White Hairs

“Lamont,” cried Patchtricia peeking out from behind the TV, “You’re getting more white hairs on your black fur. You had three, just like Meugh has three white chest hairs on his chest, but now you have a few more on various parts of your body. What’s with that?”

“Good works,” replied Lamont.

“Good works?” said Pawline, “What good works.”

“Well,” replied Lamont, “if you have noticed our human servants have been attempting to spruce up the place here. I suppose because we live here now they have raised their standards.

“Nevertheless, you likely have noticed that they took of the shower doors and replaced them with a curtain. They also put tile around the opening of the shower. Pretty nice, I added a few touches myself by putting some nice long hairs from my fur into the caulk to give it a little added panache. And you may have noticed some nice white paint added in the laundry room.”

“Yes, yes,” murmured Patch, “but what about your white hairs?”

“Patience little one,” said Lamont, “I’m coming to that right now. After Meugh painted the spot in the laundry room he started patching some chipped off paint in various places such as the rail upstairs and the newel post at the end of it. There were chipped parts on the rail posts and the underneath of the rail needed a bit more paint.”

“Oh yes,” said Paw, “that’s the rail you like to lay one and let our four of your legs dangle down as you rest on your tummy.”

“Exactly,” replied Lamont. “It is a fine place for me to stay while I inspect Meugh’s work to see he’s getting it done properly. So, right after he painted it I inspected it thoroughly to make sure he it done correctly.

“I’m not sure why, perhaps it was just my interest in his work, but that was when I when I got a few more white hairs on my fur. Probably an empathetic reaction.”

“Sure,” replied Patch, “that explains it very well.

Armageddon

In Christendom there have always been a number of folk who seem to gleefully predict the end of the world. For example, a New England farmer after careful study of the Bible thought that God would destroy the world between March 21^st 1843 and March 21^st 1844. His followers got rid of all their possessions, and thus were in bad shape when the prediction didn't work. Some of the kin of these folk went on to become today’s Seventh Day Adventists.

The founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith told his church leaders in February of 1835 that the end would come with 56 years.

In 1881 an astronomer using spectral analysis saw the Halley’s Comet tail had some deadly gas, cyanogen, in it which caused many folk to conclude that would be the end of it all.

Good ol Pat Robinson in May of 1980 sounded the alarm that the world would end by the end of 1982, “I guarantee you…”

Another comet, Hale-Bapp showed up in 1997 caused more alarm by a cult called “Heavens Gate. Unfortunately some of the did find their end when 39 of them committed suicide  on March 26, 1997.

The great Nostradamus who has predicted many events said that the world would end in 1999. But if you have ever read his quatrains, you know they are as difficult to understand and the book of Revelation which promotes a lot of the hair-brained predictions.

If the infamous Y2K which frightened computer folk over the world had folk believing that would be the end of the world but it was just the end of Lotus 1-2-3.

Richard Noone wrote a book in 1997, “5/5/200 Ice: the Ultimate Disaster” saying that the planets would align making the Antarctic ice 3 miles thick by May 5, 2000 and that would be the end.

The Church of God leader Ronal Winland wrote in his book in  2006 that 2008 that hundreds of millions would die and it would be the worst time in human history. Nope, it was just the end of the Bush administration which was a good thing, though he definitely tried to make it the worst of times according to many.

And the list goes on and on. I have always written this junk off for what it was, the ranting of a bunch of weirdo’s who seemed to chant, “Ha, ha, ha, I’m saved and your not.” Sick.

When folk have come to me as a pastor would supposedly know biblical stuff better than others, I’d tell them I didn’t have a clue, but if God didn’t want waste a perfectly good creation we’d likely have another approximately 13 and a half billion years left which at the time was the nature life expectancy of the universe according the the science of the day. Most found this highly unenlightening.

Perhaps now I may join the doomsday sayers but from a different perspective. It has never made much sense to me for God to break what he had created. But human beings, that is a whole other story and our track record for reaping mass destruction upon each other is not good.

Perhaps, I think, humanity may be the only species to bring about its own destruction given our current responses to the global warming phenomena. A bunch of folk make it a political issue rather than a scientific one. More take a traditional ostrich stance by burying the heads in the sands and try to ignore it. We have by almost all measures not followed God’s command in Genesis to be stewards of the earth: The God said, ‘Let us make man (human beings) in our image after our likeness. And let them have dominion (responsibility) over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ~ Gen. 1.26. Well, that hasn’t worked very well.

So, as Al Gore warned five years ago the polar ice may melt by now, more scientists are seeing this as likely and we can’t stop it raising the sea level 3 feet or so. It’s not a good time to be buying coastal property. For a long time the fear was the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet and ultimately may cause a 10 foot increase in ocean levels. CBS news science reporting has recently talked about the slow collapse as being unstoppable in the future. NASA studies of 40 years of ground, airplane and satellite data shows this weak “underbelly of the West Antarctica.” The ozone hole, and human carbon emissions are clearly the guilty parties in causing all of this over and above natural warming and cooling cycles.

Scientists seem to be the modern prophets who warn that if we don’t change our ways, terrible things will result. And like the Old Testament prophets they are not just predicting the future but interpreting what is going on at present.

So, will this be our own Armageddon caused by our own hands? I don’t know. I hope that as in the past God will intervene, likely through the hands of enlightened human beings that are not myopic and care for the future and accept responsibility for the planet God gave us.

With all that said, we must remember Jesus words about the subject: ³² “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ~ the Gospel According to Mark 13.32

Invaders

“Head for the hideaways,” Patch meowed loudly, “more invaders are coming in.”

“Not again,” groaned Paw. “Didn’t we just get rid of a bunch of those from the human servants family?

“Yes,” commented Lamont. “Mewreen’s daughter Ann, her son J and his wife Laurie, the mad-cap garage salers were all just here for the 100 miles garage sale. Talk about a dumb human idea; 100 miles of people selling their junk to other people who collect that junk so they can sell the junk again at their own yard sales. People!”

“While it is true they were quite a bother,” added Patch. “After they drank versions of Mint Juleps they seemed to settle down and watch a bunch of horses running around a circle on TV. I thought horses were supposed to be smart. They will never get anywhere if they keep running around in circles.”

“True, but I did like it when Ann gave us supper goodies at breakfast time,” added Lamont. “They were all unusually tall people. I was concerned that after a few mint juleps they might step on us. But they didn’t.”

“But now there is this new huge dude around the house,” said Paw. “I think he is called ‘Let David Do It’, at least that’s what I read on some cards the Meugh gave him.”

“Yeah,” offered Lamont. “He spent a lot of time in our old home in the Schackteau where we used to live. I think he was laying boards down on the floor for some reason. Anyway, Meugh and Mewreen got very excited about it, especially Meugh.”

“And then he went outside,” continued Patch, “and pulled up a bunch of green stuff. Why didn’t he just eat it. All we get to eat in here is those artificial flowers Mewreen puts on the coffee table. Though once you get a taste for them they are not bad. Though Mewreen seems to get excited when we munch on them for some reason.”

“Now Let David Do It is upstairs where we like to wile away the afternoons gazing out the patio window and napping,” said Paw. “He put up some new lights in the human servant’s bedroom. He and Meugh had quite a conversation about weird wiring whatever that means.”

“Yes,” commented Patch, “and now he is taking down some sticks off the ceiling and then putting up sticks that look just like the ones he took down? They do look neater, but what’s with that?”

“And then ever so often a yellow bowl with some stuff on top of it periodically makes and infernal noise,” said Lamont. And, there is a hose attached to it that has a gun attached to it and Let David Do It shoots the boards he is putting up. Weird, very weird. Perhaps he’s a modern gunslinger.

“Oh well, live and let live as I always say,” said Lamont.

“Since when,” said Patch as they all found quiet places to lie down and give themselves and each other good cat baths with their tongues.

Teddy Roosevelt: Progressives and Global Warming

I am currently read the autobiography of President Theodore Rossevelt. The following comes from the forward of his book.

  It seems to be that, for the nation as for the individual, what is most important is to insist on the vital need of combining certain sets of qualities, which separately are common enough, and alas, useless enough. Practical efficiency is common, and lofty idealism not uncommon; it is the combination which is necessary, and the combination is rare. Love of peace is common among weak, short-sighted, timid, and lazy persons; and on the other hand courage is found among many men of evil temper and bad character. Neither quality shall by itself avail. Justice among the nations of mankind, and the uplifting of humanity, can be brought about only by those strong and daring men who with wisdom love peace, but who love righteousness more than peace. Facing the immense complexity of modern social and industrial conditions, there is need to use freely and unhesitatingly the collective power of us all; and yet no exercise of collective will ever avail if the average individual does not keep his or her sense of personal duty, initiative, and responsibility. There is need to develop all the virtues that have the state for their sphere of action; but these virtues are as dust in a windy street unless back of the lie the strong and tender virtues of a family life based on love on the one man for the one woman and on their joyous and fearless acceptance of the common obligation to the children that are theirs. There must be the keenest sense of duty, and with it must go the joy of living; there must be shame at the thought of shirking the hard work of the world, and the same time delight in the many-sided beauty of life. With soul flame and temper of steel we must act as our coolest judgment bids us. We must exercise the largest charity towards the wrong-doer that is with relentless war against the wrong-doer that is compatible with relentless war against wrong-doing. We must be just to others, generous to others, and yet we must realize that it is a shameful and a wicked thing not to withstand oppression with high heart and ready hand. With gentleness and tenderness there must go dauntless bravery and grim acceptance of labor and hardship and peril. All for each, and each for all, is a good motto; but only on condition that each works with might and main to so maintain himself as not to be a burden to others.

  We of the great modern democracies must strive unceasingly to make our several countries lands in which a poor man who works hard can liver comfortably and honestly, and in which a rich man cannot live dishonestly nor in slothful avoidance of duty; and yet we must judge rich man and poor man alike by a standard which rests on conduct not caste, and we must frown with the same stern severity on the mean and vicious envy which hates and would plunder a man because he is well off and on the brutal and selfish arrogance which looks down on and exploits the man with whom life has gone hard.   

                                                ~Theodore Roosevelt

                                                Sagamore Hill, October 1, 1913

These words, though reflecting the language of the times are a wonderful expression what common values should drive the political thinking of a country whether one is a Republican or Democrat, a liberal or a conservative.

Teddy Roosevelt was an amazing man. He was a member of the Republican Party as he says folk were in his time and at the same time he is the very epitome of progressive thought.

I find it interesting that in times of need in our nations history two Roosevelts rose to Presidential leadership; Teddy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. One Republican, Teddy and one a Democrat, FDR and both progressives. Both men lead their nation with integrity and clear vision of what was necessary to make the nation live up to the American dream, where all may excel and achieve the good life, materially, morally, political, socially and spiritually.

These men and their contemporaries that followed their leadership stand in sharp contrast to modern America which has devolved from a democracy to and oligarchy and where a caste system is raising its ugly head and crushing the American Dream.

Teddy (or Teedie as he preferred) in his time was a life of privilege and service; He is known for his leadership in the Spanish-American War in is “Rough Riders” day. He is also well known for his taking on the monopolies of his time with the Sherman Antitrust Act and was known as the “Square Deal” president. Many call him the first “modern day” president who dealt with the same issues we deal with today. He worked for civil rights, and is best known as the country first environmental president with his signing of the National Monument Act and preserving many wildlife sanctuaries, national forests, and federal game reserves.  Though one could take on a number of issues these men stood for I will pick a single thread for this article that of environmental responsibility.

In today’s America the debate on our environment has degenerated in mindless doggerel coming from the far right that ignores responsible science and the global warming issues of our planet and a lack of resolve by the right to work as hard as they must for the human survival on this planet. The so-called left (really the old right) Democrats seem little better.

If we are objective at all and pay attention to climate scientists we know that climate change has led to extreme weather and only promises to get worse if we do not address this issues. We know that carbon pollution is the primary reason why our planet is warming which causes weather disasters, flooding, drought, etc.

Here is Wisconsin in 2012 we had record-breaking heat in 42 counties with 123 high heat records. At the same time 14 counties had record breaking snow falls, 20 of them. We also had 1 large wildfire. I would suggest going here to check out the data for your and other states. We have the worst drought in 50 years and 1,300 counties in 29 states were declared drought disaster areas. Wildfires burned over 9.2 million acres in the country.

Everybody ought to know this stuff and it is stupidity itself for extreme right radicals to call this a political scare tactic.

It is not as though we don’t know how this happened; industrial revolution et al that dumped carbon into our atmosphere. And it is not as though we don’t know what to do. We need to set limits on global warming pollution; invest in green jobs and clean energy, drive smarter cars, create green homes and buildings, and build better communities and transportations networks.

Instead we let the nations infrastructure decay and continue to subsidize fossil fuels. We, or special interest groups look for quick bucks at the expense of the future.

It is my belief that only when we get big money and their vested short term interests out of politics will we be able to address these issues properly and follow leaders that have a vision the wellbeing of future generations as did Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt.

Both Democrats and Republicans need to heed the history of progressives in each party. They need to work for the common good rather than just figure out how to get reelected. See this web site   for a more complete discussion.