Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Drill, My Ass
Dear Prez,First, congratulations on getting health care reform launched. Much remains to be done, but we have begun.
I will not personally benefit from reform, but I've been lucky in that regard. The benefit I will have will derive from knowing that many more people will have access to health care than before. As a former schoolmarm, I've known too well that many kids had no more than the school nurse to see to their illnesses and injuries. In Vermont Howard Dean and a bunch of good legislators pushed through our Dr. Dinosaur program to provide health care for children. Now you all have called the insurance companies on much of their bullshit, and --who knows?-- maybe adults can have health care, too.
So bravo on that one. And good for you on the student loan funding, too. We retired schoolmarms like to see that sort of thing.
But what has driven me to the insulting Photoshop image above is the offshore drilling on the East coast. Good God, Mister President. What are you thinking??
Oh, some people say. He's just being a realist. A pragmatist.
Bullshit, I say. I think that you are blowing off your environmental responsibilities.
Sorry, Boss, but you need to take to the classroom again. It's time to instruct America on the need for alternative energy sources and provide programs for their research and development. We have seen a few tax credits waggled our way, but we have not seen the full-tilt-boogie
promotion of the refinement of these technologies.Silver-tongued rascal that you are, you need to get out front on this one. Opening up drilling on the East coast is a tacit admission of either ignorance or defeat. You want your administration to have lots of solar installations in the Southeast and Southwest to show for its time in the White House. You want to have pushed legislation through for other emergent technologies.
What your legacy should NOT be is one of oil spills up and down what is already a fragile, compromised coast.
And leave the other one alone, too.
Over the weekend I was listening to a public radio show that I admire, and everyone was talking about the northwest passage that would be opening up, thanks to global warming. They were discussing it as if it were no big thing.
They seemed to be overlooking the fact that those ice caps help to cool even the temperatures in even some of the hottest parts of our planet. Lose those safeguards, and how are our fellow world citizens supposed to survive in equatorial zones?
When I hear about half-ass policies like that, I get into the I've-got-mine thinking that I so despise. I think, I probably won't live to witness this.
But my nieces and nephews will. And their children. And all those kooks with the hots for The Rapture.
Come on, Mr. President. Do you really want Sasha and Melia to live in a world of drought, of famine and panic? Some of your own relatives and their descendants will be taken down.
And then there are the polar bears. Don't you care about the polar bears?
God. When I think about all this, I'm glad we all die.
When I die, a few people will be sad and say that I was a nice person, and a few more might say that I was a fool, but that's where I end. My legacy ends with the people I taught and those to whom I imparted a few of the basic kindnesses.
But you, Big Guy, will be remembered for so much more. You'll be the guy who broke through on health care reform. But if you aren't careful, you will be remembered as the guy who dropped the ball on the environment, who made it impossible for health care to take care of all the new afflictions that will result from a more heated up and polluted world.
Back off on the drilling and get bold about the development of alternative energy sources. We are significantly behind other nations. China! Israel! India! Hit the road and see what other countries are doing, then come back energized and show our citizens what good new things are possible.
Sincerely yers,
Lulu
# posted by Lulu Maude @ 10:58 PM 
Comments:
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amen. can i add my name to your letter, lulu? you said it so much better than i ever could.
p.s. the word verification word is "hookin." i don't know what to make of that.
p.s. the word verification word is "hookin." i don't know what to make of that.
Someone else somewhere else commented that much of the drilling takes place near red states.
I responded with a "when it comes to the Ocean, there are no red states or blue states, it's all one."
I agree, the US has been behind the curve for too long, and we consume (hog) so many more resources, so we really need to have double the responsibility.
I was hoping the Obama's would not stop with having a garden @ the White House, but do what the Carter admin did & put up solar panels.
Certainly if there were a way to capture hot air emissions, Congress could be a self sufficient entity. (snark intended!).
Obama echoed the Bush rhetoric of "clean coal & nuke energy".... good gawd! Has he been paying attention at all???
Here everyone was all worried about terrorists, when we seem to be on a trajectory to do ourselves in all by ourselves!
I favor the idea that if politicians think said ideas are good, they have the toxic waste sludge stored in their back yard. Like Congress, or even the White House.
Ok I've strayed off the offshore drilling topic, but I am on the environmental tract.
Because the truth is 20 years later, they still have oil waste on the shores of Prince William Sound where the Exxon tanker spill happened.
Google oil spills & even smaller spills are very damaging & near impossible.
Solar has come a long way & has a longer way to go. Germany has embraced & heavily subsidized solar and made it a required element in new building codes.
Makes sense. Since we are so far behind, the Prez needs to take the leadership role in redoubling our efforts to be responsible stewards of the planet.
If he's so busy working on solar & has no time for coal & nuclear energy & offshore oil drilling, .... then I'm OK with that.
I responded with a "when it comes to the Ocean, there are no red states or blue states, it's all one."
I agree, the US has been behind the curve for too long, and we consume (hog) so many more resources, so we really need to have double the responsibility.
I was hoping the Obama's would not stop with having a garden @ the White House, but do what the Carter admin did & put up solar panels.
Certainly if there were a way to capture hot air emissions, Congress could be a self sufficient entity. (snark intended!).
Obama echoed the Bush rhetoric of "clean coal & nuke energy".... good gawd! Has he been paying attention at all???
Here everyone was all worried about terrorists, when we seem to be on a trajectory to do ourselves in all by ourselves!
I favor the idea that if politicians think said ideas are good, they have the toxic waste sludge stored in their back yard. Like Congress, or even the White House.
Ok I've strayed off the offshore drilling topic, but I am on the environmental tract.
Because the truth is 20 years later, they still have oil waste on the shores of Prince William Sound where the Exxon tanker spill happened.
Google oil spills & even smaller spills are very damaging & near impossible.
Solar has come a long way & has a longer way to go. Germany has embraced & heavily subsidized solar and made it a required element in new building codes.
Makes sense. Since we are so far behind, the Prez needs to take the leadership role in redoubling our efforts to be responsible stewards of the planet.
If he's so busy working on solar & has no time for coal & nuclear energy & offshore oil drilling, .... then I'm OK with that.
Thanks for swinging the hammer on energy and the environment, and for advising the president; he obviously needs our advice. Feels funny to send e-mail to the White House doesn't it? I miss the old pen and paper days but I know that if we go that route our letters all get sent to Yucca Mountain or someplace to get sniffed for months on end and probably never read by anybody.
regards,
Charly Hoarse
regards,
Charly Hoarse
I certainly didn't vote for 'drill baby drill,' and it's not like this gesture that favors teabaggers, Palins and their ilk will make them like Obama any better.
He does too much 'one step forward two steps back' bullshit for my taste.
I wish his wife was the president. I think she has more horse sense.
He does too much 'one step forward two steps back' bullshit for my taste.
I wish his wife was the president. I think she has more horse sense.
I just watched a documentary on schools, and the apathy was so THICK in those classrooms-high school- that I no longer wondered the "why" of collapse of the democracy but only the "when". I read about educational issues all the time, and I just shake my head.
Without informed citizens, and it looks like we get fewer and fewer each year,there's no hope that we can stop the greed that fuels the economy and poisons the policy making.
Without informed citizens, and it looks like we get fewer and fewer each year,there's no hope that we can stop the greed that fuels the economy and poisons the policy making.
You mentioned the Dr. Dynosaur program in VT, I am currently living in Burlington and isn't there a more comprehensive bill being considered by the state government as we speak? Love your blog, check out mine at politicalcartographer.blogspot.com
Kinda down your alley,
Will
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Kinda down your alley,
Will
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