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Futility, Immigration, Gun Control and Global Warming
for release 04-24-07
Washington DC
by Lightning Rod
One of my least favorite things in life is futility. I get the chills when anyone even says 'Sisyphus.' Pointless or impossible work has always disturbed me. I don't have time.
Consider these facts:
1. We have something between 12 and 20 million undocumented immigrants in this country, depending upon whether you are listening to Lou Dobbs or the INS.
2. Eighty million Americans own guns. Many probably own several.
3. Every year we release about 7 billion tons of carbon emissions into our atmosphere.
Let's get real about these things.
Tens of millions of illegal immigrants aren't going to go back to Mexico where they can enjoy poverty and corruption and joblessness. It's not gonna happen. Neither are we equipped to deport them. And building a fence at the border is a classic case of closing the barn door after the horses are gone. Did someone say 'Sisyphus?'
We are not going to legislate our way out of gun violence. Can you imagine the logistical nightmare of confiscating perhaps a hundred million guns? It's not happening. Plus there is a minor thing called the Second Amendment.
And if global warming is a real thing, we are not going to cure it by recycling our plastic bags and driving hybrid vehicles whose manufacture requires belching out tons of CO2 per year. To imagine that we can reverse centuries of CO2 pollution which has led to the discernible increase in global temperatures, or the natural forces and cycles that our earth is subject to, is pure folly. Please, nobody say 'Sisyphus.'
I like Al Gore. Especially since he has gained weight. It makes him look cuddly and avuncular. He should grow the beard back. Maybe he would find himself in the back of the tour bus with Sheryl Crow. At least he wouldn't be a dummy like Karl Rove and tell Sheryl not to touch him. But Gore's Power Point Jeremiah act harkens me to 'Sisyphus, Sisyphus."
Back to reality. We are not going to stop burning fossil fuels, which are the primary source of CO2 emissions. It's not going to happen, folks. The population and industrialization of our world is growing exponentially. Even if we traded all the SUV's in the world for horse-drawn carriages or bicycles we can't stop burning things to stay warm and maintain our lives. Our transportation systems and our electrical power systems and our agricultural (translation: food) systems all depend on fossil fuels.
And nothing about that is going to change soon. And the people keep coming.
If, starting tomorrow, everybody had a zero emission car and got their power from a windmill and recycled all their plastic bags, nothing would change on a global scale for centuries. The damage is done. The horses are out of the barn.
Even if, starting tomorrow, we issued to every illegal immigrant a hybrid car in exchange for their handgun, we wouldn't solve these problems. They are Sisyphean.
The Poet's Eye hates to see futility. If you think that buying a product that comes in a green package and has 'environmentally friendly' on the label is going to save the earth, or if you think that carbon credits excuse your conspicuous consumption any more than a papal indulgence excused future sins in the Middle Ages, then I want you to meet a friend of mine. His name is Sisyphus.
Breaking rocks out here on the chain gang
Breaking rocks and serving my time
Breaking rocks out here on the chain gang
Because they done convicted me of crime
Hold it steady right there while I hit it
Well reckon that ought to get it
Been working and working
But I still got so terribly far to go
---Work Song, Nat Adderly