jennifer,
hmmm, how to start...your response intrigues me. Partially because (though I
concede emotion is a difficult thing to read accurately in an e-mail) you sound
quite angry. A rapid angry response - and poorly justified (sound familiar?).
It seems that more than your desire to have the list return to discussion of
biofuels, it is your intention to denounce those posts (or posters) that you
consider "liberal" and which seem to "blame America" regardless of their
content. What exactly is so liberal about Senator Byrd's Senate floor speech?
Since when did "glorying in the wisdom of the country's founders" and
revellling in the wisdom and magnificance of the country's legal foundations"
become moot?
We forget ourselves today. In fact we are made to forget. I work every
day with a Navy SEAL who has started the school and research institute that I
am now a part of. Our mission is to seek out and develop new ways of living
well in the places where we find ourselves and to find menaningful ways to
teach those skills and ideas to young people, both US (mostly) and Bahamian,
who have the lost any sense that they belong to a place and that it matters to
them or they to it. We realize that "sustainability", however you define it,
is not about wind generators, solar panels or biodiesel - it is about people
and places - about laughter and friendship. These are the things we would like
to "sustain". These are also things that we forget today, which is convenient,
because all of them happen also to be at great risk in Iraq right now. I live
in a place at the furthest remote end of a tired island where people are poor
and unemployment is staggering and the guiding presence of strong leadership is
nearly absent. I wake up every day and need to ask myself how I will work
harder today to see that my efforts are not misplaced, in vain or, worse, moot.
Yesterday I returned from taking 15 students of various backgrounds on a 4 dya
kayak trip tp help them discover this place. It is likely that these trips do
more for me by way of rejuvination and distance from the buzz of computers and
motors, than it does for the students. Upon my return yesterday evening I
learned we were bombing Iraq. I sat at a bar with some Bahamian friends and
watched as Bush spoke with that air of being "bathed in the light of his own
certainty" about the path for a war which has no good reason. His ambiguity
was stark and his lack of sincerity and justification was utterly frightening.
When I think about what it is that matters (what we should be putting billions
of dollars in money, and resources toward - not to mention people) in the world
right now it is not the vengeful actions of administration cronies who are
enacting a long pent up vision of widespread US hegemony and preemptive
military strikes, in order to serve the those thatalready have more than they
could ever need. In Robert Byrd's statement (and hundreds of other posts and
articles) I found something so much more Patriotic and sincere and SANE than
the picture I see before me in the "news". Moot? This war has been called
"illegal" by France, Germany and Russia; the independant press has labeled it
the worst moral transgression in a generation. There are efforts mounting
across the United States to have Bush impeached and, moreover tried as a war
criminal. I am sorry but this is not moot, stupid, or whining. Your status,
rank, or whatever you have in the military concerns me very little and neither
lends weight nor detracts from your position. I know many people in the
military, either past or present, who speak with equal eloquance either for or
dramatically against war in Iraq. What concerns me is what we do now. It will
require far greater work to undo the web of mistakes that has led the US into
this intractable position than would have been necessary a week ago. No one
has woken up in a safer world today than they did yesterday. I can only hope
that the sheer absurdity of Bush's "plan" will spark enough latent minds to
fufill their responsibility as citizens (of any nation) that there may be some
good that comes of this tragedy.
If you have made it this far in my ramble ( i am tired), here is a little
biofuel bit. I made 110 gallons of beautiful, clear biodiesel today and
finished washing another 150 that I will be able to give to local residents to
help them run mixers for a local playground construction project. Soon they
will know how to make it themselves.
one foot after the next..
jk
Jack Kenworthy
Sustainable Systems Director
The Cape Eleuthera Island School
242-359-7625 ph. 954-252-2224 fax
www.islandschool.org
----- Original Message -----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 11:48 AM
Subject: Re: [biofuel] "Arrogance of Power"
Can all this liberal blame America crap....20 of us may die now, so that
20,000 don't die later.......get over it..i'm IN the military and you won't
see me whining...get back to Bio-fuel matters...and CAN all this stupid and
Moot political BS. Dissent once American troops are deployed = giving
comfort, aid and incentive to our enemies, thus increasing the number of
AMERICAN and Iraqi deaths likely....Lets talk BIO-FUELS!!!!!!......
Jennifer, Capt. USAF
Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Biofuels list archives:
http://archive.nnytech.net/
Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address.
To unsubscribe, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Your own Online Store Selling our Overstock.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/rZll0B/4ftFAA/46VHAA/FGYolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Biofuels list archives:
http://archive.nnytech.net/
Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address.
To unsubscribe, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
