jabmyeyes.com

No one would have followed Martin Luther King if he had said “I have a nightmare”, as mentioned by energy secretary Ed Miliband.

We have to be careful that we don’t scare off would be joiners with too much hyperbole.  Admittedly, I am an extreme advocate of climate change.  We need to unite in being good to this earth.  It has been so good to all of us.  I am  hopeful that the decision makers representing the world in Copenhagen are uniting in the dream — and not denying the nightmare.

Side note and a bit of irony –> more than 1200 limos are being called in from all over Europe to meet the delegates, officials and presidential demands of the Copenhagen climate summit.  Too cold to ride bikes I guess.  The “economic growth” advocates ie: Republicans for continued pollution, will be represented by US Senator, Jim Inhofe

We all know the nightmare –> So many pictures of people riding bikes in China through polluted air with face masks.  Stories of asthmatic children in the Bronx breathing diesel fumes.  Photos of decapitated mountains in West Virginia and the subsequent coal muck escaping in to small towns.  Growth was so big and so fast that sewage spilled in to drinking water in Florida.  Many fists pound many tables when you suggest that things need to change.

Polluters love muddling the facts, and making fun of the nightmarish scenarios.  Some scientists  actually feed the machine that is profiting currently.  The collaborative machine of industry, shipping, air flights, hospitals, manufacturers, and on and on are horrified by the idea of changing energy production and usage. We have evolved to need stuff, rather than just water, food, shelter and coffee.

Many of them don’t think of themselves as polluters but as providers of jobs.  Many of them simply don’t care as long as stock holder profits are improving.  No such thing as a sustainable status quo in the stock market.   We just need to make change less horrifying and point out the advantages to health and stocks.

So lets describe the dream… Andrew Gilligan wrote an article for the telegraph.co.uk…” Copenhagen is a city filled entirely with bicycles, stuffed with retrofitted, energy-efficient old buildings, and seems to embody the civilized pleasures of low-carbon living without any of the puritanism”.

Costa Rica produces 99% of its energy from renewable sources, reversed deforestation and is aiming to become a carbon-neutral country by 2021 by combining its ministries of energy and environment, and abolishing its army.  Ok abolishing armies will probably never happen world wide, there will always be bad guys to fight.  We can dream though.  Other small island nations such as the Dominican Republic and Jamaica are also fairing well in levels of health and a very low footprint.

I turn on news, or tennis, or golf, or whatever is watched at home  for my patients and it quite often calms them better than any medication I can provide.  They are comforted by the various personalities confirming their beliefs.  A doctor I know said, he likes to go to the Methodist church every Sunday to be surrounded by “like minds”.  It is comforting.  My friend feels the same way about the Catholic church.  We form ourselves into groups of like minds and label ourselves as conservatives or liberals or Methodists or Catholics.  We like to be around people who think like we think.  Otherwise, you feel like a freak who doesn’t belong anywhere.  We think thoughts and find people who agree with our thoughts and we hang out.

Understanding “like minds” is important.  Learning from the mistakes of history is important.  Free-thinking is important.  Freedom of religion is important.  When too many like minds get together and blindly oppose contrary information than you have “mob rule”.  When you look up liberalism in Wikipedia, you’ll find the 17th century again and some names like Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin and John Adams. You’ll also find  George Washington argued that a strong federal government was necessary to prevent mob rule. (AKA: town hall meetings where folks show up with guns) .  It is hard to define liberalism in one sentence; it would seem intellectual liberty, including freedom of conscience, and economic liberty, the right to have and use property, and religious freedom are in the forefront. I like all those things so yeah, I guess I’m a liberal.

I had a Facebook member accuse me of being French when I stated that no one should show up at wars.  Accused me of being French? What does that mean?  I guess the French don’t like war either.  Are there groups of like minds that like war?

We all need to be careful that our innate desire to seek out like minds doesn’t lead us into blind opposition. Blind opposition is dangerous and gets people killed and countries bombed and religions hated.  TV is for entertainment; it isn’t really a good source for facts, although,  it is a great source for blind opposition.  Churches and news stations can be comforting and entertaining.  Leave it at that.

I love to read about politics and religion and sometimes it makes me want to jab my eyes out. My daughter said that to me once many years ago “jab, jab, you make me want to jab my eyes out”. She is very confident and intelligent and somewhat unforgiving. My son, responds to my rambling, opinionated, rantings with “why do you let things bother you?”

Sometimes, you just want to write your thoughts down, get them on paper, or blog, or comment. So here I am, stumbling around and falling over some information that needs to be shared. The authors aren’t always available to me while stumbling; I’ll try to give credit to the sites and authors of information retrieved and commented on. Quotes are in black and my comments are blue.