Thoughts On Why

Throughout the past few days, the one question many people have asked me is why? Why are you people protesting? What is it you hope to accomplish? Do you genuinely think that a few people with signs marching down our streets will cause the armed forces to quit shipping supplies to Iraq?

We protest simply because it's the right thing to do. If you believe that some action or activity is immoral and/or unethical, you have a responsibility to speak up. The oft repeated phrase is true -- Your silence will not protect you!

Protesting takes on even more importance if you are a person who believes in the worth and value of nonviolence. As a pacifist, I would not countenance storming the port and blocking the shipment with the point of a gun. It would wholly negate our mantra of nonviolent action. We would soon become the very thing we so adamantly oppose.

The act of protest most likely will not halt this specific shipment, but it still serves a most important purpose. As more and more people see their friends and neighbors in the streets, it may well motivate them to get off their butts to join us. At some point, with so many people protesting, it will become politically untenable to continue to support the continuation of this infernal war.

In the end, however, I bet my reason for protesting may be a lot different than many of my fellow comrades. I believe that a person should stand up for what they believe in REGARDLESS of whether or not they believe their actions will have much of a public impact.

In other words, even if I KNEW that these protests wouldn't change a damn thing -- now or in the future -- I'd still be out there. I'm not one of these people who believes that one should only fight potential winning battles; often times the losing battles are just as important.

If you know in your heart that something is wrong and yet you sit by saying nothing, you end up bankrupting your own soul. I firmly believe in the sentiment expressed during much of the civil rights movement of the 60s: If you're don't try to be part of the solution, then you indeed become part of the problem.

Commendations to the Boys in Blue

It had the makings of a really bad scene. On one side of the road was a line of police officers. On the other side of the road stood about 50 anti-war protesters. The police announced that the protesters had 2 minutes to disperse (because they were not in the designated free speech area) or they would be pepper sprayed. Nobody moved and the 2 minutes came and went. What would happen now?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

No one was pepper sprayed. No one was arrested. There was no physical confrontation. The protesters stood their ground peaceably and the police -- in a great example of wisdom -- realized nothing would be gained by attacking the crowd.

I know that a lot of people in our movement have a very negative view of the police. In their eyes, nothing the police do or don't do ever is satisfactory. While I certainly agree that I often vehemently disagree with many police actions, in this case, we need to commend the men in blue.

Our local law enforcement exercised great restraint. They didn't allow their emotions to get the best of them. They kept a cool head and turned a potentiality explosive situation into a very manageable and positive one.

I must say that one thing we often forget is that police officers are people too. I had a really nice chat with a Hoquiam officer before the march got underway. He said that a lot of the local officers are with us in spirit, that many of them oppose the war as much as we do. Unfortunately, they have the kind of job in which they often have to swallow their personal opinions.

I am not naive. While today was a great day and things turned out well, the same may not be true tomorrow. And while I genuinely commend people like Aberdeen Capt. Dave Johnson and Hoquiam Police Chief Jeff Meyers for the way they handled the overall situation, we still have had several reports of attempts at police harassment and intimidation.

I'm just thankful that cooler heads prevailed and a tense situation did not blow up into a major fiasco.

Monday's Event
We will gather at 7:00 p.m. at the Aberdeen City Hall, 200 E Market St, for a 1 hour or so vigil. There is ample on street parking around City Hall.

I'm sure we will talk about what further actions to take as long as the ship remains docked at Terminal 4 at the Port of Grays Harbor.

Twelve Hours

In the overall scheme of things, 12 hours is like one grain of sand on an endless beach. It's a speck on the celestial radar screen. It's one raindrop in a barrel overflowing with water. Twelve hours ain't nothing...

...unless one speaks of a day. At this juncture, 12 hours takes on far greater significance. Twelve hours is one-half of one calendar day. In the workaday world, 12 hours takes on even greater meaning; it's one and one-half days of work.

For those people who toil away for a 40-hour work week, 3 12-hour shifts almost is comparable to 5 8-hour days. Five consecutive 12-hour shifts is the equivalent of 7.5 regular 8-hour shifts and, for most people, those 7.5 days are broken up by a 2-day weekend.

The reason I'm focusing this entry on the number 12 is that, according to the assigned police officers I'm working with regarding the ongoing protests here in Aberdeen, all local law enforcement are working 12-hour shifts with all vacations and leave put on hold.

Just about anyone can put in a 12-hour day without it causing too much of a problem. In fact, if called upon by extraordinary circumstances, most of us could work 2 or 3 such shifts without too much ill wear. However, once most people pass the 3 day mark, 12-hour shifts begin to take a toll.

When people are overworked -- particularly when it involves high pressure situations -- nerves begin to fray. People begin to get crabby and crotchety. Little frustrations that normally would go unnoticed get magnified. Simple disagreements can blow up into major imbroglios. And overworked individuals simply don't think as clearly and rationally as well rested ones.

It is for this reason alone that I hope the current situation at the Port of Grays Harbor doesn't drag on for several more days. Our small town is filled with a battalion of overworked and overstressed men (I haven't seen ANY female officers in several days) who happen to have a small arsenal of weaponry attached to their belts.

I don't know about you, but I don't think that frayed nerves and loaded guns are a good mixture. I realize that law enforcement personnel receive lots of training on how to deal with situations of this manner, but human nature tends to take precedence and it's these elements of basic human nature that worry me.

We've got probably 100 or more officers who have been told repeatedly to expect trouble. They've been putting in long hours day after day and the "trouble" they are so prepared to encounter hasn't materialized at all. Almost any person will find themselves in a difficult personal situation if they are all keyed up for a confrontation and then nothing happens.

You combine this overarching anxiety with a lack of sleep/down time and you've created a volatile mixture, one that could explode over the tiniest perceived incident.

Today will, undoubtedly, be a most interesting day. I hope it's not an explosive one.

A "Slow" News Day

As I was standing amongst a crowd of about 3 dozen demonstrators talking to a reporter from the local newspaper, she asked me if we were going to DO something. "Would you like us to storm the fence around the port," I asked. Smiling, she said that would be okay. It would make the protest more newsworthy.

Needless to say, we didn't storm the fence. We stood near the side of the road with our signs and banners in hand.

For the last two days the police have made an emphatic point that we must stay within the bounds of the public demonstration area. Of course, as our marchers neared this area, what do you think they found? Counter-demonstrators who were NOT in the designated area. No, they were lined up on the shoulder of the road.

Despite the overwhelming police presence, it appeared the police were allowing the pro-war faction to avoid the zone. To be fair, once we arrived, many of our folks took to the shoulder as well and we were not ordered to move. So, I can't complain that we were treated unfairly.

All in all, it was a good event. In keeping with the location and time of year, it drizzled for most of the afternoon. However, if you live in western Washington, you don't think twice about a little -- or a lot -- of rain.

Initially, I thought the police were doing a better job with not flooding the area with officers and troopers. Unlike Friday's event, we weren't continually surrounded by men carrying loaded guns. However, as I left the field to head towards my truck, I discovered that an entire fleet of state troopers were stationed behind a building next to the field. Still seems like gross overkill to me.

Sunday's Event
We will again meet at 2:00 p.m. at the 28th Street landing in Hoquiam. We're expecting a rather large contingent from out of town. Because of the expected larger numbers, many of you will be directed to the overflow parking area.

By the way, if haven't heard, the ship has docked and we expect that the loading of the military supplies has commenced.

My Other Two Fears

As noted below, the huge police buildup in Aberdeen makes this peace activist very, very nervous. However, I don't want to give readers the impression that I believe that the police are the ONLY ones to blow situations out of proportion. There are other groups that worry me just as much -- Counter demonstrators and violently-inclined anarchists.

There always seems to be at least one group of individuals who believe fervently in the cherished right of free speech -- that is, free speech that agrees with their stated point of view! If you happen to hold an opinion that does not meet their favor, then your free speech is of absolutely no concern to them!

Since those who support this immoral war don't want to hear from ANYONE who disagrees with them, many are apt to create a situation that can have a propensity to turn violent. They will try to use all forms of intimidation to provoke a reaction and, if someone gets fed up with their hate-filled message and even ends up yelling back obscenities at them, many either will resort to fisticuffs or go running off to the police swearing they've been threatened with severe bodily harm.

In either case, the police are prone to move forward in an aggressive manner and, at that point, all bets are off. A lot of peaceable people will try to protect themselves when someone is swinging a nightstick at them and the police will often perceive these instinctual movements as further evidence that the nonviolent person is attempting some act of violence.

The other group of individuals that really worries me are those violently-prone individuals who show up at peaceful rallies and put others in harm's way to satisfy their own twisted personal agendas. While I happen to be a pacifist, I would at least be lukewarm toward these sorts of individuals if they didn't use peaceniks as their human shields.

What happens too often is that a group of the violently-prone will start throwing objects or destroying property on the edge of a peaceful march or rally. When the police move forward to halt these activities, the instigators dart into the crowd which often makes it next to impossible for law enforcement to figure out who's guilty and who's innocent.

This is one kind of situation in which I bet I differ from many of my compatriots. While I do agree that the police tend to be overly aggressive in these sorts of circumstances, I concurrently understand the predicament they are placed in.

The destructive actions have stimulated their adrenalin. Their job is to stop the behavior. Since they can't be sure who is at fault in this massive sea of people, it's very hard to discriminate between the peace-minded and the violently-prone. It's almost inevitable that many innocents will be caught up in a frenzy of anger-fueled chaos.

So, if you have an idea that you want to attend our nonviolent rallies in order to turn them into violent melees, I have 2 words for you: STAY HOME. Don't play the coward's role by utilizing the conscious strategy of using peaceable people as your human shields.

If you're bound and determined to hold an event that includes a violent confrontation with the police, do it on your own time, not ours.

A Police State of Mind

Driving around Aberdeen, one might think we were gearing up for a Hell's Angels convention! At almost every turn, there's a police car. Not only are there a lot of them, but they come from all over the place. Aside from more unmarked cars than I can ever remember seeing in one locale at any given time in my life, I have seen patrol cars from Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Ocean Shores, Montesano, Elma, Grays Harbor County and the State Patrol.

I've even heard that there are some law enforcement people here from as far away as Tacoma and Seattle!!

Tonight, after picking up my wife from work, we drove over to the "designated" free speech area, if for no other reason than to see if the police presence was as high at night as it has been during the day. As soon as we turned onto the Port Industrial Road, we found an Aberdeen patrol on our tail.

It followed us as we made the turn into the Pride Oil driveway that passes by our designated marsh. As we slowed, so did the patrol car. We looped around to the nearest street to go back down the Industrial Port Rd from whence we came. The patrol car was still behind us. In fact, it followed us almost all the way home, only turning off one block from our house.

And why is this armada of law enforcement circling in and throughout this rural small town? Because of scary peaceful protesters.

(At Friday's rally, I'm not altogether certain which there was more of -- protesters or police officers.)

Having this many cops in one place at one time makes me more than a tad bit nervous. Whenever you have a large group of people EXPECTING trouble, they are more likely to be the ones to cause it. I don't say this because of inherent dislike for the police; it's human nature.

I'm fairly certain that all the various officers have been warned that big time trouble is brewing. Since police officers are human beings just like the rest of us, waiting for this supposed inevitability to happen assuredly is breeding much anxiety within their ranks.

It's very much like having a battalion of soldiers with itchy trigger fingers. As soon as one sees anything they perceive to be out of the ordinary (even though their perception is highly colored by their unreal sense of anticipation), the natural impulse is to shoot first and ask questions later.

Consequently, history has well documented that the police tend to overreact to nonexistent threats at these kinds of peaceful rallies and generate a self-fulfilling prophecy. They expect violence and, when it doesn't occur as expected, their anxiety causes them to react violently to a nonviolent circumstance and this causes the kind of violence they expected to occur in the first place.

The worst part of this kind of scenario is that, even if the police KNOW that a particular situation was instigated by a member within their own ranks, it's a natural human tendency to come to the aid of your own. So, some hot-headed officer turns a small incident into a major brouhaha and the rest of his comrades will rush to his aid with teargas, tasers and nightsticks ready.

This is my greatest fear and one of the chief reasons I've volunteered to serve as our police liaison.

Saturday's Event
People are asked to converge at the Port of Grays Harbor Public Viewing Tower around 2 p.m. This area can be reached by traveling through Aberdeen to Hoquiam and turning south on 28th Street. Go straight until you run out of road. There is a small gravel parking area there.

Free Speech & Hip Waders

I'm sure that, if you spoke to the staff or commissioners from the Port of Grays Harbor, each would tell you how much they value the exercise of free speech. It's one of those hallowed American rights. It's so important that, they believe, they have gone out of their way to create a free speech "zone" for area residents coming to the Port to protest against impending military shipments to Iraq.

On a superficial level, they would be correct. The designated patch of earth is located across the street from the service road to Terminal 4, the terminal the US military will use to load the shipments. It's in a high visibility area, since it is on the main street that runs through the Port.

If you look a little deeper than the superficial sheen on the top, you will quickly discover that free speech must not be that important to them. The designated zone is in a marsh! What appears to be a level and freshly mowed field ACTUALLY is a choppy piece of land with a lot of standing water throughout.

Working in cahoots with the City of Aberdeen, the Port is trying to make it as difficult as possible for people to gather in the marsh! No Parking signs fill all the side streets within the Port as well as several blocks deep in the surrounding neighborhoods.

I live about 1 mile from the Port and these No Parking signs start only 2 blocks or so from my house. They run all the way down Industrial Port Road to the Hoquiam city limits!

While Grays Harbor residents are treated to a very good county-wide transit system, only 5 buses go to the Port area and none travel that route on the weekends.

So, while we are being granted the right to exercise our constitutional rights in an area of high visibility across from Terminal 4, the zone itself is situated on a marshy piece of real estate that is difficult to get to.

It makes one wonder how differently this situation would be dealt with if a group of people wanted to hold a rally cheering the military equipment being brought in. It wouldn't surprise me if the Port arranged for shuttle buses and housed the rally at the Port offices, replete with refreshments!

Friday Event
If you'd like to come take part in an exercise in free speech, we will hold a vigil today at Zelasko Park from 3:30 - 5:00 p.m. The park is located next to the Wishkah River in the east end of Aberdeen.

If you're coming from the west, once you pass Burger King, you will cross a bridge over the Wishkah River. The park is immediately to your left.

Greetings to the Army!

Blog statistics are an interesting thing. It provides the opportunity to see who and from where blog visitors originate. It seems that over the past 36 hours, The Rambling Taoists has become a frequent destination for folks connected with the US military in Auburn, Washington. Hmm. Could this be a mere coincidence?

For all of you military types stopping by here for your first visit, I say "Welcome"! Hopefully, The Rambling Taoists will provide food for thought and allow you to see the world from a different perspective.

Section 8.08.020

Free speech ain't what it used to be. I stopped by the local police department yesterday to find out where our fine law enforcement people plan to ALLOW protesters to exercise our cherished first amendment rights. They are providing us with a freshly mowed field. What do they think we are? Grazing cattle?

After my little visit downtown, I came home to my computer to take a look at the City of Aberdeen's Municipal Code. Under Section 8.08.020, I found the following:

Public nuisance defined.
Every act unlawfully done and every omission to perform a duty, which act or omission:
A. Annoys, injures or endangers the safety, health, comfort or repose of the citizens of the city;

That's right! You can be arrested for being annoying.

Well, the fact that the military-industrial complex has decided to use my town to ship weapons of destruction to far off lands really ticks me off. In fact, I dare say it ANNOYS me. Do you think that if I tell a local police officer that I'm annoyed, they will go arrest the military?

The War Comes to Aberdeen

When you live in a small town off the beaten path, you watch the world's events unfold from afar. You pay attention to what's going on, but you feel insulated from the effects and ramifications. You continue to feel this way until, one day, the world theater is plopped down into your corner of cornucopia and you realize that all these faraway headlines are now a reality where you live.

Because of the vigilance and dedication of the Port Resistance Movements in Olympia & Tacoma, the military has decided they don't want to mess with those folks anymore. No, they want to find more docile environs from which to ship their machinations of death and destruction.

Since the Port of Grays Harbor is not that far away from Ft. Lewis AND Grays Harbor County is much more sparsely populated than Olympia or Tacoma, they've decided that Aberdeen is now their new home for military shipments.

Here's today's a portion of today's lead article from The Daily World,

At least 24 military helicopters in groups of eight landed at the Port of Grays Harbor Tuesday as part of the first wave of cargo from Fort Lewis bound for Iraq.

Commercial trucks believed to be carrying military equipment also arrived for staging at Port facilities near The Home Deport in Aberdeen. The choppers, which were quickly secured and prepared for shipment after they landed, and equipment are connected to the 4-6 Air Cavalry Squadron that is being deployed to Iraq.

No details were released on how long the equipment would be stored at the Port or when the ship that will likely transport the cargo to Iraq will dock.

Stand By Whom?

My wife & I listen to different radio stations. She favors country and modern pop, while I prefer a weird eclectic mix of 50s & 60s rock 'n roll, American folk, Celtic, bluegrass and classical. You can easily tell who last drove our truck by what radio station pops up at ignition.

This morning I went down to the store for a little grocery shopping. As the radio came on, it reminded me my wife last drove the truck. There was a female recording artist -- I have no inkling who it was -- singing, "I'll Stand By You", a song previously recorded by Rod Stewart and The Pretenders.

The following lines jumped out at me:

When the night falls on you
You don't know what to do
Nothing you confess
Could make me love you less.

Isn't that going a wee bit far? I mean, if my lover confessed to gunning down a slew of nuns, orphans and puppies, I think I might indeed love her far less. Heck, I might not even LIKE my lover anymore.

When I was a young lad, like so many others, I believed in the silly sentiment, "Love conquers all". As I've grown older and wiser, however, I've come to realize that, on at least one level, that's a nonsensical statement.

Love, trust and friendship are built on shared values. While a person can certainly have a strong physical attraction for someone they have nothing in common with, it's near impossible to sustain a relationship with someone you don't really like. Heck, it's hard enough sustaining relationships with people you do like and find common ground with!

Now I know some of you will say something to the effect of "You can love the person, while not approving of the behavior". I don't dispute this at all, but this principle should apply to everyone, not just those one is intimate with.

All people fall short of maintaining harmony within their lives. Consequently, we should look beyond anyone's behavior -- and this includes people like Adolph Hitler, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Daumer, Saddam Hussein or even George W. Bush -- to love the person.

In essence, "I'll Stand By You" could just as easily be the anthem of humanity. We should all endeavor to stand by each other because we are all of one reality.

We're All Environmentalists!

All throughout my adult life I've heard the term "environmentalist", often in a pejorative manner. For most of that time, I've thought the popular understanding of this word is utter nonsense. How can any living, breathing person NOT be an environmentalist?

If you would each take a moment, What does it mean to care about the environment we all share? We'll come back to this in a minute.

Generally, when we fashion words to categorize a person or a group of people, it describes something unique about them. If you refer to Baptists, you mean to describe Christians who hold to a specific set of beliefs and interpret the Bible in a particular way.

Likewise, if you use the word "Republican", you're referring to an individual or group of people who subscribe to a certain set of beliefs and share the same general world view.

If you say, "Firemen", you are making a reference to individuals who, as a profession, seek to put out fires -- unless, of course, you're speaking in terms of trains, then firemen means something different altogether.

But how does this apply to "environmentalists"? Every person needs a healthy environment to exist. None of us can survive for long without air, water and food. If our environment is compromised, then these essential elements are compromised too.

About the only way a person could not be an environmentalist is if they repudiated the human need for air, water and food. In other words, if any of us GENUINELY didn't care about these 3 things (and a host of others too), then our only alternative would be to kill ourselves -- divorcing ourselves from these things we loathe.

And yet, that wouldn't work either!! Even in death, each of us will continue to interact with the environment. Our bodies will decompose to provide sustenance for all sorts of microbes. Our death will provide life for others.

Even if we choose to have our remains cremated, the ash will take up space somewhere and, eventually, the ash will return to the soil, thereby giving life to other beings.

Consequently, not only can't we escape the environment, we ARE the environment.

So, how can any person -- alive or dead -- not be an environmentalist by default?

Anything But Cowards

I don't know why so many Americans continue to associate the word coward with suicide bombers. There are quite a few words that I can think of to describe these individuals, but "coward" certainly isn't one of them. Regardless of how one feels about suicide bombing -- as a pacifist I abhor violence in all forms -- I think it should be easy to see that purposely blowing one's self to smithereens is not a cowardly act.

Individuals who join the armed forces or serve as policemen/women know that, on any given day, they may die in the line of duty. Being able to cope with this knowledge takes a certain amount of courage. But it's a completely different animal when you KNOW that in carrying out your mission you will die -- no ands, ifs or buts.

So, one word that could be aptly used for suicide bombers is bravery.

But that's not the only word that could apply. Another word that I believe fits is misguided. Why anyone would think that harming innocent fellow human beings would bring one glory and closer to one's God is wholly irrational. Almost every religion that I'm aware of frowns on the act of suicide and yet that's precisely the act a suicide bomber is committing, besides wholesale murder.

And this leads to another word, manipulation. I fear that many of these poor souls who are blowing themselves up (along with a number of random others) have been manipulated into believing it serves some higher purpose. I'm sorry, but, in my book, slaughtering scores of people serves no purpose other than slaughtering scores of people.

And this leads me to my final word for this entry, fanaticism. Fanatics -- regardless of their philosophical or religious bent -- are dangerous people. Most all of them suffer from the grandeur of self-importance. They tend to lead and manipulate others to do some really evil and nasty stuff, while they sit back on the sidelines. Their world view is myopic, rarely extending farther than their tip of their own nose.

There are many others words that we could employ to talk about the issue of suicide bombings, but I firmly believe the word coward doesn't belong in the conversation.

If you disagree, then I got a question for you: Would you be willing to blow yourself to kingdom come for a cause?

I don't see anyone raising their hand.

For Lack of a Close Friend or Two

In examining the many variables that led Cho Seung-Hui to commit unspeakable horror at Virginia Tech, pundits, "experts" and the public alike seem to be focusing on a variety of formal criteria. Many point to perceived failures by the mental health system, campus security, the university's administration or the laws pertaining to the purchase of firearms.

All of these topics should be examined critically and I certainly don't begrudge anyone for shining a light on the shortcomings of these various systems. Still, the one thing that I've seen next to no discussion on is the most elementary variable of all -- Cho appeared to be friendless.

Each of us needs to feel valued, loved and respected by others. We aren't isolated islands merely drifting through the sea of life. We need social relationships to survive and flourish. When these types of interdependencies are lacking, our world view becomes skewed by loneliness and rejection. Any person who feels scorned and alone will react to the world far differently than others who have adequate support systems.

For me, this appears to be the theme of the profile of the various individuals who, in the past decade, have committed acts of unspeakable horror. The two young men of Columbine were treated like social outcasts. Kip Kinkle of the Springfield (OR) shooting was viewed by his peers in the same manner.

This very same profile has again raised its head with Cho Seung-Hiu.

What if any of these young men had been befriended by someone with an adequate social system? What if the majority of their classmates had refrained from laughing at them in class or ridiculing them in front of others? Could these types of random acts of kindness have averted their infamous claims to fame?

We will never know the answer to that question. But we can each change our behavior now to help avert future horrors.

We need to remember that -- no matter how weird or strange any of us can be -- we all possess the same kinds of feelings and emotions. None of us wants to be rejected by the world around us. We all crave acceptance in some form. If we are more willing to accept others, then they will feel less isolated and may well be less prone to take out all their frustrations on random individuals.

Finally, I realize that some people might argue that people like Cho Seung-Hui aren't looking to make friends. To that I say, poppycock! Everybody needs and wants friends (even if they tell themselves they don't).

Being a friend to someone who doesn't make friends easily or who acts as if they don't need friends is a tough task, but, if we are patient and persevere, it can be a life-alerting experience, both for the other person and yourself.

What if one or more of Cho's classmates had broken through his self-erected wall to befriend this troubled young man? It's a question that should haunt all of us.

There Is No Magic Pill

After the tragic events at Virginia Tech University, a lot of people are coming out of the woodwork to analyze how something of this nature could happen. Lots of theories and conjecture fill the air. What amazes me, however, is that every pundit and so-called expert points to one solitary explanation and has one concurrent solution to the problem.

I suppose I shouldn't be so amazed because we live in a society that always seeks a magic pill to cure our ills. Every day of the week -- in the wee hours of the morning -- you can find a host of magic pills displayed on cable television. Are you a big flat slob? Hey, take this pill and you can lose thousands of pounds without exercise or eating better! Do you feel unpopular and unloved? Buy this product or get our credit card and people instantly will love you! Living in abject poverty? Well, simply scrape together all the money you have in the world, send it to us and we'll send you the instructions on how to become filthy rich while doing little actual work!

As Duff Badgley remarks above in the Sound Off! section of the upcoming edition of Greener Times, many Greens have embraced fully biofuels as the sole solution to the peak oil problem without considering that this solution too generates its own set of problems and dilemmas.

There is no magic pill! There is no singular solution to any of the world's problems. We must instead embrace a multitude of potential solutions with the understanding that each partial solution will also bring us its own set of inconsistencies and problems. If not, we will be easy prey for the hucksters and isms of our world. We will become so focused on a singular remedy that our blinders will keep us from looking at new and innovative ideas.

To use a boxing analogy, it's like a boxer who looks to score one knockout blow. More often than not, the opponent is pecking away with jabs and feints, piling up an insurmountable lead in points. As the match moves into the later rounds, our "knockout artist" becomes more desperate to score that one big punch by swinging wildly, thereby leaving himself open to being knocked out himself.

In this same vein, if we spend our lives looking for that one singular solution, our planet and society will grow ever more fragile. As things worsen, we will be bound to latch onto any idea that seems even remotely plausible. People who are motivated by greed and power will find us easy to manipulate as we grow more desperate. In the end, because we spent our individual and collective lives looking for a mirage, life as we know it will die.

And we'll only have ourselves to blame.

The Not So Unfathomable

Every time there's a horrific mass shooting -- like today's tragedy in Blacksburg, Virginia -- I hear people express the common sentiment of being unable to fathom how an individual could commit random mass murder. As I've written here before, I truly believe that what makes incidents of this nature so frightening is NOT that they are so unfathomable but that almost all of us DO understand the anger, frustration, and the feeling of hopelessness that serves as the catalyst for these acts.

Put another way, what scares us most is that we can, in fact, fathom what took place.

Almost every person I have ever known has experienced the deep pain of lost or unrequited love. Someone that you have loved -- inexplicably one day -- no longer loves you or someone that sends you into an emotional rapture doesn't share a reciprocal feeling. It feels as if someone has ripped out your heart and casts a pale over every aspect of your life.

At times like these, our pain-induced anger and sense of abject rejection causes a great many of us to imagine all sorts of sordid things -- some of which can be extremely violent.

Fortunately, because of adequate social supports and other people who love us, these kinds of feelings abate over time and we "get on" with our lives.

The vast majority of people who commit these sorts of atrocities lack the social support systems needed to move beyond the all encompassing anger and rejection. With these intense emotions and other gnawing away at their very being, they finally explode and implode.

Were it not for our support systems, any of us could easily become one of them. And, whether conscious or not, most of us realize this singular fact.

For me, that's the most frightening aspect of all -- There but for fortune go you or I.

What's Left?

When you live in a rural community -- one that's off the beaten path -- things that big city folks take for granted are really neat. While talk radio seems to permeate the dial in most of the rest of the civilized world, there's not much of it in soggy 'ol Aberdeen. What little we have falls squarely to the right...until now!

Dr. Gary Murrell, a history instructor at Grays Harbor College, has launched a weekday left wing talk show here in the harbor. What's Left? airs from 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. on KAYO-FM 94.3 (in Aberdeen) and 92.9 in the Olympia area.

Check it out!

Iceberg, Dead Ahead!

I'm something of a Titanic buff. I've read numerous books and watched several documentaries that tell of the tragedy that befell this mighty ship in the early days of the twentieth century. The chief cause of the Titanic's sinking is that, despite several reports of 'bergs directly in its path, Captain Smith ordered the ship to move ahead at full speed. Of course, when the lookouts spotted the huge iceberg straight in front of them, the ship was moving too fast to port around it completely and thus scraped one side. The "unsinkable" vessel was doomed on its maiden voyage.

Over 1,200 souls lost their lives that fateful April night.

I am certainly not the first person to see the parallels between the Titanic tragedy and the trajectory of current human society. We seem to be moving full steam toward some type of cataclysmic calamity. Recent reports by the world's scientific community warns humanity that global warming is both real and a lot worse than many originally thought. Yet, despite the fact that we're being forcefully told that there are humongous icebergs in our path, the Bush administration and many of our fellow citizens are pushing us at a madcap pace toward the abyss.

What can we do to try to avert this impending tragedy? The answer is both personal and collective.

On a personal level, we each need to change the ways we live. We need to drive less, refrain from using toxic substances, recycle/reuse habitually and give more thoughtful consideration to how we utilize the earth's finite resources to ensure that future generations HAVE a future.

On a collective level, we need to return to promoting the environmental message. It's interesting to me how the Green Party has morphed into a progressive voice that, too often, neglects promoting protection of our little orb. This party was founded on the concepts of ecological stewardship and sustainability, yet these days we seem to be organizing around every issue BUT the environment. Greens seem to be hard at work protesting the war in Iraq, calling for impeachment of the president, advocating for instant voter runoff and campaign finance reform, and helping to defeat draconian right wing ballot initiatives.

I'm not suggesting that any of the above issues is unimportant -- each one is! But we seem to be trying to separate ourselves so much from the image of tree-hugging hippie activists that we've left the issue of saving our planet in the dust. In the final analysis, if civilization renders our planet uninhabitable, then what will it matter if there are no wars or better voting systems?

The Land of Milk & Honey

I've been hearing the usual yammering lately about the so-called illegal immigrant problem. According to the narrow-minded, illegals take a lot from our social services system and give little, if anything, back. If we could only rid our nation of these vermin, they say, America will again become the land of milk and honey.

While this makes for good old-fashioned, self-righteous, patriotic rhetoric, it turns out that it bears little semblance to reality. It turns out that these farmworkers give a lot back to each of us in ways too few people fathom.

For argument's sake, though, let's say that our nation decided to embrace this xenophobic mentality. We devised and implemented a plan to round up all the illegal farmworkers (and their extended families) across the nation and shipped them back home. We next built 50' high walls across the full expanse of our southern AND northern borders. We also implemented a new strategy to keep these illegals from sailing or flying into the county.

Would this make the narrow-minded among us happy?

As they used to say in the Hertz Rent-A-Car commercials, Not Exactly!

You see, we'd soon find ourselves in a heap of economic doo doo. For starters, who's going to pick the crops? Agribusiness depends on illegal farmworkers to do the kind of dirty work most Americans shun. The bosses of the big factory farms also depend on the meager wages they pay to these same farmworkers to line their corporate bank accounts.

If there's no one to pick the crops, they'll just rot in place and rotten foodstuffs don't equate to hefty profits. So, while conservatives blame these hardworking illegals for a wide host of societal problems, the farming industry would go belly up without them.

Now, I know that some will say, "Hey, unemployed native born Americans will jump at the chance to do these jobs". While THAT statement is farcical to the max, let's go ahead to accept it as true. It still spells trouble for agribusiness.

I'm fairly certain there aren't too many native born Americans who would willingly toil away for hours on end in the hot sun -- performing backbreaking work -- for give-or-take minimum wage. A lot of desperate people might give it a try, but most would decide there are better ways to be poor. Consequently, turnover would be exceedingly high.

In order to entice more desperate native born Americans to give farm work a try, corporate agribusiness would be forced to offer higher wages and, possibly, even some meager benefits. This, of course, would not be good for the bottom line. Higher expense generally equates to lower profit...

...which leads us to the other problem -- consumer prices would shoot through the roof as agribusiness passed all these new expenses onto us! You think $1.69 for a head of lettuce is high? Try $3 - $4 a head! Dissatisfied with 10 lbs. of apples for $9.22? How do you think you might react if that same 10 lb. bag cost you $15.75?

As one can easily see, the so-called illegal farmworker gives all of us a tremendous amount to keep the American economy humming. They perform the jobs we won't do. They do this hard work for little money and they risk exposure to all sorts of vile toxins (pesticides and herbicides).

In the final analysis, they put in so much more than they take out. So, for all of you narrow-minded people out there, I have two words for you: SHUT UP!!

Green 4 Green

In many ways, I'm really glad to see more and more people thinking g-r-e-e-n. Consumers are starting to pay better attention to what goes into a product, how far it must travel to reach us and the cost to our land, air and water to produce it. Such things bode well for the future of our planet.

Unfortunately, there's still one pervasive problem that intersects mightily with the so-called Green Revolution -- it takes a lot of green to be green. It's far easier to live an environmentally-friendly life if your bank account (not to mention other forms of financial wealth) has five or more numbers to the left of the decimal point. If you're one of the billions of people on this planet who struggle to get by month-to-month, you don't have the luxury to decide which product is the most green -- you go with what is the least expensive!

For my family, this is not some esoteric discussion -- We're proud members of the working poor! We would love to buy only organic and non-GMO foods, but the price of these items, too often, simply is beyond our means. While my wife & I REFUSE to shop at Walmart on philosophical grounds, I can readily understand why most of my neighbors do shop there. And we'd love to drive one of those shiny new hybrids, but...well, let's get real!

The best environmental choices -- replete with a variety of snazzy tax incentives -- were not developed for people like us. While I would bet that we're more environmentally-motivated than the average family, our current Green Revolution is driven by the same time-honored system that created throwaway plastic bottles, the Hummer and George W. Bush -- capitalism. And all that capitalists care about is maximizing short-term profits.

Enter the Green Party. What began as a political movement focused squarely on the environment has now blossomed into a political force that views the environment, economics and social justice as different sides of the same coin. We realize that, in order for our society to move toward a sustainable utilization of finite resources, we must alter the way society views all three of these interconnected variables. In other words, to reach our goals, all three must be altered simultaneously.

It's a gigantic task, but one that is needed now more than ever, both for the survival of our planet and the myriad beings that call it home.