TWO CENTS WORTH



This is a further discussion of Scot's essay, "Everything is going to change" posted below on October 6.

I agree with Scotsw that the problem of global warming should be a bigger issue than the "War on Terror." I believe that right now these scientific problems are, and in the future will be, a greater challenge to all of us than the threat of "Terror." I believe that in pretty short order, climatic and environmental threats will change our approach to most things and will change our institutions more radically than the threat of Terrorism has done.

However, I do not believe that terrorism is insignificant. He says: "The most important of these blasphemies is that terrorism doesn't matter very much. I have come to view the global war on terrorism as primarily a political tool used by the current Administration, and not the chief threat facing the United States."

Without quarreling about who cast the first stone, or which combatant is more guilty of what, the fact remains that we have been shot at, blown up, and poisoned. Our buildings, bridges and airports have been threatened more than once. Explosives have been seized at our borders. Our friends as well as our own people have been attacked on trains, planes and ships. It is proper to consider ourselves at war. Many were killed even before 9/11.

I know that the Iraq War was a blunder. It is not the only blunder we've committed under this Bush bastard. I know that this government is inept. I think that these guys in Washington have made too much mischief in the name of war.

But the fact that the gamekeeper has clumsily shot himself instead of the marauding bear does not mean that the bear isn't dangerous. And so far, we are lucky that the other side is not carrying the same kinds of weapons we are.


Still, in the end I agree with Scot's main theme: (due to global warming) "...we will all soon be caught up in an unfolding of events that will feel disorienting, confusing, and exhilirating."
(Bud)