Greetings from
The Publisher . . .
Our Growing Awareness of the World Gives Us Clear Direction
It's fascinating and encouraging to watch us/US awareness in regard to foreign policy and the violent conflicts going on in the world today. I don't mean to imply we should take the effects of war as good, but learning from it isn't a bad thing.
Whether we accept that we were lied to or not, or question how we got into Iraq , what is clear is that a great majority of us know that this is not a victory but a no-win quagmire—and yes, probably a civil war. Exit strategy?
The good news is that we seem to have shifted to a healthy questioning of what we are being told. Not a bad thing in a democracy. Time and new information have given the majority of us/US a new perspective.
Aren't a few things more universally evident? It's not that easy to control another population—especially one with almost 30 million people.
It's not easy to force your will on others. In an age of suicide bombers, that would mean controlling every single individual. Good luck.
It's more obvious that there is more than one way for the military to lose a war. No matter how efficient the military is at “winning” wars, treating people with disrespect, abusing them, imprisoning them, or accidentally killing them creates an endless supply of new recruits for the enemy. And it doesn't all have to be true, if the perception is widely held.
If there is room in their “army” for 2000 Hezbollah fighters and you kill 1500, how many are left? About 2000, right? The names just change.
We should also see that there are no clinical—“we kill only bad guys”—wars. What comes with the territory is civilian casualties and deaths—usually far more that military casualties. That's getting harder to ignore.
We're seeing that democracy doesn't guarantee there will be leaders that act in the best interests of their country or their inhabitants. (Over there, I mean.) Installing democracies there doesn't guarantee the results “we” want.
But—getting beyond the futility of war and its inability really to resolve much of anything, there is a hope and evidence that people are taking actions that are individually empowering.
The majority of us have begun to see that staying the course is staying stuck. The most recent battles in Lebanon should make the consequences of our energy choices crystal clear.
We either sell arms that fuel the battles, or we buy oil from regimes that buy arms with the money we give them. We have made oil king, more valuable than gold and probably God. Ultimately, our energy choices give power and resources to those with Hatfield-McCoy revenge mentalities.
Our nation's energy direction and individual buying decisions both contribute to the coffers of governments who have no problem turning the profits from fuel sales to fuel wars and violence.
Do we have to? We are one of the largest producers of oil in the world. There are countries we have not yet alienated too much that give us other oil options. But Iraq has as much as, if not more, oil reserves than anyone. We would have to if we wanted to control that.
By not emphasizing alternative fuels and not doing even the minimum, such as more realistic fuel economy requirements, we've given them the power to create problems for us.
It is to be hoped there is the growing awareness that it's time to try something new. It's certainly time for a new energy direction. We now give tax credits to those buying Hummers, which use about the same amount of gas as Peru .
Staying the course—large pickups, SUVs, gas eaters—hasn't helped GM or Ford much. We're stuck in more ways than one. Maybe GM should dig up their E-cars.
Seeing how we support and fuel this insanity gives us the opportunity to do something different. The growing awareness of this and the desire to do something about global warming also is shifting people's choices. We don't have a lot of choices, but letting people know we want more choices is a good first step.
I have a diesel car and can buy fuel with 20% biodiesel—plant based fuel—at the pump at The Regional Transportation Center/Pearson Ford. It's a small step. Others make or buy 100% biodiesel. There is a biodiesel coop that brings fuel here from LA. Diesel cars are very hard to find because people are taking them to the Bay Area where biodiesel is easier to find. There's a big demand there. The shift to cleaner burning diesel will bring us the more fuel-efficient diesel cars sold in Europe now.
People are now becoming more aware of the advantages of electric cars and discovering what happened to them. There is a renewed interest in them. New companies have stepped up to produce them and existing companies have been rejuvenated. There is a monthly meeting at RTC for those interested in e-cars. (See last issue.)
People I talk to want to start voting with their dollars. Additionally there is so much we do not do regarding energy efficiency, and that takes on a new importance for many people.
Sen. Diane Fenstein is about to introduce a bill to combat global warming. She proposes boosting fuel economy, increasing the use of renewable energy sources, i.e., solar and wind, and require companies to lower emissions of green house gases that are warming the planet.
She called global warming the “greatest challenge facing this planet.” Personally I think it's facing us, not the planet. The earth will survive; we may not. At least this issue is starting to be addressed.
I certainly hope we are beginning to see the direct connection to world events that our fuel choices make. Make their oil as useless as possible. That's national defense. It's environmentally sound. And breathing cleaner air isn't bad either. Our direction should be clearer than ever. Couldn't our energy independence and use of alternatives and renewable energy be a great equalizer for some of the big challenges in front of us/US?
Have a Great month,
Steve
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