Let the Greatest Show on Earth enter
Please
Take your seats
Sit back and watch this....
(For some reason this is uploading slowly on my computer but give it a few seconds and some good videos will follow.)
Republicans using scare tactics and threatening that Social Security is going to end blah, blah, blah; is nothing new. We've heard it all before. But for some reason this time we are supposed to be even more stupider and believe that all of the reasons why we should pay for this oil pipeline out of our tax dollars, are for our own benefit. Because well, the Great Oz knows what's best for us. Yeah, we are supposed to believe it when we are promised that thousands of jobs will be generated, even though in actuality these positions are mostly going to be temporary construction jobs. And oh, did they forget to mention that the oil pipeline will be privately owned? So that means we won't get reimbursed for building the pipeline. Well, unless you believe that they are going to actually pay their fair share of their taxes. Cough Cough.
Yeah, what we need to do is fund a project that will potentially cause catastrophic contamination of our soil and water. We can't indefinitely control the temperature, land mass and moisture (remember the Tsunami in Japan this year). So these guys want us to pay for their ability to make a ton of money on the backs of people who are desperate to work while putting themselves in an even greater position to take more advantage of us by being the only source for oil and gas in this country? Yep, and we should trust that they are going to do the right thing and not plunge our country into economic chaos because why? Because they haven't done that up until now? Really? These utility and oil and gas conglomerates have been putting the screws to business growth and individual spending in this country for decades. So let's step back for just a minute.
Instead of passing a bill taxing billionaires, of which a lot of these same guys are, billionaires; well, these same guys, of which the Republicans are speaking for, want us tax payers to make a deal where we get to pay for this pipeline to be built anyway? On accounta we are so bright? Right?
And the potential for an environmental catastrophe we would be letting ourselves in for by building this massive oil pipeline that will branch out all over the United States, from Canada to Mexico? Well, it is a disaster waiting to happen. Using tar sands and strip mining practices to get oil out of the ground is dirty business. Real dirty. Yet, this major issue is barely a bleep in the news? Why?
Once again, forget about the words and reasons, if you want to figure out which side of the coin the Republican party stands. Look at what they support. They want to abolish the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency. Which is the last independent voice we have that can let us know if we are suffering side effects or death because of the pollution huge corporations inflict on our planet and us, every year. And the Republicans have been consistently trying to prevent a national health care program. Why? Taxes, really? They don't hesitate to ask for this oil pipeline project to be paid for with taxes. So why work so hard to stop regular folks, who can now only get part-time jobs, from having access to basic health care? Because if there isn't a national health care program then we can't determine health or illness trends. We won't be able to tie together certain appearances of cancers with being down wind of polluters. Or with drinking contaminated water from something like, I don't know, fracking?
Wake up!!! Everybody!!! It doesn't matter what party you say you support. What matters is that if both parties don't seriously come out and talk about the really serious issues we need to face, then nothing is ever going to change. Big money only wants to make more money. And big crooks only wants to figure out more clever ways to steal it and stash it. They'll lie and smile or cry and look their constituents in the eye and lie some more to keep us stupid and to keep us from having a say in the way we want our tax dollars to be spent.
But your golden ticket is your right to vote. Or not vote. And I encourage everyone to vote and if the representative you want isn't up for election than don't vote for anybody.
Look we can kick the dirt and look the other way but the truth is we need to make our planet and the way we live on it a priority. We need to work way harder on developing more solar and wind power sources for energy and we need to have better mass transit that also uses alternative sources of fuel to run them. Throwing bad money after bad investments that pollute and don't do anything to break our dependency on oil and gas are only going to leave us in a worse state than we are in right now. We need to help each other find ways to provide for our own energy so we are not dependent on any huge company for our well being anymore. We need to stop polluting. We are breathing in toxic gas with every breath we breathe already.
Check out these recent disasters caused by oil, gas and nuclear power plants.
We can't ensure these pipelines are going to be safe because the earth changes. It moves. And with seasonal changes and moisture and temperature changes comes instability. The earth will move and pipelines will rupture and leaks will occur and explosions will happen without warning. And that you an take to the bank.
Gas Pipeline Leak and Explosion in North Texas
Gas Leak Explosion in Philedelphia
And Nuclear Power Plants
The average life of a nuclear power plant is seventy years. They are expensive to build and to maintain. But we have to keep the spent fuel cool for 10-20,000 years. It isn't efficient in and it isn't safe on any level in the long run.
Whether nuclear bombs are set off during a time of war or nuclear accidents are caused by a natural disaster like the Tsunami in Japan in 2011 or whether they are caused when a nuclear plant is shut down because of ignorance; the effect is the same; massive destruction and radioactive pollution. We are destroying the planet we rely on to live and breathe and drink water from and water our crops from. How does that make any sense?
It doesn't matter why people justify their reckless, irresponsible greed anymore. It doesn't matter what a political party says anymore. We all need to pull together to stop from causing any more harm to our environment. Because if we don't all of nature and all of us will suffer. And it won't matter then, what political party you voted for. Because it will be too late.
It's Nature's Way
I remember seeing blue skies across this country when I traveled all over it during the early seventies. And I remember coming back to the mid-west and there was a reddish tinge to the sky and it reached far beyond the cities out into the plains. And then I remember driving back across the country in the late eighties and it was everywhere.
It takes three days for the air and all of its pollutants, including radiation, to span the planet. It doesn't go away. It changes the air, water and soil. The plants drink up the polluted water with its roots. The rain and snow dump it from the sky back to earth. The wind blows it all over the ground and water and in the air. And this affects all life on earth.
We can pretend it doesn't matter. We can pretend what is going on in D.C. isn't happening and that the representatives there that are pushing the oil and gas pipeline agendas as a means of saving our economy are really looking out for our planet and our pocket books.
But we bear the responsibility for being ignorant and for turning the other way and just buying into the conversation that keeps us polarized as a nation.
Does it make any sense at all to destroy the planet we rely on for our survival? On what planet would this make any sense? Maybe that answer is in the question.
No comments:
Post a Comment