on terror as an eight year journey that is stark and unforgiving in its verse.

http://op-ed.the-environmental…

Global Temperature Trends: 2008 Annual Summation

by James Hansen. The Goddard Institute for Space Studies has analyzed the global temperature trends based on 2008 surface air temperature leading to the conclusion that, despite the cold brought on by the strong La Nina event last year, 2008 was the ninth warmest year since measurements began in 1880.

http://world.the-environmental…

Unleashing the Geeks

by William S. Becker.  There is good climate change and bad climate change. One of the very best types is the radical warming of the atmosphere for scientific inquiry we’re already feeling from the incoming Obama Administration.

http://science.the-environment…

See The Environmentalist for more